“I’m World-Building”: Kith’s Ronnie Fieg on Why He’s Slinging Sandwiches Now

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Ronnie Fieg, the auteurist owner behind New York City’s luxury streetwear brand Kith, has turned his taste into a burgeoning global retail empire, fueled by nostalgic pop-culture collaborations with The Simpsons and Curb Your Enthusiasm and the support of the likes of Travis Scott, The Weeknd, Drake and Michael B. Jordan. In recent years, his expansive designing brio has expanded to cars with BMW, boats with Cigarette Racing and a private Kith padel club in Manhattan’s West Village that includes an Erewhon tonic bar.

“I’m world-building,” he tells The Hollywood Reporter during a sit-down on the patio of Kith’s sprawling new Los Angeles flagship store on Sunset Blvd. The Jewish, Queens-born Fieg — who spent 15 years working his way up from a stockboy to a general manager at a decidedly unchic mom-and-pop shoe company before finally breaking out on his own — calls to mind both Ralph Lauren (“the GOAT”) and Marty Supreme. “I was so much more than that,” he says of his career start. “I wanted so much more than that.”

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The nearly two-dozen Kith stores have long included in-house hangouts that serve cereal and ice cream under the heading “Treats.” Recently, Fieg has focused further on food, first putting his name on Ronnie’s, a stylized diner adjoining Kith’s London location, the bill of fare at which includes items like a slice of cheesecake and his spin on matzoh ball soup with caramelized onions and Italian-style chicken brodo.

Now, in West Hollywood, he’s just opened Ronnie’s Pronto out the back of his latest boutique. The grab-and-go spot specializes in amped-up, dialed-in renditions of classic New York sandwiches. Fieg, who insists he isn’t paying homage to any specific hometown spots (“we’re not referencing; there’s no mood-boarding”), believes the dishes are faithful to their sources while offering something wholly new. As Exhibit A, he points to his version of a Reuben featuring Australian wagyu pastrami on a Kaiser roll. “There were 20 versions before we landed on this one.” The debut menu includes a fish sandwich featuring branzino, a grilled cheese between slices of waffled Japanese milk bread and what may be the star: a breaded chicken cutlet with piccata mustard relish on a hero roll.

Fieg — who’s already planning to roll out more Prontos, perhaps fully uncoupled from the mother brand — knows that the profit margins, risk factors and quality-control challenges in the food sector don’t make much sense compared to Kith’s core business. Yet his company is privately held, so “my ideas don’t have to be rationalized.” He adds, “I’m fortunate enough to be in a position where I get to work on the things that I love because of the success that we’ve had. Eventually, I think that will work for [Pronto] the same way.”

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