In season 2 of Sweetbitter, the kitchen is definitely heating up. We left off with Tess (Ella Purnell) last summer when the NYC newbie was finally awarded her stripes alongside the title of backwater at the restaurant, but tensions with her coworkers were at an all-time high. In addition to the love triangle between Tess, Will (Evan Jonigkeit), and Jake (Tom Sturridge), our heroine is also navigating the choppy waters of her relationship with her mentor, Simone (Caitlin FitzGerald). The two left off on terse terms as Simone warned her protege to be careful, and our first exclusive look at season 2 shows that all of these complicated dynamics are only going to get stickier.
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“The city is intimidating, confrontational almost,” Tess says over Sweetbitter’s signature shots of photogenic food and late-night drinking. “It never lets you settle.”
As the preview jumps between clips, we see Tess and Simone together again, suggesting their relationship is still intact — even if it’s fraught. We also see a love scene between what appears to be Tess and Will, but clearly Jake is still on her mind. All this, plus crying, fighting, and, of course, eating.
The show, based on the book of former career waitress Stephanie Danler, has always been about much more than food, and it’s clear season 2 explores the complex nature of restaurant life with an even deeper lens.
“So much of television now is so specific,” show runner Stu Zicherman told Refinery29 last year. “And what I’ve always loved about the idea of a restaurant show is that it can be a platform for any kind of story. In the book, Tess is a great character and the central piece of the show, but there’s all these other characters and worlds and backstories, and I thought we could build out a series that could be funny, dramatic, sad, sexy, it could be all those things in one.”
Watch the preview below!