A quick scan through Marissa Hermer's Instagram and it's clear she's a doting mom. But, as it turns out, she's got more than just three kids she looks after.
After all, the Ladies of London star is also putting all her effort into growing—er, raising?—her three restaurants, Olivetta, Issima and The Draycott. All of which are frequented by Jennifer Lopez, Ben Affleck, Adele and the cast of Friends.
So how does she balance it all? She took E! along for a whirlwind day as an entrepreneur.
6 a.m. PT Though her alarm sounds off at 6, she has a full hour to herself before her kids wake up. "The house is quiet," she notes while putting on her gym clothes and making a glass of celery juice. Next, she trains on her rowing machine for 15 minutes. "It's more about just waking up my brain and getting my blood pumping," explains Hermer, whose go-to playlist is Spotify's Discover Weekly. "I am also sending it to all of our DJs, so it's my creative time in the morning that I like to burn out, get my brain working in a different way."
6:50 a.m.: Once she's wrapped her workout, she focuses on her Morning Pages journal for what she calls "a brain dump," which helps bring to the surface any "gold nuggets that I might not even know are there or not."
For the most part, her kids Max, Sadie and Jake come down for breakfast on their own, but there are some mornings where mom has to step in. If someone's sleeping in, "I might need to put a fire at someone's bottom so that we leave for school at 7:20," she jokes. "We have 20 minutes to have this well-rehearsed fire drill, shove their face with breakfast, get their shoes on, get the lunches." And they're out the door by 7:30.
9 a.m.: Alone once again, she catches up on her texts and messages from overnight before heading to Parker Pilates in West Hollywood. After, she heads to ARTHA for an infrared sauna—and another scan of her emails, of course. "I usually pack a bag of clothes for the day and once I'm done heating up," she explains, "I head to one of our restaurants to discuss what is on the horizon."
11 a.m.: At Issima, she meets with her husband Matt Hermer to go over next week's menu—and have a tasting. "It's a dream job," she raves, noting, "there is so much that goes into it. I feel the presentation is just as important as the taste. Also, the sizing and the caution of what we are pricing it as. We want our patrons to feel like they are really getting a wholesome meal and an incredible experience along the way."
3 p.m.: Approaching the afternoon, she recharges with a cup of English Breakfast tea then heads home, where she'll work from her office for a few more hours. "Being a working mother means that you have to be very intentional about spending time with our children," she says. "I try to pick one of them up from one of their activities whether it be ballet, tennis or soccer."
By 5:30, she's helping them get set up for dinner while also fielding messages from friends who want to score a last-minute reservation. As she says, "I make a point to be present with the children and with my friends as much as possible."
7 p.m.: As her kids get ready for bed, she sneaks back into her office to get a little more work done. When they're showered and bathed, she'll put Sadie to put while her boys read before falling asleep on their own.
Once they're asleep, she checks in on her other kids: Her restaurants. While some nights they decide to head over to experience what it's like being a customer, tonight she decides to zone out on the couch. Though she struggles to turn off her brain completely, "as I start to do more of this morning meditations, I've been like I'm able to switch off more," she explains. "It's actually really nice."
10:30 p.m.: By now, it's time for her unwind and get ready for bed. For her nighttime routine, she relies on products from her friend Sarah Chapman's line. To help guarantee a good night's sleep, she mixes a spoonful of a magnesium supplement with her water. By 11, she crawls into bed with a book of poetry. "I try to put my phone away," she says, "because then I will get sucked into an Instagram hole and that is never useful."