Queer Eye’s Antoni to open NYC restaurant, and yes, there’ll be avocados

Queer Eye’s resident food expert Antoni Porowski is branching out into the restaurant business, as he looks to revamp a vintage diner in New York City.

On Queer Eye, Antoni Porowski is the man who knows about food and wine. He teaches the show’s “heroes” how to cook or treat food in a way that is healthy and sustainable. According to The New York Times, he is branching out on his love of all things food.

Porowski is set to have his very own restaurant in New York City’s West Village. The food expert and reality star is revamping a vintage diner, rebooting its menu, and turning it into a place that both thirty-somethings and anyone with an eye towards health will want to hit up. In fact, Porowski even pointed out that the restaurant is across the street from a gym.

However, there is one healthy food you might not see a lot of on his new and improved restaurant menu. And that is avocados.

Antoni became synonymous with a meme on social media about loving avocados, after two episodes in season 1 of the series showed the food expert incorporating the beloved green fruit into meal ideas. And according to him, seeing that “scarred me a little.”

In fact, it scarred him to the point where when he was initially coming up with the menu for the restaurant, there were no avocados on the menu at all. However, it did not take long for him to relax his stance on the avocado and now there will be at least a few instances of the fruit on the menu, even if it’s not in abundance.

The restaurant, which will keep the name Village Den, is being described as a “fast-casual cafe.” Porowski is choosing to go with dishes that one might consider to be comfort food, but he is adding a more health-conscious twist to things.

Some of the dishes that will be available include a play on the traditional TV dinner of fish sticks and mashed potatoes. The new dish will be fish sticks coated in crushed macadamia nuts, paired with a maple parsnip mash. In honor of his Polish heritage, one dish is cabbage rolls that have been stuffed with rice made of cauliflower and turkey meat.

While Porowski admitted to never really wanting to open a restaurant because of how much work goes into them, he’ll get help from his partners for the restaurant. Instead of having to worry about the business end of things, Porowski will be more hands-on with the food and menus.

Along with this restaurant venture, Porowski has been expanding his foodie brand. He’s got a cookbook in the work, and while there’s no name for it yet, fans can expect to devour about 100 recipes by Porowski.

Even with his busy Queer Eye schedule, Antoni Porowski is ready to serve up plenty of love and time to the restaurant.

If you head to Village Den once it reopens, you might be lucky enough to see the man himself, or at least try food that was prepared by him.