‘Queer Eye’ Star Antoni Porowski Talks New Restaurant Venture, Karamo Brown Launching a Line of Bomber Jackets
By Marc Malkin
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – It’s official!
Queer Eye star Karamo Brown is bringing his signature look to the masses by designing his own line of bomber jackets.
“It’ll be coming very, very, very, soon,” Brown tells Variety. “We’re starting with a small collection, and it’s going to be unisex. It’s going to be all sorts of patterns from things that are sparkly to things that are floral to things that you can wear to work.”
Variety caught up with Brown and the rest of the “” cast on Sunday at a special Emmy screening hosted by GLSEN at NeueHouse in Hollywood.
Food expert Antoni Porowski offered some more insight into his latest business venture, the reopening of the Village Den, the iconic New York City diner that closed in May after more than three decades in the West Village.
“It’s a reflection of what my diet is during the week whenever I’m actually taking care of myself,” said Porowski, who recently showed off his well taken care of body by stripping down this summer for the cover of Gay Time magazine, as well as in an ad campaign for Hanes underwear. “It started out with my workout club, which is a little group of us who work out early in the morning. We always wanted healthy food to eat that didn’t leave us feeling like human garbage.”
One of those friends happens to be in the restaurant business. “We decided to open a place together with hospitality company Metric,” Porowski said. “Sadly, like a lot of diners, the Village Den closed. It’s kind of a lost art. It will be a very stark contrast from my [upcoming] cookbook, which is all about decadence and butter and cheese and animals.”
Brown cracked, “There’s going to be a secret ‘Karamo Menu.’ You’ll have to ask for it and it will have the unhealthiest food.”
Interior designer Bobby Berk also revealed that he’ll soon be launching a home goods collection in the U.S. and Europe, but wasn’t allowed to say much more about it.
Brown said their individual business endeavors are separate from the merchandise and licensing deal that Queer Eye’s production company Scout recently signed with IMG.
The afternoon screening was followed by a discussion with the cast moderated by Nicole Byer, the host of Netflix’s baking competition show Nailed It.
Before heading to an outdoor reception, grooming expert Jonathan Van Ness unveiled a $10,000 donation on behalf of the show to , a nationwide organization dedicated to creating safe school environments for LGBT students.
