00:00Oh, yeah.
00:02Ah!
00:04That was about to be a thing.
00:06Hi, Refinery29.
00:08Thank you so much for coming along.
00:11We make our preparations for the Village Den, my first restaurant.
00:41I wanted to develop a menu that was kind of like concise but really offered something
00:44for everybody.
00:45It's a little varied in terms of like my influences and sort of the way that I was raised with
00:49food.
00:50It's a nice eclectic mix that I think is a really good reflection of what the West Village
00:54is and of what New York is.
00:56It's the fact that we are so multicultural, that there are so many ethnicities.
01:00It's crowd-pleasing food.
01:02There's nothing like too weird or not accessible and it's a reflection of who I am during the
01:07week too.
01:08I eat a lot healthier during the week as opposed to weekends.
01:10I'm an extremist.
01:11Weekday Antony versus weekend Antony.
01:14It's very Jekyll and Hyde.
01:21There's actually one dish that is a little nod to my special little dear Tanny Banny.
01:26There's this Indian dessert called Halwa with a healthier version of it that's a lot lighter.
01:31The sweetness just comes from the carrots alone with a nice little cashew cream and a pistachio
01:35brittle.
01:36Tan loves a crunchy brittle.
01:38He loves his sweets.
01:39For Jonathan, the meatloaf.
01:41He loves good American soul food.
01:43Karamo's a very picky eater.
01:45He basically eats jujubes and like Welch's gummies for breakfast, lunch and dinner and
01:50manages to have an eight pack.
01:51But he loves his sodas.
01:53So I actually want to get him into cascara.
01:55It's kind of like a hybrid, like if iced tea and iced coffee had a baby.
01:59And for Bobby, I would have him try any of our smoothies.
02:03Bobby's big into his fitness recently.
02:05He's been working out a lot.
02:06He loves to eat clean.
02:15It's a place that you can come to during lunch breaks.
02:18It's a place that you can have catered to your office.
02:20During weekends if you want to grab a bunch of food when you're heading out to the Hamptons
02:23or you're just having a little party at home and you don't want to cook.
02:25You want to have homemade style food.
02:28Things that are comforting but still healthy.
02:30It's just a testament to sort of what our lives are like during the week when we're taking
02:34care of ourselves before we decide to opt for gratins and souffles and all the decadence
02:40that comes with Fridays and Saturdays and Sundays.
02:42So you're welcome.
