Jimmy Fallon Cooked His Own Naan at Indian Tasting Menu Restaurant

Jimmy Fallon gets in the kitchen at Junoon

During a dinner at Indian tasting menu restaurant Junoon, late night comic Jimmy Fallon got invited on a kitchen tour and ended up working the ovens while he was back there. “I think this one’s gonna be the best one you’ve ever had,” Fallon reportedly said of some naan he made, joking he was nervous of burning off his arm hair when tossing it into the oven. Fallon’s also been spotted recently at Strip House Midtown, the Post reports.

Olmsted starts brunch; Te Company gets a new menu

Essential Prospect Heights restaurant Olmsted is adding brunch to its repertoire, launching this Friday with dishes like a grilled breakfast burger with a sausage and beef patty, melted raclette, white onions, kosher pickles, French’s mustard, and sauce choron and Austrian pastries from former Blue Hill at Stone Barns pastry chef Alex Grunert. From March 16 on out, brunch will be served Friday through Sunday from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Over in the West village, Té Company has a new Taiwanese menu. Chef Frederico Ribeiro has added dishes such as spicy peanuts, preserved kumquats, and lu rou fan, or pork over rice.

Olmsted [Official Photo]

Chocolatier Oded Brenner is back

Oded Brenner, the chocolatier behind Max Brenner, Chocolate by The Bald Man, is back in NYC after a five-year, legally enforced, non-compete hiatus. He’s opening Blue Stripes Cacao Shop this spring at 28 East 13th St., between Fifth Avenue and University Place, which will focus on the cacao fruit in chocolate and pastry form, paired with coffee. Below, check out how a Brooklyn chocolate factory pumps out 2,500 chocolate truffles every day.

The women behind the beautiful all-day restaurant trend

Amy Morris and Anna Polonsky are the women responsible for helping popularize the airy and pretty all-day restaurant aesthetic sweeping Manhattan, and as such received the profile treatment from the Times. The two, who own design firm MP Shift, designed De Maria, and the style has since spread to restaurants like Fairfax, though they’re already onto the next thing: “It’s so easy for our clients to say, ‘We should do a pink place with midcentury chairs,’ ” Morris says. “But we don’t want them to fall into that trend. We don’t want them to say, ‘Let’s put avocado toast on the menu.’ ” The duo also made the James Beard Awards finalists list for restaurants with outstanding design today for their work on De Maria.

Out East is long gone

Though the restaurant never confirmed the closure nor announced it anywhere online, the Long Island-inspired East Village Out East is definitely shuttered: EV Grieve spots for lease signs in the window of the East Sixth Street restaurant. Out East only lasted eight months, with at least two head chef shuffles in that time.

Openings, closings, and coming attractions

On the Upper West Side, Italian restaurant Il Gatto Nero has opened at 2758 Broadway, serving pastas and pizzas, including a dessert pizza. Also newly opened in the neighborhood is the latest location of juice and coffee cafe Joe & the Juice at 76th St. and Amsterdam Avenue. Turkuaz, the beloved UWS Turkish restaurant that closed last summer after 18 years in the neighborhood has reopened in Midtown West at 255 West 55th St.

After fifty years of business, the Chrystie Street beverage store New Beer Distributors has succumbed to rent hikes and is set to close this week. Over in Brooklyn, Clinton Hill neighborhood bar and restaurant Alice’s Arbor has closed.

Set to open on Thursday, Akrotiri will be a new Greek restaurant in Astoria at 29-20 30th Ave., focusing on seafood and a Greek wine list. Coffee shop Hole In The Wall at 15 Cliff St. in FiDi will add a cocktail bar on Thursday called Sugar Momma, which will also serve food. Chef Seamus Mullen has added a new rotisserie chicken-focused portion to his Gotham West Market tapas counter El Colmado called Whirlybird & Greens. Meanwhile, Murray Hill’s Kajitsu is launching Shinsuke, an izakaya pop-up from Tokyo serving small plates with sake.