SoHo's Fall Openings Landed on Its Edges. Here's What Moved Into Grand, Broome and Lafayette.

At the corner of Grand Street and West Broadway, the room that held Lucky Strike now has butter on every table. London chef Thomas Straker opened Straker's at 59 Grand Street on October 10. It is his first namesake restaurant in the U.S. Eater New York reported that the conversion ran about a year late and roughly $2 million over budget.

Straker's fits the season's pattern. Since September, SoHo's new places to eat and drink have opened mostly on the streets that frame the neighborhood: Grand, Broome near Watts, the far western stretch of Spring, and Lafayette. Most of them moved into rooms that already had a long history. Broadway kept adding national and international flagships. The sit-down dinners, the bakeries and the late-night rooms went to the perimeter.

What Replaced What

The new names are easiest to follow alongside what each space used to be.

In three of the five spaces, an established downtown room ended and a new operator took the lease. The new tenants are moving into floor plans the neighborhood already knows.

Grand Street and Broome: The Southern Edge Fills In

Straker's is the biggest name on Grand Street, but it isn't alone. Kythira, chef Nicholas Poulmentis's Greek seafood restaurant, opened at 32 Grand Street on September 21. Grand Street now has two new seafood-forward dinner rooms about a block and a half apart.

One block north on Broome, Bar Leone opened September 10 in the 4,800-square-foot space that was Her Name Was Carmen. It comes from restaurateur Andres Diaz, formerly of Café Gitane and Felix Brasserie. Eater's September roundup describes the two floors. Upstairs is a midcentury lounge with a rotating art gallery and caviar martinis. Downstairs is a red-toned Italian disco modeled on 1970s downtown. Both floors serve the same small plates, from Kumamoto oysters to a dry-aged short rib burger. At opening it kept Wednesday through Saturday hours starting at 6 p.m.

Good Company opened October 8 at 343 West Broadway, between those two corners. The menu runs from burgers and wagyu French-dip sliders to a build-your-own banana split.

The southern edge may change at street level too. Phase 1 of NYC DOT's Canal Street redesign now covers Canal west of Broadway plus Grand Street, and it includes a proposed two-way bike lane on Grand. According to the SoHo Broadway Initiative, DOT presented the Grand Street piece to Community Board 2's Traffic and Transportation Committee on October 21. The Phase 1 proposal is public. It is still a proposal, so the Grand Street that Straker's and Kythira opened onto may look different in a year or two.

Lafayette: The Puck Building Changes Hands, Floor by Floor

On the eastern edge, the Puck Building is turning over. REI closed its 35,000-square-foot store in the Puck Building at 295 Lafayette Street, on the corner of East Houston, in July. The Village Reader reported that it left at the end of its 15-year lease.

Gentle Monster, the South Korean eyewear brand known for stores that look like art installations, signed a lease for 28,500 square feet of that space in October. Commercial Observer reported that the term runs more than 10 years. The same report said Torrisi, the Italian restaurant at the base of the building, will expand into the rest of the former REI space, growing beyond its current 4,000 square feet. The brand already has a SoHo store at 70 Wooster Street, and no opening date has been announced for either change. Landlord Kushner Companies said the lease completes the Puck Building's turnover to a new generation of tenants. OpenAI took 90,000 square feet of offices upstairs in 2024.

Two blocks south, Rye by Martin Auer opened September 10 at 285 Lafayette, at Jersey Street. Auer is an established baker in Austria, where his flour is milled. The shop uses no wheat. Grub Street listed whole loaves at $60, half-loaves at $30 and quarter-loaves at $15. The bakery also serves topped slices, with spreads such as salmon roe or butter and chives.

Lower down Lafayette, Fujifilm signed a lease for 12,700 square feet at 210 Lafayette Street. Commercial Observer reported it as a possible retail location, and the company said it would share details later.

The street layout is also up for change. In March, NYC DOT announced a continuous parking-protected two-way bike lane on Lafayette Street and Fourth Avenue, from Prince Street to East 15th Street. It would widen the existing five-foot one-way lane to 11 feet. The plan schedules concrete pedestrian islands for later 2026 and 2027.

Spring Street and Prince: Smaller Rooms, Specific Menus

The western end of Spring got two shops that each focus on one thing. ÓOL opened September 9 at 178 Spring Street as a single-source cacao shop, bakery and cafe. La Salumeria Soho followed on September 25 at 195 Spring Street, selling Italian sandwiches and wine, with cheese tastings planned.

Farther east, Cholapink opened October 28 at 32 Spring Street. The Peruvian fast-casual spot is co-founded by Daddy Yankee and chef Jaime Pesaque.

On Prince, Romy took over the former Little Prince space at 199 Prince Street on September 22 with a steakhouse menu. It's another long-familiar room with a new operator.

Broadway and Mercer Went to the Flagships

The center of the neighborhood followed a different pattern. The SoHo Broadway Initiative counted several September retail arrivals:

• Babylist opened a showroom at 477 Broadway where shoppers can try out baby gear.
• Magda Butrym, the Polish fashion label, opened its first New York store, a three-floor flagship at 170 Mercer Street.
• Victoria Beckham opened her second store at 150 Mercer Street.

On October 23, Massimo Dutti opened its SoHo flagship at 575 Broadway. It is the brand's first New York store since its Fifth Avenue location closed in 2019.

All of these are retail, and all of them chose the blocks where brand visibility is strongest. Restaurants and specialty food shops went to the perimeter.

What's On Through the Holidays, Close to Home

The neighborhood's galleries and loft stages run on their own calendar, and several programs carry into winter.

1. "Hesperides," Douglas Dunn + Dancers, 541 Broadway. Seven performances at 8 p.m., scheduled November 13 through November 21.
2. The Collective SoHo holiday market, 435 Broadway. More than 20 New York independent brands and makers, open daily from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. through December 31.
3. "20s Skip the Small Talk Night," Bibliotheque NYC, 54 Mercer Street. December 8, 7 to 9 p.m. The listing gives a $24 admission.
4. Two shows at Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art. "Shu Lea Cheang: LOVER LOVE" and "Hortensia Mi Kafchin: Through Different Eyes" are both on view through January 3, 2027.
5. Rashid Johnson, "Birthday Boys," Hauser & Wirth, 134 Wooster Street. Through January 16, 2027.
6. "PROPS from Barakei: Eikoh Hosoe and Jason Wee," Leslie-Lohman. On view November 6, 2026 through March 14, 2027. The museum describes it as a new sculptural installation responding to Hosoe's photographs.

Several of these sit within a block or two of the fall's new dinner rooms. A Hauser & Wirth visit on Wooster puts you a short walk from Bar Leone on Broome and Straker's on Grand. The Puck Building and Rye on Lafayette are a short walk from the market at 435 Broadway.

These openings also shape how buyers will see the streets around them. A loft on Grand, Broome or Lafayette now sits near rooms that didn't exist last summer, and some of those blocks may get new curbs and bike lanes too. If you own on one of these streets and want to know how buyers are reading those changes, The Heard Khedr Team can walk you through it. Book a home valuation and we'll go over your block with you.