I’d been eyeing the corner of West Broadway and Houston ever since Dos Caminos, the longstanding Mexican chain, began to lose its luster. OK, maybe it never had luster, but as a kid in the ‘90s and early 2000s, we’d walk around SoHo and occasionally end up on the landmark corner’s gated outdoor patio for some reliable tacos. When Dos Caminos finally shuttered in May 2024, I was intrigued to discover Catch Hospitality would be taking over the storefront and introducing a new concept in its place.
A departure from Catch’s signature seafood and steak venues—all well-executed, splashy and (sometimes deservingly) overpriced—the Corner Store would instead pay tribute to corner stores and the New York City of the ‘80s and ‘90s.
When I think of New York corner stores, I think of local spots that are nonchalant and authentic—places with unintentional charm and employees who’ve been making the same overstuffed sandwich for so many years that it incidentally becomes unforgettable, or even iconic. This Corner Store, despite its efforts, is not that.
And how could it be? Replicating those qualities is a challenge for any restaurateur, as the very art of being a corner store relies on a combination of neighborhood, necessity and time. Corner stores are the essence of “mom and pop,” and so a corporate restaurant group like Tilman Fertitta, Mark Birnbaum and Eugene Remm’s Catch—albeit a successful one with nine locations throughout New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Aspen, Miami Beach and Dallas—attempting to glamorize this concept is ambitious, if not bordering on ironic.
The night after the restaurant’s September 9 grand opening, I snagged the earliest available reservation, which ended up being a 9:30 pm slot that Tuesday evening. The already-worn green mat marked “The Corner Store” on the stoop demonstrated foot traffic had been heavy.
The maître d’ was tattooed and wore pants checkered with pop art emblems of everything Americana, from Betty Boop to Camel cigarettes. The well-attended, 13-seat bar up front appeared, at first glance, to take up the whole space. As a blonde host, poised in a cream blazer dress, led me alongside the bar, I realized it gave way to a surprising two-tiered dining room, dimly lit in hues of amber and royal green.
The narrow setup felt intimate, despite ample booths and seats that lined the warm, welcoming space. Perhaps due to Catch’s signature sexy, Instagrammable interiors, most tables were filled by same-sex friend groups dressed to see and be seen. The earlier crowd, I heard from a friend who dined at 7:30 p.m., seemed to come for the after-work hang: drinks, steaks, suits.
Photographs filled the sleek wood and pale rouge walls: David Bowie on a city block, Salvador Dali with a red-haired woman (which I recognized as Slim Aarons shot from 1959, not 1980s New York) and the famed 1970s picture of Jets quarterback Joe Namath wearing a mink coat in the sidelines. Despite deviating from decades The Corner Store claims to celebrate, the curation was a fabulous stroll through the chic, weird, rambunctious and unassuming moments New York serves its citizens—a great gallery to imbibe during lulls in conversation, not that the martinis would permit many.
Martinis are the cornerstone of The Corner Store’s beverage program. With classics done well, like the Dirty, Vesper and, of course, the martini of the moment (espresso), they also provide variations that pair with the menu’s glorified kid food. The funkiest is the Sour Cream and Onion Martini, with spring onion cream-washed gin, dill-infused Dolin Blanc and pickling liquid—served with, you guessed it, sour cream and onion chips. For $40, guests can order the tableside martini cart service for two, where doting servers in old school Eton jackets and bowties pour chilled alcohol from custom-branded bottles. Non-martini drinkers can choose from cocktails like the Pornstar Royale or Lieutenant Crunch’s Milk Punch, as well as wines by the bottle, a small selection by the glass, beer and mocktails.
The menu was created by Catch Hospitality Group’s culinary director Michael Vignola and executive chef Paul Castro, formerly of Catch New York and Nobu (both of which set a strong standard for raw shellfish and seafood). My first experience at Catch was at the Las Vegas location, which is perhaps the restaurant group’s splashiest setting, and I was surprised at the melt-in-the-mouth quality and freshness of each raw fish dish, thirds of which graced our table of four.
To compare The Corner Store to its sister restaurant’s sea legs, I began the meal with the Snapper Crudo with Sorrento emon and caper berries—a lighter option amidst starters like Five Cheese Pizza Rolls with pepperoni, jalapeño, hot honey and ranch; spinach artichoke dip and mini lobster and caviar rolls (at $19 per piece). These were all recommended by the server, who possessed a genuine demeanor that did embody the local feel of an actual corner store while upholding elevated charm. The rest of the raw bar was traditional: oysters du jour, shrimp cocktail, tuna tartar and filet mignon tartare. The snapper was sliced thin, but not thin enough to give its naturally meaty texture a more delicate bite. The flavor was not as clean as one may expect from Nobu or Catch, given their exceptional reputation for premium seafood. The citrusy liquid in which the snapper swam was bright and fragrant but overpowered the caper’s briny notes (a tall order).
Following the Crudo, I enjoyed the Corner Store Caesar. It was unique and inventive, with a nod to New York bagels, the roots of which began more than a century ago in the Lower East Side tenements. The romaine was thoroughly coated in a creamy dressing that boasted the right amount of peppery umami. Everything bagel croutons with a hyper-crunch balanced out the cream cheese “croutons,” which impressively held their gently fried cube shape until bitten. Only then came the surprising pop of warm cream cheese swirling with garlic, salt and seeds against the crisp membrane of lettuce. A little weird, but totally lovable.
Turning a side into a star, the menu prominently displayed the $12 hand-cut fries. I was into this idea, not because they’re Idahoan (if I had to pick my potato, it’d be from the good soils of New York or the neighboring Garden State), but because of the sauces. Available à la carte for an additional $1.95 or $5.85 for “the works,” dipping options include Avocado Ranch, Horseradish Aioli and McOli Sauce—described as a “secret sauce,” which, along with the Apple Hand Pie dessert, further confused me as to whether this was paying homage to New York corner stores or Mickey D’s (hand pies originated in England but, for Americans, are a signature of the Golden Arches).
Instead, I bypassed the sauces to taste the $39 Disco Steak Frites. For those who aren’t familiar, disco fries are an atrociously delicious deviation from poutine that rose in popularity with the after-disco club crowd at 24-hour diners in the 1970s. Before I was old enough to hang in the city solo, I spent many a night eating disco fries and smoking cigarettes in the only establishment open all night—a rite of passage for a New Jersey teenager (I’m not proud). The Tick Tock Diner in Clifton, New Jersey is known to have invented the dish smothered in brown gravy and melted mozzarella cheese, but it is a New York diner staple, too.
In lieu of gravy and cheese, because I am sure a reputable chef like Castro has his limits, The Corner Store’s disco fries use au Poivre and peppercorn aioli. Piquant and satisfying, this was only aspect of the meal I actually wanted to be heavier. With just a drizzle of the sauce, the fries were more ballroom than disco, and if you’re going to go for it, well, I say, go for it.
The au Poivre on the skirt steak was deeply satiating, and unfortunately, was the redeeming component. Sourced from the steakhouse favorite, Chicago-based Allen Brothers, this USDA Prime skirt steak comes from below the ribs of a cow; it isn’t the leanest. The marbled fat provides flavor and this one had a nice browned exterior, choice internal temperature for skirt steak (medium-rare) and was sliced against the grain. Still, excess fat is best trimmed and this one had a good deal of excess—three discarded pieces’ worth.
Dessert stayed true to nostalgia and, thereby, secured its capacity to invoke wonder and delight. In addition to the aforementioned pie, a soft serve ice cream sundae rotates flavors like Cracker Jack, Black Forest Cake and Leggo My Eggo Maple (there’s the ‘90s!).
Overall, The Corner Store, with its prime location and expertly curated ambiance from the major architecture-design firm, Rockwell Group, is another reliable spot to stop for an ice-cold martini, fries and saucy selfies eating pizza rolls in the bustle of West Broadway. It’s sultry and playful, and with the opening of its insulated patio later this fall, will continue to call in Catch’s dedicated following and curious passerby. For those seeking an evening that really rewinds time to a bygone New York, there are older, smaller, less publicized places that do it genuinely. But we’ll save those for another story.