When Soho House kingpin Nick Jones chanced upon Chicago eatery Au Cheval, he liked what he saw – so much so that he wanted to open something similar in his neck of the woods. But Nick didn’t just take a few sneaky pictures and steal the diner’s best ideas, he tracked down Au Cheval owner Brendan Sodikoff and formed a transatlantic collaboration to bring Soho Diner into being.
As a result the restaurant formerly known as Boheme Kitchen and Bar on Old Compton Street has an American diner style to it, but a decidedly upmarket one, rather than the silver trailer metal and Formica type. The feel here is vintage, with an old Bakelite phone and a reel-to-reel music system on the way in. The table edges have a patina that’s continued on the crown molding, and the bar is a nice dark wood example. Serving up a mixture of classic American diner grub like the Philly cheese steak with French dishes, Soho Diner has a selection of cocktails on tap and is open till 3am at the weekends.
