New in SoHo, NYC: Straker's Brings West London Wood-Fire Cooking to Grand Street

Thomas Straker, the London chef behind Straker's in Notting Hill, has opened his first restaurant outside the UK. Straker's NYC sits at 59 Grand Street in SoHo, in the former home of Keith McNally's Lucky Strike. The original is at 91 Golborne Road in west London.

The cooking centers on wood fire and the ingredients themselves. An open kitchen-bar lets diners watch the cooks at work, and a more intimate dining room sits at the back. Photos on the restaurant's website show flames licking the grill and Straker holding up two flatfish in the kitchen, a fair hint of how much fish and live-fire cooking matter here.

The menu mixes dishes familiar from London with newer ones built around American produce. Carried over are a mussel flatbread with chilli butter and a bluefin tuna belly carpaccio. New for New York are red shrimp, a foie gras tostada, wood-roasted grouper with salsa verde, and Lucky Lime oysters served on the half shell. The site's imagery also shows a sliced steak and a forkful of steaming pasta, along with grilled langoustines with salsa verde and crudites. A separate wine list and drinks list are available, and the bar makes cocktails.

Straker said the move to New York is a big step for the brand, and that he intends to do everything he can to make sure guests have the best night of their lives.

Straker's serves dinner Monday through Sunday, 5 to 11pm. Reservations go through Resy or Dorsia, and the website also has pages for private events and gift cards. For Japanese readers following London's restaurant scene, it is a chance to try a London name in a SoHo address with some history behind it.

(Details are drawn from points that agree across reports by Restaurant Online, CULTURED.)