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.
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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........