Two of SoHo's most-discussed fall openings sit on Grand Street, a few blocks apart. Since July, the same street has also been at the center of a city proposal to rebuild its curb from Varick Street eastward. The city's letter on the redesign lays out curb rules for evening customers, and evening customers are who these two dining rooms are built to draw.
Two Dining Rooms That Point the Street Toward Evening
Straker's opened Saturday, October 10, at 59 Grand Street at West Broadway, in the former Lucky Strike space, according to Eater NY. The chef behind it is Thomas Straker, a London cook with more than two million followers on both Instagram and TikTok. Eater's interview describes the build-out as a year late and about $2 million over budget. The New York kitchen is run by Luka Coyne, and Straker told Eater the room has an open kitchen, an open bar, and a back dining room.
He also explained to Eater why he chose New York over a second city in the U.K.: "People live outside of their apartments in New York." By his account, London diners eat at home a lot more.
On the restaurant's site, Straker's lists daily service from noon to 3 p.m. and from 5 to 11 p.m., with reservations through Dorsia. The menu runs from a $23 mussel flatbread to a $125 grilled T-bone, with tagliolini with clams at $32 and wood-roasted grouper at $45 in between. Straker told Eater the flatbread is "the one thing we're definitely bringing over from London." The mussels are cooked down in wine, the stock becomes a chile butter, and the whole thing is baked in the wood oven.
Two blocks east, Kythira NP opened Monday, September 21, at 32 Grand Street at Thompson Street. It is the first solo restaurant from Greek chef Nicholas Poulmentis, whom Eater's September openings roundup knows from Chopped and Beat Bobby Flay. The menu leans on seafood: ceviche, oysters, stuffed calamari, plus goat cheese gnocchi, lamb chops, and a vegetarian moussaka. Kythira's own site names black truffle tarama, goat-cheese gnocchi, and perka in parchment as its signature dishes, and most of the dinner menu is priced at market. OpenTable files it as Greek fine dining at $50 and over.
Kythira is a dinner-only room. The schedule it posts:
| Day | Kythira NP hours, per its website |
|---|---|
| Monday to Wednesday | 4 to 10:30 p.m. |
| Thursday to Saturday | 4 to 11:30 p.m. |
| Sunday | 3 to 9 p.m. |
The OpenTable listing shows Thursday closing at 10:30 p.m., an hour earlier than the website, so late Thursday bookings are worth confirming.
Taken together, the two restaurants put most of Grand Street's new seating into the hours after 5 p.m. The city's redesign proposal plans for those same hours.
What DOT Wants to Do With the Curb
DOT's Canal Street redesign now runs in two phases. In the July 2026 presentation to community boards, Phase 1 covers Canal Street west of Broadway together with Grand Street and is labeled a 2026 project. Canal East follows as Phase 2 in 2027. For Grand Street, the main feature is a protected two-way bike lane on the south curb. Streetsblog reported in July that the lane would be eight feet wide and run 16 blocks. Community Board 2 described its reach as Varick Street to Forsyth Street.
The curb rules are the part of the plan that shapes how diners arrive. In a September 23 letter to CB2, DOT set out a time-of-day plan for Grand Street:
"Along Grand St, regulations will be updated to provide: commercial metered parking during the daytime, passenger metered parking in evenings until midnight on many blocks and new passenger metered parking on certain blocks to provide daytime through midnight access and turnover for customers."
The letter treats the side streets the same way. Daytime No Parking and Truck Loading Only rules would become commercial metered parking, passenger metered parking would be added in the evenings until midnight, and new passenger metered parking would be added on Saturdays. DOT says it designed these changes "to increase access, provide turnover, and reduce double parking," and that many of them allow quick passenger pick-up and drop-off.
Line that up against the two kitchens. Straker's dinner service ends at 11 p.m., and Kythira's latest posted close is 11:30 p.m. Under the proposal, evening passenger meters on many blocks would run until midnight. During the day, the same curb would be set up for deliveries.
The letter also describes changes for people on foot. DOT says it would add neckdowns on the north curb and pedestrian islands along the bike lane where it meets southbound streets, wherever width and roadway conditions allow. At Broadway and Grand, on the east leg, it plans a painted pedestrian island north of the bike lane and a curb extension on the north curb. Rumble strips would go in where feasible, including near a hotel and an older adult center raised in meetings with the board. DOT also says the redesign would add signs, signals, and markings so that westbound cycling on Grand, which the letter calls a "currently unpermitted" movement, becomes "regulated and predictable."
Planting is the limit. The letter says this in-house project is built mostly on the street surface with temporary materials, so greening is limited to planters for now. Fuller green infrastructure and stormwater work would come only if it later becomes a capital reconstruction project.
Where the Board Stands
Community Board 2 voted on the plan at its full-board meeting on July 23, 2026. Its resolution opposed the two-way protected lane, with 20 against, 14 in favor, and 2 abstaining, and asked for a full public presentation and more outreach before plans are final. The board said DOT had not provided street-by-street plans or a No Standing passenger-loading space on every block. It also said the plan left out daylighting and sidewalk-widening options for Grand Street intersections and did not adequately address pedestrian-safety treatments or flooding.
DOT's September letter responds to those points one at a time. On the route, it says the agency compared every nearby east-west street on traffic volumes, street width, land use, and how close each sits to Canal. It concluded that Grand gives cyclists the best crosstown connection while still working for other street uses. The letter says the agency is "eager to advance this project during the 2026 implementation season" and offered the board another presentation this fall. That presentation is now on the calendar. The bike lane and curb changes are still a proposal, and nothing has been installed.
The Meeting Has Moved to October 21
Some notices you may have seen still show the old date. The SoHo Broadway Initiative's listing gives Tuesday, October 27, at 3 Washington Square Village. CB2's own event page has since posted a new date and location:
- When: Wednesday, October 21, 6:30 to 9:30 p.m.
- Where: PS 130, the DeSoto School Auditorium, 143 Baxter Street between Grand and Hester, with a Zoom option
- Agenda: first public feedback on the Lafayette/Fourth Avenue redesign, then DOT's presentation on the Grand Street two-way bike lane, then an update on the 13th Street bike lane
The same CB2 page links to DOT's September 23 letter and to Zoom registration. The new venue is on Grand Street's eastern stretch.
Grand Street's Neighbors This Fall
Grand's new restaurants are part of a wider group of fall openings within a short walk. According to Eater's roundups, Romy opened September 22 at 199 Prince Street, between MacDougal and Sullivan, in the old Little Prince space. Chef Lucrezia Stella runs a steakhouse menu that includes a dry-aged wagyu porterhouse. Rye by Martin Auer, a minimalist bakery from the Austrian baker, opened September 10 at 285 Lafayette at Jersey Street. ÓOL, a cacao shop, bakery, and cafe that makes its pastries with Breads Bakery, opened September 9 at 178 Spring. Broome Restaurant and Bar, a French-Mediterranean room from the Broome Hotel, opened July 31 at 431 Broome at Crosby.
Before the board meets, there is a free option outside. Douglas Dunn + Dancers will perform Vain Combat, an outdoor dance, at 5 p.m. each day from Wednesday, October 14, through Sunday, October 18. As of the SoHo Broadway Initiative listing, exact locations have not been announced.
If you own a home on Grand Street or one of its side streets, the curb in front of your building is now on a public agenda. I follow proposals like this one block by block, because pickup zones, loading rules, and evening meters affect how a building works day to day. To talk through what the Grand Street plan could mean for your address, Work with Elena at Supernova.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
