For anyone who has ever tried to snag a table at The Corner Store in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood, the struggle is very real. The buzzy two-year-old restaurant has become the kind of place where even well-connected regulars know to call weeks in advance, and where the front-of-house team has become used to turning away walk-ins with a sympathetic shrug. But soon, there will be another way in. On November 9, The Corner Store will open its second location at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas — and it’s not just a smaller, stripped-down satellite. The Vegas outpost will be double the size of the original New York City space, giving the restaurant room to breathe while keeping the intimate, cozy-glam atmosphere that made it famous. “We feel this is a natural next step,” says Eugene Remm, co-founder of Catch Hospitality Group, the company behind the brand. “For people who can’t get into The Corner Store, it is a way to experience the product, an opportunity to give access to more people.” And for anyone worried that Vegas might get the nightclub treatment, Remm is quick to reassure: “It’s not like we’re going to blast music or be a big, crazy party. I think the people who go to Vegas are similar to those in New York, and there are also a ton of locals who support our businesses.” In other words, this isn’t a sellout moment. It’s an expansion built on the same philosophy that made the original a hit — great food, great drinks, and a room that feels special without being pretentious.
To understand how The Corner Store came to be, it helps to know a little about the people behind it. Remm was born in Russia and emigrated to the United States with his parents in 1980, and that immigrant hustle is very much baked into the restaurant group’s DNA. Catch Hospitality Group first made its name with Catch, the seafood-heavy celebrity favorite that launched in 2011, but The Corner Store was something different from the start. It was the company’s first new concept after Catch, and even Remm admits he didn’t see its success coming. “It started off as a cute little project,” he says. But that little project quickly turned into a full-blown phenomenon, and it was followed by a string of rapid-fire openings: The Eighty-Six, Or’esh, and the recently opened Cafe Charmant. The company is also looking further ahead, having signed a lease for a new restaurant — and possibly a private members’ club — at the former Cucina 8 1/2 space inside the Solow Building at 9 W. 57th St. That project is still in the early planning stages, with details to be determined, and is slated for 2028. Behind that ambition is a key partnership: in 2017, Catch Hospitality Group joined forces with billionaire Tilman Fertitta, the Houston Rockets owner who has since been named President Trump’s U.S. ambassador to Italy. Remm says the partnership changed everything. “Find partners who are good at what you aren’t good at and the collective group can be successful. If you find good partners, you can divide and conquer — or you have no shot.” That combination of Remm’s New York grit and Fertitta’s deep pockets has turned a neighborhood spot into a national brand.
The Corner Store’s menu was always meant to be a love letter to New York City. It highlights famous dishes from some of the city’s most iconic restaurants — there’s a steak frites inspired by Raoul’s, the legendary Greenwich Village bistro, and a sour cream and onion martini that comes with a side of chips, because why not? It’s playful, nostalgic, and unapologetically New York, and that sensibility extends to how the restaurant was launched. There was no PR strategy, no parade of Fashion Week parties, no influencers paid to post. Remm wanted the food and the cocktails to do the talking. “We want it to be a neighborhood SoHo spot, and we want the neighborhood to discover us,” he said before the original opened. That approach could have been a gamble in an industry that thrives on hype, but it paid off. The restaurant quickly became a destination for people who knew their food, and the lack of manufactured buzz only made it feel more authentic. In a city where every new opening seems to come with a five-piece brass band, The Corner Store let its menu be the loudest thing in the room — and for a lot of people, that was exactly the point.
And then, of course, the celebrities showed up. Taylor Swift and Sabrina Carpenter were among the first to find their way to the original location, and once word spread, it seemed like every other table was a familiar face. Lady Gaga, Leonardo DiCaprio, Dua Lipa, and Karl-Anthony Towns have all been spotted there, and the restaurant became the kind of place where you might see someone famous — or might not, because the regulars weren’t there for that. They were there for the food. But the rush was intense. “It was like hand-to-hand combat when we opened,” says Michael Vignola, Catch Hospitality Group’s chef partner. “Eugene was at the door and I was in the kitchen.” That kind of chaotic energy can break a restaurant, but for The Corner Store, it was fuel. The team found a rhythm, the kitchen got faster, and the dining room developed a personality that was equal parts polished and welcoming. For Remm, the rapid rise was both thrilling and surreal. He had built plenty of successful restaurants before, but this one felt different — more personal, more tied to the neighborhood, more like a place people wanted to claim as their own. And the fact that it happened organically, without a single major promotional push, only confirmed what he’d believed all along: if you build a room that feels good and serve food people love, the rest takes care of itself.
Bringing that magic to Las Vegas is a different kind of challenge. The original is small, with a cozy, layered vibe that makes you feel like you’ve stumbled into someone’s very stylish living room. The new space is bigger, which means the design has to work harder to keep that sense of intimacy. Remm is confident the team is up to it. “It will absolutely be the same food and beverage program, everything you know and love with elevated service, making sure that people have a great time. All that will be the same, but the vibe will be different,” he says. The Vegas menu will also have a little something extra — big steaks and exclusive cocktails, the kind of thing that feels right for a city that runs on spectacle. “The way the room is divided, it still has the intimacy that The Corner Store is known for — and 150 seats is intimate for the Vegas market,” Remm adds. In other words, this won’t be a cavernous, boisterous megarestaurant. It will be a place where you can still have a conversation, where the lighting is flattering, where the service feels personal. It’s a delicate balance, but if anyone can pull it off, it’s the team that turned a tiny SoHo spot into one of the hardest reservations in the city.
Catch Hospitality Group is no stranger to Las Vegas. Catch has been serving guests at the Aria Resort & Casino since 2018, and the group has outposts in Miami, Los Angeles, Dallas, Scottsdale, Mexico City, and a Catch Steak in Aspen, Colorado. Both The Corner Store and Catch in Las Vegas are in hotels operated by MGM Resorts International, which Remm says will help the new opening go smoothly. “It’s a market we know well,” he says. That local knowledge, combined with the brand’s national momentum, means The Corner Store is entering Vegas from a position of strength. And it’s not just about this one opening. The company’s expansion plans are ambitious, and the Solow Building project is just one of several ideas in the works. But even as Catch Hospitality Group grows, Remm says the goal remains the same: create restaurants that feel like places, not just businesses. “We want the food and cocktails to do the talking,” he said before the original opened, and that philosophy hasn’t changed. The Corner Store is moving to Vegas, but it’s bringing its soul with it. For the people who’ve been trying to get in for years, that might be the best news yet.
