NYCReview
Lucky Strike
This spot is Permanently Closed.
Before you continue, let’s be clear about one thing - this is not a review for a bowling alley in Times Square. Office managers stressing over the plans for corporate happy hour, look elsewhere. But if you’re looking for a French bistro in Soho that’s been open for 25 years where you can feel like you’re in one of the tame parts of a Bret Easton Ellis novel, read on.
Keith McNally opened Lucky Strike in 1989, and for some reason, it’s lesser known than its similarly long-lived McNally counterparts Balthazar, Schiller’s, and The Odeon. Maybe that’s because people think it’s a bowling alley. Whatever the reason, we happen to like it a lot. Here’s why.
On our last visit, the soundtrack was an alternating rotation of Depeche Mode and Michael Jackson and every table had drinks on it despite it being early on a Monday night. And speaking of drinks, when you order a martini or old fashioned or other appropriately strong drink (this place has been around since 1989 but that doesn’t make it OK to order a Cosmopolitan), you get an extra tall glass with crushed ice, a strainer, and the remaining part of the cocktail that didn’t fit into the first glass. In other words: one martini is actually approximately 1.5 martinis. Let this serve as your official warning.
We also like Lucky Strike because it works perfectly in a number of situations. You could, for example, come in with a friend and grab one of the tiny, crowded-together tables in the front and share a steak frites - there isn’t really room for two plates on the table anyway. You might grab a quick glass of wine at the copper bar. If we’re getting serious, you might even linger in the back with a group until 2:30 a.m. on a Saturday night.
There’s just one thing it’s not good for: bowling.