Little Prince is dead. Long live Romy, SoHo's seductive new steakhouse.

The bistro chairs are gone. The corner of Prince and MacDougal just got considerably darker, richer, and more expensive. After a long run holding down 199 Prince Street, the French restaurant Little Prince is dead. In its place, owner Cobi Levy has built Romy, an intimate, 50 seat supper club that opens this Tuesday, September 29. Levy looked at his own beloved sunlit corner, scrapped it entirely, and decided SoHo needed a late night room serving $195 Wagyu steaks instead. He was right.

Romy is a hard pivot from daytime charm to after dark indulgence. It is exactly the kind of confident, unapologetic swing you want from a downtown veteran. If you are tracking the evolution of SoHo dining, this is the current mood. Less casual drop in, more coordinated seduction.

The Neighborhood Context

The corner of Prince and MacDougal has anchored downtown dining for years. Little Prince was a daylight friendly bistro known for its casual charm and off menu burger. When a beloved space closes, it usually means an outsider moving in to capitalize on the foot traffic. But this turnover is different. The call came from inside the house.

Cobi Levy, the restaurateur who originally created Little Prince and still operates Lola Taverna nearby, decided the neighborhood's needs had shifted. SoHo has enough daytime charm. What it lacks is a 50 seat supper club that takes its food and its late night energy seriously. Rather than trying to tweak a working formula, Levy scrapped the bistro aesthetic entirely. It is a gamble, but treating your own real estate as an opportunity for reinvention is the ultimate insider move.

The Room

Designer Rafael de Cárdenas handled the interior, stripping away the old floral aesthetic for something decidedly grown up. The room is now swallowed in oxblood and black lacquer. Burled wood and dark marble catch the low light, while bronze fixtures and original artwork by George Condo complete the space. It feels like a private club where everyone is ordering a second round of Martinis before the food arrives.

With only 50 seats, the floor plan is tight and intentional. You need to know this upfront: there is no bar seating at Romy. This is not a place to hover with a drink while waiting for a table. You come with a reservation, you sit down, and you commit to the night. It easily ranks among the best date night restaurants in New York City right out of the gate. The lighting is dim, the music is calibrated, and the design forces you to focus entirely on the people across the table.

What to Order

Chef Lucrezia Stella, who spent time in a Michelin starred kitchen on the Amalfi Coast and comes from a family of restaurateurs in Rome, built a menu that understands exactly what this room requires. It is heavy, luxurious, and deeply satisfying.

Start with the raw bar. The Kumamoto oysters arrive with a sharp cucumber and green apple mignonette. The tuna tartare gets a welcome kick from gochujang and pineapple, while the hamachi is plated with leche de tigre, lemongrass, and plum. But the real flex is the Kaluga caviar service. For $150, it lands on the table with a creamy onion and chive dip alongside a pile of housemade potato chips. It is the exact high and low combination you want at 10 p.m. on a Thursday.

Then come the steaks, which position Romy as a serious contender among the best steakhouses in New York City. The lineup includes a 12 ounce Niman Ranch New York strip au poivre and a dry aged Snake River Farms Wagyu porterhouse. The crown jewel is a 20 ounce Westholme Farms Wagyu ribeye priced at $195. Pair the meat with thick cut fries and broccolini hit with preserved lemon harissa.

If you somehow end up at a steakhouse without wanting beef, the kitchen still takes care of you. The halibut is served with blood orange, the lobster swims in sage and lemon butter, and a rich bucatini comes coated in San Marzano tomatoes and aged Parmesan.

The Drinks

A room like this demands a serious bar program, and Levy brought in heavyweight talent to run it. Miroo Kim, previously of Atomix, leads the cocktail menu. Skip your usual order and try the Brown Butter Carajillo or the Carrot Margarita. The drinks are constructed with the same precision as the kitchen's raw bar, offering bright acidity to cut through the heavy marble and lacquer.

The wine program is equally stacked, run by Adam Waddell from Eleven Madison Park and Spencer Choi-Schagrin from Jean-Georges. They built a list designed to stand up to heavy cuts of beef and late night decisions. When a restaurant tells you there is no bar seating, you can expect the table service to deliver on wine pairings, and this team has the pedigree to back it up.

The Shout NY Take

Romy officially opens its doors on September 29. Book your table through their official site, and aim for a 9 p.m. or 10 p.m. slot. Because the kitchen serves until 1 a.m. daily, this instantly becomes one of the premier spots for late night food in New York. Bring someone you want to impress, order the caviar and the chips, and let the oxblood room do the rest of the work.