From fine-dining kitchens to more than 500 million views for his butter videos, Thomas Straker built a culinary following that stretches far beyond London. Now, Straker’s is making its New York debut in SoHo.
London is sending one of its most recognizable new-generation chefs across the Atlantic.
Chef and restaurateur Thomas Straker is bringing his namesake restaurant, Straker’s, to 59 Grand Street in SoHo, occupying the former home of Keith McNally’s longtime New York restaurant Lucky Strike. It marks Straker’s first restaurant outside the United Kingdom and the latest chapter in a career that began long before TikTok, Instagram, and his now-famous obsession with butter.
FROM HEREFORDSHIRE TO LONDON’S KITCHENS
Straker grew up on a smallholding in Herefordshire, near the Welsh border, surrounded by chickens, sheep and pigs. That rural upbringing gave him an early connection to farming, produce and the relationship between ingredients and the land.
His professional culinary education began at Ballymaloe Cookery School in Ireland. From there, Straker entered the London restaurant world at The Dorchester, where an initial opportunity developed into several years in the kitchen.
He later worked at Dinner by Heston Blumenthal before becoming involved with restaurateur Tom Conran’s New Toms project in Westbourne Grove.
Straker’s career continued at Casa Cruz, where he moved into senior kitchen leadership, and eventually at Elystan Street, working as sous chef under acclaimed chef Phil Howard at the Michelin-starred London restaurant.
By the time social media discovered Thomas Straker, he was already a professionally trained chef with years of restaurant experience behind him.
THE VIDEO THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING
The turning point came during the pandemic. While restaurants faced unprecedented disruption, Straker worked privately and began using his downtime to create cooking videos.
His audience started small. Straker has said he began the period with roughly 800 followers and emerged from several months of creating content with around 35,000. Continued collaborations and cooking videos pushed that following higher. Then he made wild-garlic butter.
The seemingly simple video became a breakout moment, generating millions of views on TikTok and hundreds of thousands more on Instagram. Straker recognized the opportunity immediately.
He began creating a daily series dedicated to flavored butter called All Things Butter, experimenting with combinations while keeping the videos fast, visually satisfying, and easy to understand.
The concept exploded. According to Straker, the butter content ultimately generated more than 500 million views, transforming a working London chef into an international social-media personality.
But unlike many food personalities who build restaurants after finding fame online, Straker’s culinary foundation came first.
STRAKER’S OPENS IN LONDON
In 2022, Straker opened his own restaurant on Golborne Road in London, translating his increasingly recognizable cooking style into a physical dining experience.
Straker’s became known for seasonal ingredients, flatbreads, pastas, seafood, meats cooked over fire and the rich, uncomplicated flavors that had already become part of the chef’s online identity.
The restaurant also helped merge two increasingly connected worlds: traditional restaurant culture and the new generation of chefs whose audiences follow their food long before ever sitting at one of their tables. Now, Straker is taking that formula to New York.
FROM NOTTING HILL TO SOHO
The New York restaurant occupies 59 Grand Street, the former home of Lucky Strike, which operated in SoHo for decades.
Eater reports that the restaurant is designed around an open kitchen framed by steel and green stone, with leather banquettes, dark wood and warm lighting.
The food is expected to remain connected to the style established in London: modern British cooking with Italian influences, seasonal ingredients and the fire-driven approach that has helped define Straker’s.
The official Straker’s New York website now lists reservations, menus and service information for the Grand Street location as the restaurant begins its New York chapter.
For Straker, the move represents considerably more than translating viral popularity into another restaurant. He spent years learning inside professional kitchens before an accidental social-media hit introduced him to millions of people.
Now the chef who helped make flavored butter an internet phenomenon is bringing the restaurant behind the hype directly to New York.
Straker’s NYC
59 Grand Street
SoHo, New York
