Manhattan to Mayfair: London’s love affair with New York-style dining

The Dover, a glamorous, confident restaurant on Dover Street that’s captured the hearts of everyone from A-list celebrities to former Prime Ministers (Rishi reportedly had pasta), was born out of founder Martin Kuczmarski’s frustration with the direction in which the London dining scene was heading. ‘I was fed up of seeing old-school hospitality disappearing,’ he says. ‘I wanted to bring back tablecloths, proper candles and kind, efficient service. No loud DJs or over-complicated menus.’

From the soft, warm lighting to plush velvet seating and crystal Martini glasses, The Dover’s dining room feels like a throwback in all the right ways. So does the food emerging from the kitchen: spaghetti meatballs; chopped salad; branzino fillets. The portions are large and the food is what Kuczmarski calls Brooklyn-Italian, ‘inspired by the many Italians that moved to Brooklyn from the 1920s onwards,’ he says.

With The Dover, Kuczmarski sought to resuscitate a golden era of hospitality. He wanted to open a spot where guests would become regulars, enjoying unpretentious comfort food in a room in which they knew they would be looked after.

‘I think Londoners are fascinated by the New York style of dining because they have a very specific image of what it’s like. In the old days, New York was very glamorous, very grand, and known for being a little ‘naughty’ after dark. I think this is what still fascinates people now,’ says Kuczmarski.

Other restaurateurs are taking advantage of New York mania, too, focusing their attention on intimate dining rooms and high-low food offerings – thoughtful cooking that majors on comfort and familiarity rather than fine-dining fussiness. One Club Row in Shoreditch takes notes from New York’s swanky taverns like Minetta and Smyth with elevated burgers, fries and dirty vodka Martinis.

Jeremy King’s recent opening, The Park, serves another NY-inspired menu, including a Josper-grilled Brooklyn hot dog and Gotham shrimp cocktail. New York Italian-American institution, Carbone, launched an outpost in Mayfair last autumn, beaming a brick-red spicy rigatoni alla vodka beacon into the sky for the city’s socialites. Many of the restaurateurs in London seem to be taken with glossy leather banquettes and low-level lighting, their eyes shining with visions of £26-plates of spaghetti and meatballs.

The menu at The Park is a contemporary American one with plenty of Italian influences and playful nods to diner classics. You can find touches of New York throughout.

‘The Park is my love letter to New York,’ says King. ‘The restaurant was conceived with mid-century New York in mind: I imagined an incredibly refined diner, overlooking Central Park; a new-world interpretation of a European Grand Café. Its huge windows looking onto Kensington Gardens echo that inspiration, as do the mid-century interiors with their booths, corner tables and art collection.

‘The walls feature large pieces by the New York-based artist Alex Katz and lithographs by Le Corbusier, whose ideas profoundly shaped New York’s skyline. The private dining space, the Manhattan Room, has a coffered ceiling hand-painted with a bird’s eye view of Central Park and is hung with iconic images by Horst P. Horst, the American Vogue photographer deeply embedded in New York high society.’ King and his team have pulled out all the stops in turning The Park into a Manhattan-inspired playground where you can eat and drink at ease.

Ask people about food in New York and most will immediately think of pizza. Pizza has been in London since Olivelli on Store Street put a Margherita on its menu in 1934 but the craze for ‘authentic’ New York-style pizza is part of a more recent phenomenon.

Tom Vincent opened Vincenzo’s Pizza in Bushey in 2022 and swiftly made a name for himself with his crispy, thin-crust pizzas. Vincent recently opened the doors to a dedicated slice shop in Bethnal Green, serving fresh slices to grab-and-go from 5pm till late. They’re not exactly dollar slices but Vincenzo’s slices start at just £5, with classics like margherita and pepperoni sitting alongside new-school riffs like spanakopita and vodka sauce. Vincenzo’s is not the only place taking New York-style pizza seriously this side of the pond, joining Carmela’s, Spring Street Pizza, Bad Boy Pizza and Paulie’s in the growing cadre of spots to visit for a New York take on an Italian classic.

Vincent might have been born in Watford but his approach to pizza was moulded on the streets of the Big Apple. A whirlwind trip, which involved visiting all the city’s iconic pizzerias, cemented his desire to become a full-time pizzaiola. Follow up his expedition with a tour of Naples, he returned home to build a dome oven in his garden. ‘Pizza in NYC seemed more exciting,’ Vincent says. ‘There were big characters, family business stories and a real heritage – this caught the imagination of many over here, including me. After years of Neapolitan pizza, I think the UK was craving something new, so when people started making this new style of crispy pizza, it caught on.’

Vincent dove headfirst into the world of pizza-making, forming friendships with New York slice legends such as Gio Lanzo of Luigi’s Pizza and Frank Pinello of Best Pizza. For him, it’s just as much about a deep appreciation for and connection to New York culture as it is the food itself. It’s the same ethos Kuczmarski embraces at The Dover.

‘I think London could learn more about championing and holding on to their city’s institutions,’ says Vincent. ‘In New York City, there are so many Jewish delis, family-run Italian spots and pizza shops that have been there for decades. Of course, we have a few here too, like E Pellicci or classic pie-and-mash shops, but I feel like in New York, institutions are much more respected and cherished. People want to maintain the stories behind these institutions; they visit them often and love eating there because they’ve been there for years and are part of the community. I think London could do more of this and try to preserve more of its institutions.’

Whether Londoners are looking to spend a modest amount on pizza or splash out on cocktails and a hunk of USDA rib-eye steak, there are now plenty of places that cater to their New York-related needs and none of them require a six-hour flight over the Atlantic. Trends come and go but it’s difficult to deny the allure of many of these new arrivals or to imagine Londoners turning their backs on sultry restaurants and stylish comfort food now they’ve had a taste.

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