Whether you’re waiting with bated breath for your Soho House membership application to be considered or are just curious what all the fuss about, perhaps the best way to get a peek is to stop in its open-to-the-public lounge, The Allis.
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It’s essentially the Soho House’s lobby, though you won’t hear anyone there calling it that, said executive chef Andrea Cavaliere, who oversees culinary operations at Soho House’s Chicago location. “We hate that word because … lobby to us sounds very corporate. We don’t want to say that,” he said. “It’s a space where people check in, check out … hotel guests, members, and then people that walk in through it to Chicken Shop and Pizza East.”
Whatever you call it, The Allis is one of the prettiest hotel foyers I’ve ever seen, with velvet sofas, crystal chandeliers, super-high ceilings and a weathered wooden floor with planks laid in a chevron pattern that drew my eye from one end to the other. Clusters of tables and chairs—some tufted leather, some upholstered in stripes—give off that mismatched, not-trying-too-hard look of laidback elegance that takes a lot of design savvy to pull off. During the daytime, everything is bathed in light from the massive windows that look out onto Green Street.
There’s a pristine white marble-topped bar stocked with rows of wine and spirits, but The Allis’ location in the front of the building—when the kitchens are in the back—was problematic when it came to serving food.”The question is, what kind of food can we offer, and from where, because there’s not really a kitchen there,” Cavaliere said. The result is a chef’s table next to the bar that, depending on the time of day, displays different snacks that can be assembled to-order by a chef. In the morning, it’s pastries and fruit alongside more hearty breakfasts such as boiled eggs with avocado, sourdough bread and smoked salmon. Come afternoon tea time, it’s scones and bowls of jam and clotted cream, while a nighttime small plates menu features a few of Europe’s favorite drinking snacks—think Scotch eggs, castelvetrano olives and marcona almonds.
Based on the number of laptop-toters and folks talking business over coffee that I spotted on a recent afternoon, it’s already become a popular coffee shop alternative for working remotely. Sidewalk seating on either side of the entrance provides a nice vantage point to spy on who is heading to RM Champagne Salon, Green Street Smoked Meats and High-Five Ramen through the alley across the street. Though the six-drink cocktail list is nothing envelope-pushing—it covers your classic cocktail bases with a daiquiri, negroni, old fashioned and La Louisiane, a cross between a manhattan and a sazerac—I could see The Allis as a novel place to park it for a while and watch who’s coming and going.