The location at 65 Bleecker Street (Google Maps)
A fast-casual chain that started in a 280-square-foot shop on Bondi Beach and now has more than 50 locations across Australia is adding another New York outpost, and this one lands in SoHo.
Signage for ThisBowl has gone up at 186 Spring Street, between Sullivan and Thompson Streets (h/t @newopeningsnyc). No opening date has been announced.
ThisBowl was founded in Sydney in 2016 by three university students, Nathan Dalah, Nicolas Pestalozzi and Casper Ettelson, who say they couldn’t find anything fresh, healthy and affordable to eat near the beach and decided to make it themselves. The brand’s stated mission is to “change the culture of fast food,” and its menu is built around made-to-order, Asian-inspired bowls that are gluten-free and dairy-free by default, according to the company’s website.
House favorites include the O.G., with roasted chicken or salmon sashimi over kale, beets, edamame and seaweed salad topped with tobiko and scallion crunch, and a braised beef bowl made with Westholme beef, sweet potato and a house tamari ponzu. There’s also a chili chicken bowl for spice lovers and a miso eggplant bowl with roasted tofu. ThisBowl currently has four Manhattan locations: its original New York shop on Bleecker Street in NoHo, plus NoMad, Rockefeller Center and a recently opened Tribeca store that doubles as a culinary lab and creative workspace. They’re also opening a location near Columbus Circle.
The SoHo address carries some history of its own. The house that previously stood at 186 Spring Street served as a “gay commune” in the early 1970s, home to activists including Jim Owles, who co-founded the Gay Activists Alliance and GLAAD and was the first openly gay candidate for office in New York City, and Bruce Voeller, the first director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. Village Preservation pushed to landmark the building in 2012 with support from elected officials and the state’s historic preservation office, but the city declined and issued demolition permits that fall.
Existing ThisBowl locations are open until 9 p.m. or 9:30 p.m. most nights, though hours for the SoHo store haven’t been posted.
