Taylor Swift and Gigi Hadid have made Catch restaurants surprisingly cool again

Call it a comeback.Over the weekend, Taylor Swift and Gigi Hadid dined at The Corner Store in SoHo, adding more than a bit of cachet to the new restaurant from Catch Hospitality.The restaurateurs behind Catch and Catch Steak are suddenly trending after years of being dismissed by New Yorkers for having overpriced, uncool touristy spots.

It has “Polo Bar vibes without the Karens,” Meg Radice, who dines out often and runs the food review account The VIP List with 460,000 followers on TikTok, said of The Corner Store.It’s “the hottest restaurant in New York right now,” she added.“I thought that even before Taylor Swift walked through the door.”Ella Kahan, a 27-year-old food influencer who runs the account ChewYorkCity, went on a recent Monday night, and said, “The bar was packed when I walked in before sun down … Everyone had a martini.” The new hotspot specializes in the classic cocktail, devoting an entire menu section to it and even serving a $40 “Martini Service” for two.The food menu includes nostalgic-but-pricey comfort fare such as an $18.50 pepperoni “pizza roll” appetizer; $24.99 artichoke dip and $68 lobster frites.

The Corner Store is the first restaurant from Catch Hospitality in five years and its first spot not to have “Catch” in the name.The group opened the first Catch in the Meatpacking District in September of 2011.

Along with the likes of Tao Downtown and Buddakan, it was one of a clutch of club-restaurants that were buzzing at that time, serving up viral menu items in cavernous spaces with loud music blaring.Catch expanded to Los Angeles in 2016, attracting stars such as Paris Hilton, the Kardashians, Cindy Crawford and Sylvester Stallone, who eclipsed menu items like chicken lettuce cups, tuna over crispy rice cakes and #HitMe Chocolate Cake.

But over the years, Gothamites drastically cooled on the once hotspot, and it became saturated with out-of-towners, wannabe models and tables of teens swiping their paren...