Michael Disser, the operator behind Corner Bar and Sunset Rodeo, is adding a third concept to South Howard Avenue. Howard & Platt is slated to open this July inside the former TC Choy's space at the corner of South Howard and Platt Street — a 6,325-square-foot footprint that gives Disser his largest position on the strip and a corner address with street exposure on two fronts.
The announcement, posted to the operator's Instagram, describes a restaurant and bar with exterior dining positioned to draw earlier-day traffic to a stretch known primarily for its late-night concentration. South Howard's evening surge tends to cluster well after dinner service, and the exterior dining component — alongside the operator's stated intent around earlier-day activity — signals that Howard & Platt is being built to hold the block at hours when most of its neighbors are still quiet.
TC Choy's, the Asian restaurant that previously held the South Howard and Platt corner, leaves behind a space that is substantial by SoHo standards. At 6,325 square feet, Howard & Platt will have room to run a full restaurant program alongside a bar operation — a scale that opens up more format options than the tighter footprints that define much of the corridor. Specific details on the menu program and design team have not been announced.
Corner positions on South Howard carry real operational upside. Dual-street exposure is difficult to replicate in the corridor's mid-block spaces, and the intersection of South Howard and Platt sits near the denser clusters that define SoHo's core. That Disser secured this specific address for a third concept rather than expanding into a different neighborhood reinforces a consolidation logic: depth within a corridor he already knows rather than geographic reach.
The name Howard & Platt doesn't telegraph a tightly defined cuisine. Naming the intersection rather than a kitchen approach typically signals a place-first format — the kind built around occasion and neighborhood rather than a specific culinary identity. Whether that resolves as an all-day program, a casual dining anchor, or something else will likely become clearer as the opening approaches.
Disser's existing South Howard presence provides logistical runway that a first-time operator rarely has. Two operating concepts in the same corridor mean established supplier relationships, an existing audience, and familiarity with SoHo's rhythms — all of which reduce some of the friction that comes with launching in a high-density, high-competition stretch.
If the July timeline holds, Howard & Platt will open during one of South Howard's more active summer stretches. The real measure will come in the afternoon and early-evening hours: whether the exterior program and the operator's stated earlier-day positioning can pull volume at a time when the corridor's momentum traditionally hasn't started yet. If it works, this corner becomes a reference point for what SoHo can sustain before midnight.
