Food and drink
The House Kitchen, Club Bar and Drawing Room are on the ninth floor, framed on two sides by a long balcony. The proportions and feng shui are great: it feels ample and airy at quieter times of the day and intimate and buzzy at night.
The menu is divided not only according to courses but also according to style, so that you can choose between dishes that appear on Soho House menus all over the world, dishes that appear only on this House’s menu and vegetarian dishes. (If in doubt, when in Rome, ask for the rigatoni amatriciana, every time, without hesitation, and wash it down with a glass of Sangiovese.)
In addition to the main restaurant, there is also, of course, a Cecconi’s. This one is a little different from the usual: it is not on the ground floor and open to the public but on the roof and accessible to members and guests only. Though still under construction at the time of our visit, it was shaping up nicely, with its shady pergola and festoon lighting, its little orchard of planter-boxed olive and lemon trees, its fine views and evening breeze.
The spa
Floors seven and eight are occupied by the Soho Health Club, which, along with the usual gym and studio spaces and Cowshed treatment rooms, offers some pretty adventurous hi-tech distractions, including cryotherapy (at a bracing minus-110 degrees Centigrade), infra-red, ozone and IV-drip therapy. Should any of this sound a bit daunting – as well it might – encouragement will come from the spa manager, Gaetana Marmo, a woman who, though small of stature, possesses a natural warmth that could turn a cryo-chamber into a tanning bed. If she sees you passing her door – perhaps when you are on the stairs on your way to the bar a couple of flights up – she will call your name and invite you to join her at her bar for a cup of life-enhancing mushroom-extract tea with maca and ashwagandha.
