A new two-story lounge at 527 Broome Street is serving $45 martinis with Russian ossetra caviar and hosting an Italo disco dance floor downstairs. Bar Leone opened Wednesday in West Soho, the latest venture from restaurateur Andres Diaz, but its shared name with a prominent Hong Kong bar has quickly made the opening a subject of debate in the global bar world.
Diaz's New York venue shares its name with bartender Lorenzo Antinori's Bar Leone in Hong Kong, but the businesses are not affiliated, according to The Spirits Business. Antinori publicly distanced himself from the New York opening in May 2026 after discovering that the NYC venue's Instagram account had blocked him, the outlet reports.
A World-Beating Namesake
Antinori's Hong Kong Bar Leone was named the World's Best Bar in 2025 by The World's 50 Best Bars. In March 2026, he was also tapped by Tequila Don Julio to craft cocktails for the official 98th Oscars Governors Ball after-party, according to details credited to MultiVu. Antinori opened the Roman-inspired Hong Kong bar in June 2023, giving the name used by the New York venue an unusually high public profile.
The New York Bar Leone occupies 4,800 square feet across two levels, a project that took two years to develop, according to Time Out. Its upstairs lounge combines a mid-century-inspired martini setting with rotating artwork, while the interior uses sapele wood, corduroy velvet and red travertine. The venue says the gallery lighting is designed to accommodate new work every three to four months, and its playlists range from Neapolitan jazz and Afrobeats to funk and Balearic sounds.
Downstairs Disco, Upstairs Martinis
Head down a level and the mood shifts entirely into what Time Out describes as a red-velvet disco den, channeling Italo disco and 1970s downtown New York with red velvet wallpaper, vinyl banquettes and a red lacquer-and-chrome bar. Resident DJs curated by Italian-born, New York-based DJ Luigi Ambrosi spin Italo disco, classics and nu-disco for the dance floor below.
The cocktail menu doesn't skimp on ambition either. Beyond a dry or dirty martini made with Seventy One Gin or Beluga Gold Line vodka and served with Russian ossetra caviar for $45, The Spirits Business also details a signature Leoncino Martini featuring Cardenxe Sotol del Desierto, citral lemongrass, Cocchi Americano and pink peppercorn, alongside dedicated Negroni, Spritz and non-alcoholic lists. The caviar martini collection was developed with liquor brands Beluga and Seventy One Gin, according to the outlet.
Food runs from a raw bar serving fluke coconut ceviche and Kumamoto oysters with yuzu granita, per Time Out. There's also a $45 Beluga caviar bump paired with a vodka shot or a $135 caviar service.
Design Pedigree and a Recycled Address
Diaz worked with New York architecture and interior-design firm BOND to develop the space, and the build brought in an international roster of collaborators: Milanese designer Tommaso Spinzi contributed bespoke furniture, Map Studio handled lighting design, and BOND worked alongside Gantri on custom fixtures, per The Spirits Business. Sommelier Yuval Bar-Kokhba, who has spent more than 20 years curating international and oceanic wine programs in Manhattan, designed the wine list — he previously ran the wine program at Diaz's prior West Soho venue, according to the same outlet.
Her Name Was Carmen was a Latin American seafood restaurant and lounge. No further chef background is provided here.
Diaz is the restaurateur behind Bar Leone.
A Building With a Noisy Recent Past
The address also carries a recent nightlife history. Court records show that in January 2025, residential condominium owners living above 527 Broome Street sued over alleged late-night DJ and live-music performances from the former downstairs venue Her Name Was Carmen, claiming the sound created persistent nuisances and exceeded legal city decibel limits, according to the Unified Court System of New York. The records cited here do not establish the outcome of that case.
What the Address and Noise Rules Show
The DEP and NYPD share enforcement duties under the Noise Code, and residents can submit complaints through 311. A separate 2008 case involving a nightclub at 530 W. 28th Street—not Bar Leone or 527 Broome Street—shows that courts have distinguished allegations from proven regulatory violations: the New York State Unified Court System reported that an excessive-noise determination lacked substantial evidence because there were no residential-tenant complaints or objective proof that the music exceeded acceptable levels.
Bar Leone joins a wave of Italian-inspired and specialized cocktail concepts that have recently landed in Soho, following a tiny martini bar that opened nearby in July. The new spot's full hours and reservation policy are not specified here.
