Inside Soho Chicken and Whiskey’s New Chapter in Ohio City

Before Soho Chicken and Whiskey was known for its namesake, the Ohio City restaurant was Soho Kitchen and Bar. Opened in 2011 by husband-and-wife team Nolan Konkoski and Molly Smith, it’s evolving again 15 years later.

Konkoski and Smith met at Lopez, Michael Herschman’s now-shuttered Cleveland Heights restaurant, where he worked the kitchen and she the front of house. The pair later helped open Ohio City’s Momocho and Rocky River’s Tartine before launching a concept of their own.

“I had never made fried chicken before,” Konkoski says. “But we looked around the city and asked, ‘What are other cities doing well that ours isn’t?’” 

Their concept centered on what Konkoski calls “New Southern,” chef-driven takes on Southern classics. Chicken and waffles landed on the opening menu and quickly became a hit, helping push fried chicken into the spotlight. By 2016, the dish had become so synonymous with the restaurant that it was renamed Soho Chicken and Whiskey.

After years on West 25th Street, leasing issues forced the restaurant to close its longtime home in June 2025. By October, the team had reopened three minutes away at 4211 Lorain Ave., where a slightly smaller kitchen creates a more open, spacious dining room despite the footprint changing by only about 100 square feet.

“There are only about five more seats,” Konkoski says, “but it feels more comfortable. People aren’t crammed together when we’re busy.” 

Despite the move, the goal was continuity. Like the previous space, the new restaurant has exposed brick walls, a similarly sized bar and comparable flooring. Some of that is because Konkoski and Smith felt that moving a restaurant after all those years was a little crazy. They even considered changing direction completely over reopening the same restaurant. Ultimately, the success of the original concept made their decision clear, but the move also provided an opportunity to rethink the menu. 

“We felt like we had become that fried chicken place, and the menu drifted from what we originally wanted,” Konkoski says. “This was a chance to reset and be a little more adventurous.”

The menu leans eclectic, blending Southern inspiration with broader regional influences. New additions include “fancy” deviled eggs topped with caviar and smoked trout ($14), a seasonal fried green tomato dish with basil, prosciutto, pickled grapes and stracciatella ($16), and sweet potato pierogies ($16), a playful twist on a Cleveland staple. The standout Carolina Fried Rice ($17) transforms Carolina gold rice into a grit cake topped with kimchi, yams, wagyu beef bologna and a sunny-side-up egg.

Even the fried chicken ($21-$25) got an upgrade. Instead of fixed entrees, diners now build their own plate, choosing one or two pieces — breast, thigh or tofu — paired with sides like collard greens, mashed potatoes, cheesy grits and Gouda mac and cheese.

“We wanted it to feel like the same place — just like we’d grown up a little,” Konkoski says.

The whiskey program has also shifted. The list has been pared down to 80 bottles from 200, creating what Kevin Sanchez calls a more focused, quality-over-quantity approach. Sanchez, who has led the program since 2014, builds booze-forward cocktails with unexpected combinations that still feel balanced. On the spring menu, the Defiant Jazz ($15) combines Wild Turkey bourbon, Cognac, plum, pomegranate, Pasubio and Averna amaros.

At its new home, the restaurant feels both familiar, grown up and refreshed, pushing its limits without losing what made it a neighborhood favorite. 

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