easy charm—like the guy in your high school who’s friends
with everyone. Our waiter greets him by name, asking if
he wants his usual (steak and eggs). When he speaks, he is
animated, with an accent that reveals his Brooklyn roots.
(He once mentioned to Lin-Manuel Miranda, “You know,
I talk too ghetto sometimes. I should change the way I talk.”
Miranda told him to change nothing.)
Ramos grew up not far from here, in the Hope Gardens
housing development in Bushwick, living with his single
mother, his older brother, and his younger sister. “We were
pretty broke,” he tells me. “I asked my mom all the time,
‘Why do we eat rice, beans, and chicken every day?’ ” Ramos
was a self-described lackluster student, but music was an
escape; Eminem’s The Marshall Mathers LP spoke to him
in particular: “It was a dude crying out through his music,
and I was like, ‘Damn.’ ” In middle school, a teacher heard
him sing and encouraged him and two of his classmates
to start a group that would perform at school assemblies.
Unable to afford college, Ramos toyed with the idea of
joining the Navy before another teacher strong-armed him
into completing an application to New York’s American
Musical and Dramatic Academy
and then secured him a free ride
through the Seinfeld Scholarship
Program. “In that moment, boom.
My life was changed,” he says.
That Cinderella story would
repeat itself throughout the
27-year-old’s career. Last year,
after only a handful of
appearances in films, he played
Lady Gaga’s best friend, Ramon,
in A Star Is Born. When we speak,
he’s just wrapped up filming the
adaptation of Miranda’s Tony-
winning In the Heights, in which
he stars as Usnavi, the protagonist
and narrator. Fittingly, it was seeing that show that kept
him in the business years earlier, when he was beginning to
doubt his prospects. “I remember feeling like I wanted to
quit,” he tells me, “and I went and saw In the Heights. I was
sitting there being like, I can’t quit. I know all of these
characters. Maybe there is a place for me.”
In October, he released his debut album, The Good & The
Bad, a mix of club bangers and introspective ballads.
In “Figure It Out,” he sings, “I’m making me a promise,
to admit my problems/Ain’t saying I’m going to solve
them, but I’m making progress.” “The song’s about loneliness.
Men, especially, don’t embrace loneliness,” he explains;
another track, “One More Hour,” is about the first time he
and Cephas Jones kissed. Given that Ramos collaborated
with writers and producers behind some of the biggest
contemporary hits, it’s surprising how personal the final
result is. “This album is better than what I dreamed of
writing,” he says. His first concert for the record took place
at Joe’s Pub within New York’s Public Theater, where
Hamilton debuted. “The fact that I get to play my first show
there means a lot to me,” Ramos says. “We told that
story, and now I get to tell mine.” —laia garcia-furtado
“I remember
feeling like I
wanted to quit, and
I went and saw
In the Heights.
I was sitting there
being like, I can’t
quit. I know all of
these characters”
VLIFE
84 NOVEMBER 2019 VOGUE.COM
NOAH FECKS
For a city that never sleeps, New York is
surprisingly lacking in 24-hour eateries—
especially late-night joints that don’t
induce regret come morning. But at the
intersection of West Broadway and
Grand Street in Manhattan arrives Soho
Diner, a spot that pays homage to the
city’s greasy spoons of yore (Florent,
Jerry’s), while offering a polished update
on retro-swank decor: pistachio-colored
terrazzo floors, booths of black and
white vinyl, and punchy peach pendant
light fixtures. At a Formica-and-steel-
trimmed bar, patrons can order up coffee,
cocktails, and, of course, a stack of
pancakes, served with sun-dried strawberry
butter. Conceived by GrandLife
Hotels and its frequent collaborator
Ray Pirkle, Soho Diner hopes to achieve
mainstay restaurant status with its never-
not-open-dependability. “I’ve always
romanticized diners for being reliable,
approachable, and inclusive to all types of
humans—from couples with a baby to
drag queens,” says Pirkle. “It’s the epitome
of New York.” —lilah ramzi
GREENS, EGGS,
AND JAM
SOHO DINER
OFFERS A
FRESHER TAKE
ON BREAKFAST
ALL DAY.
FOOD
At All Hours
