ABOUT

La Mercerie is a celebrated French restaurant in New York City’s SoHo neighborhood, owned and operated by the Robin and Stephen Alesch, founders of the celebrated architecture and design studio Roman and Williams. When the Alesches opened La Mercerie in 2017, they reimagined what a restaurant can be. La Mercerie is elegant but relaxed; its food is sophisticated yet comforting; it is a restaurant but also a shop. As Pete Wells wrote in The New York Times, La Mercerie is “simple, determinedly old-school French cooking with every detail in place."

The Alesches opened La Mercerie after designing some of the world’s most sought-after restaurants—borne out of a desire to realize a comprehensive vision for all aspects of a restaurant experience, from culinary to design, atmosphere to service. The restaurant flows seamlessly through an arched passageway into Roman and Williams Guild, the Alesches’ adjacent home shop. Together, the spaces create an experience unlike any other in New York.

Since its opening, La Mercerie has attracted the city’s creative set, serving as a destination for everything from elegant power lunches to intimate dinners. At its core is its cuisine—classic French cooking reimagined with care and irreverence by chef-partner Marie-Aude Rose, a Parisian chef who brings a unique sensibility and passion to New York.In partnership with executive chef Heloise Fischbach, the duo crafts a menu rooted in heritage and elevated with precision. Dinner features dishes like beef bourguignon and gratin dauphinois. Lunch offers lighter fare, including a delicate quiche and a salad of shrimp, avocado and grapefruit, which recalibrates the notion of a salad.

La Mercerie’s space is as memorable as its cuisine. With its watery blue velvet banquets, tiled walls, and soaring double-height windows, the dining room enjoys a symbiotic relationship with Roman and Williams Guild. All of the handmade pieces on the tables of La Mercerie are made by Roman and Williams or their family of artisans from RW Guild. Set in a landmarked 1857 building at Mercer and Canal Streets—originally the city’s first luxury department store—the restaurant and shop together create a timeless atmosphere of curated beauty. Outside, a row of gardened seating stretches along Mercer Street, importing the feel of Paris to lower Soho.

Perched at the junction of La Mercerie and Roman and Williams Guild is Guild Bar, an intimate marble bar wrapped in a midnight-blue mural, where guests can enjoy cocktails tailored to artist-made glassware and the restaurant’s curated list of French wines. Below, La Mercerie’s private dining room is a jewel box—complete with a hand-painted, mirrored mural—that offers a spectacular setting for events for the worlds of fashion, art and design. Outfitted with handcrafted ceramics, glassware and metalwork from around the globe, it embodies the Roman and Williams ethos of craftsmanship and elegance.

La Mercerie has continuously garnered praise. Among many other accolades, it was named a best new restaurant by TheNew York Times and The New Yorker, earned a coveted spot on the New York Times’ list of the 100 Best Restaurants in New York, and was named one of New York’s 43 Best Restaurants by New York magazine. Robin and Stephen Alesch's second restaurant in partnership with Sotheby’s, Marcel 945 Madison Avenue, is now open in the iconic Breuer Building.