New York City’s cultural institutions have been amping up dining by partnering with known chefs and restaurants to attract New Yorkers, particularly those with deep pockets. Just this month, cult-favorite film production company A24 (behind Oscar-winning picture Everything Everywhere All At Once) reopened West Village neighborhood theater Cherry Lane with Wild Cherry, a new French restaurant run by chefs Lee Hanson and Riad Nasr, the duo behind Frenchette and Le Veau d’Or. Earlier this summer, the Frick Collection debuted Westmoreland, run by the Danny Meyer-founded Union Square Events. And to come, there’s Via Carota’s Rita Rodi and Jody Williams, who were recently tagged to revamp all of the restaurants at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Met Cloisters starting in 2027.
Now the latest cultural institution union and restaurant team comes from design studio Roman and Williams (which worked on spaces like the Tin Building and Le Coucou and operates Soho French restaurant La Mercerie) and fine arts auction company Sotheby’s, which Eater NY reported earlier this year. Fine dining French restaurant Marcel and French bakery La Mercerie Patisserie will open inside Sotheby’s headquarters (which hasn’t opened yet) on the Upper East Side at 965 Madison Avenue, between East 75th and 76th streets, in spring 2026.
The striking Breuer building has undergone many past lives over the years. Most recently, it had been the temporary home of the Frick. Before that, it was the Met Breuer, when the restaurant space had been seafood spot Flora Bar, which closed at the beginning of the pandemic; the Whitney Museum resided in the space from 1966 to 2014. Sotheby’s bought the building for nearly $100 million in 2024. It’s been working on turning the space into its new headquarters, opening on Saturday, November 8, with galleries and auction spaces.
Partnering with other restaurants isn’t a new thing for Sotheby’s, either. There’s an outpost of Sant Ambrose at its York Avenue location.
Marcel will reside lower level of the Brutalist building. Its name stems from the architect of the 1966 building, Marcel Breuer. La Mercerie chef and partner Marie-Aude Rose will also run the kitchen.
And then, La Mercerie Patisserie is tucked inside Marcel, where customers can buy pastries and coffee to-go. They can also grab seats for an experience that takes its cues from Parisian and Viennese cafes, per a rep.
Roman and Williams, led by co-founders Robin Standefer and Stephen Alesch, is known for designing many restaurants, such as the Standard Grill and the Dutch. The team opened La Mercerie with chef and partner Marie-Aude Rose in 2017, now also with executive chef Heloise Fischbach.
The stylish La Mercerie was one of the best restaurants of 2018 for both the New York Times (Pete Wells described it “classical precision” of French food) and the New Yorker (Hannah Goldfield said it was the “epitome of luxury” where every ingredient was “exquisite”). Former Eater NY critic Ryan Sutton highlighted its crepes, calling them “something that could hold its own at a Michelin-starred establishment.” Eater NY named it one of the most beautiful restaurants of 2017, and it was a finalist in the 2019 James Beard Awards in one of the restaurant design categories.
Dining and Cooking