MICHELIN GUIDE-LISTED MERCHANT ROOTS AND ITS IMMERSIVE MENUS ARE MOVING TO SOMA

One of San Francisco’s most unique restaurants is making moves this summer. Merchant Roots, the fine dining destination known for its imaginative and immersive menus, will move into a new home at 1148 Mission Street this August. Right now, the restaurant is located at 1365 Fillmore Street and, at just 900 square feet, offers dinner to just a handful of customers each night. The big move will see the restaurant’s footprint expand to an impressive 4,500 square feet — though chef and owner Ryan Shelton still aims to keep the experience intimate with a dozen diners per seating.

The restaurant debuted in its current iteration in 2018, when Shelton pivoted Merchant Roots from a market into a fine dining restaurant. These days, Shelton and his tight kitchen team drop a new menu every season, taking months to develop a series of dishes that bring diners deep into the theme du jour. Past menus have pulled inspiration from William Thackeray’s Victorian novel Vanity Fair, the European folktale Stone Soup, and the elements — air, water, and fire. Shelton’s known for delving deep into menu concepts, creating custom plateware, decor, and more.

In the restaurant’s new home, Shelton will work with designer Jon de la Cruz of DLC-ID to create a space that can serve as a blank canvas for these quarterly menus. Against a blue, white, and denim backdrop, the restaurant’s staff will show off digital projects that will correspond to the menu’s theme, and a massive open kitchen — an undeniable upgrade from the induction stove setup they’ve got on Fillmore Street — will mean the team can take on even more ambitious cooking. The space also includes a gated courtyard so diners may move through different settings throughout their meal. Later down the line, Shelton plans to build out a bar space, centering the live-edge wood table that used to grace the Merchant Root’s dining room, where the team will offer plant-based bar snacks and alcohol-free and low-ABV cocktails from Merchant Roots sommelier and cook Christine Hirtzel.

The restaurant will move to its new home starting August 14, when Shelton and chef de cuisine Chris King will debut their latest menu: Color Theory, an 11-course menu ($180) that “explores the meaning and nuances of pink, white, green, orange, blue, yellow, brown, red, violet, and black,” per a press release. Reservations are available now via Tock.

2024-05-09T16:10:03Z dg43tfdfdgfd