One of San Francisco's most unique restaurants is moving this summer. Merchant Roots, the fine-dining restaurant known for its inventive and diverse menus, will move to a new home at 1148 Mission Street this August. Currently located at 1365 Fillmore Street, the restaurant serves dinner to just a handful of customers each night in just 84 square meters. The big move will expand the restaurant's footprint to an impressive 420 square feet — though chef and owner Ryan Shelton still aims to keep the experience intimate, with a dozen guests per seating.
The restaurant opened in its current form in 2018, when Shelton transformed Merchant Roots from a market into a fine-dining restaurant. Today, Shelton and his close-knit culinary team release a new menu each season, taking months to develop a series of dishes that immerse guests deeply in the theme of the day. Previous menus have been inspired by William Thackeray's Victorian novel Vanity Fair, the European folk tale Stone Soup, and the elements – air, water, and fire. Shelton is known for delving deeply into menu concepts and creating custom tableware, décor, and more.
From August 14th to November 10th, Merchant Roots will serve a “Color Theory” menu. Merchant Roots
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 those quarterly menus. Against a blue, white and denim backdrop, the restaurant's staff will showcase digital projects that fit the menu's theme, and a massive open kitchen—an undeniable improvement over the induction stove they have at Fillmore Street—will allow the team to tackle even more sophisticated cooking. The space also includes a fenced-in patio, allowing guests to move between different environments as they eat. Later, Shelton plans to add a bar area centered around the natural tree-edge wood table that formerly graced Merchant Root's dining room, where the team will offer plant-based bar snacks and non- and low-alcohol cocktails from Merchant Root's sommelier and chef Christine Hirtzel.
The restaurant will move into its new home starting August 14, when Shelton and chef Chris King will unveil their newest menu: Color Theory, an 11-course meal ($180) that “explores the meaning and nuances of pink, white, green, orange, blue, yellow, brown, red, purple and black,” according to a press release. Reservations are now available through Tock.
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