Bar Mercer Already Feels Like a Longtime Soho Staple

1. The restaurant is meant to feel like it’s been a part of the neighborhood for decades.

Bar Mercer may be brand-new, but the space already has the broken-in feel of a well-loved leather jacket. The interior is all checkered floors, sexy lighting, and lots of red in a way that feels more timeless than retro. Black-and-white photos on the wall harken back to a much older era of the area, including one shot in 1935 on the lot where the restaurant now stands.

Much of the character here comes from the fact that McDonald intentionally filled it with furnishings that have history behind them. “It’s all super personal to me,” McDonald says. “I’m constantly collecting things and buying at auctions, so everything’s old.”

While Bar Mercer isn’t a speakeasy, it does next to nothing to announce its presence. “[There’s] deliberately, no signage, no branding outside at all, no branding outside,” McDonald says. “We built the room to feel like it’s been here. Granted, it has been here, because I’ve been [at this space] for 15 years. We’re adding another layer to the existing history.”

Behind the scenes, there’s another reason the restaurant feels more seasoned than it is: much of the kitchen crew have followed Clark and McDonald for years. “You’re nothing without your team and we definitely have great teams in place,” Clark says. “I have the same guys in the kitchen that have been with me for a decade-plus.”

2. No gimmicks here.

After more than three decades in the business, McDonald has seen more than his share of fads come and go — and he’s past the point of caring. There’s no dish calibrated for viral success here, no structurally unsound mounds of whipped cream or other maximalist garnishes.

“I don’t think there’s anything here deserving of some weird Instagram hype,” McDonald says. “There’s no magical stacked bite. There’s no martini tree. It’s just meant to be a great bar with exceptional food.”

In many ways, McDonald says he was inspired by some of England’s newer generation of upscale pubs, where the cooking is both unshowy and precise. Exhibit A: the textbook fish and chips with haddock encased in a voluminous pale ale batter — served with malt vinegar, of course.

“There’s no gimmicks, just technique and ingredients,” McDonald says. “Here, it’s just meant to be all about Preston’s technique.” That shines in other dishes well-suited for sopping up booze. Chief among them is the “hangover” pasta, a carbonara riff cloaked in a velvety, Parm-forward sauce, with a wallop of black pepper, Vermont ham, bacon, and a runny-yolked egg on top. It tastes like the best kind of breakfast the morning after, although it makes even more sense the night of.

Pigs in a blanket get a similarly thoughtful treatment, with a kicky Dijon mustard dip and a puff pastry with toasted sesame seeds. “I think it’s just one of the most perfect bites,” Clark says. “I think that’s really what we try to do with the food here: I try to create food that you crave.”

3. Keep an eye on the chalkboard.

Think of the written menu here as a jumping-off point. The team intentionally kept the printed offerings concise here in order to make space for nightly rotating specials, all scrawled out on a chalkboard. “It’s like my playground,” Clark says. “We can do the roasted bone marrow, we can do squab, we can do quail, we can do whatever’s great that comes in.”

On any given night, the specials might include razor clams Rockefeller, a Flintstonian veal chop, or just a really comforting lamb stew. The flexibility of the chalkboard also allows the crew to pull up blockbuster wines. “Let’s say we just got an incredible three-liter bottle of Bordeaux or something special,” McDonald says. “We’re going to blackboard that.”

4. To no one’s surprise, the seafood shines.

After a decade at Lure Fishbar, Clark already has the inside scoop on some of the best seafood that passes through New York City. “It’s all because of these relationships that I’ve built up over 10 years,” he says. “Because of the volume, we were able to just really get the best of the best picks. I trust all of the guys we do business with and the strength of that relationship ends up on the plate.”

For evidence of the fact, look no further than the hamachi crudo, a dish that appears on countless restaurant menus, but rarely in as fine a form as this. Buttery slices get drizzled with a salsa verde riff with Thai chiles, plus garlic cracklin’, a splash of white balsamic, and micro cilantro. It’s a deliberately restrained preparation that spotlights the quality of the just-sliced fish.

Oysters in all incarnations are a strong suit here, although it already feels like the fried number on the menu is destined to become a fan favorite. The bivalves are perfectly crisp, accompanied by a lemony tartar sauce with a sprinkle of togarashi. “We got just the right mix of cayenne, black pepper, and smoked paprika in the flour mix,” Clark said. “It took me a while to get that recipe exactly right. Again, it’s all about precision.”

5. You (probably) won’t find a $200 steak here.

Dining out in Lower Manhattan these days is never cheap, but McDonald and Clark made a strong effort to keep their pricing humane. “I feel like every other restaurant now has a $200 or $300 steak for two,” McDonald says. “That’s why I feel like the other way we went, we went pork chop.”

The chop in question is a rather majestic hunk of Berkshire pork blanketed in chanterelles, black trumpets, and maitakes, all sautéed in plenty of butter. At $39, it’s generous enough to split and feels luxurious. There is a steak too, of course, but it’s a more modest filet, served au poivre. That said, if a spectacular side of beef happens to come their way, Clark may throw a few on the blackboard for a small number of guests looking to live a bit larger for the evening.

In the same way, the expansive wine list offers diners the option to splash out without making them feel obligated to do so. “If you want to spend thousands of dollars, you can, but if you want to spend $45, you can do that too,” McDonald says. “We wanted an incredible, world-class curated list with range, where serious wine people can come here and enjoy it with the proper stemware and that level of food.”

Bar Mercer opens at 5 p.m. from Tuesday to Friday. On Saturdays and Sundays, it opens at 3 p.m.  

Diana Hubbell is a James Beard Award-winning food and travel journalist whose work has appeared in The Washington Post, The Guardian, Atlas Obscura, VICE, Eater, Condé Nast Traveler, Esquire, WIRED, and Travel + Leisure, among other places. Previously based in Berlin and Bangkok, she currently lives in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Follow her on Instagram. Follow Resy, too.