Flavored Bubbles Will Rain Down From the Ceiling at the New Merchant Roots in SoMa

Step past the blue gates of the new location of Merchant Roots in SoMa and prepare to become fully immersed in the world of this fine dining restaurant. This isn’t your typical white-tablecloth space with whispered conversations; instead, it’s a place with fine dining chops and service that leans far into the playful feelings that food can invoke.

Chef Ryan Shelton and the Merchant Roots team are known for seasonal, themed meals that change quarterly. The themes are often rooted in an idea, rather than food, and the dishes are planned to express that idea through ingredients. A previous theme centered around school sought to evoke nostalgia, told through beakers of beetroot bubbles or a trompe l’oeil apple made of foie gras mousse. The team also fashioned dishes around William Makepeace Thackeray’s Vanity Fair for another themed meal. Those who’ve visited the previous Merchant Roots space on Fillmore Street know the alchemy and magic the team managed to spin with just a series of induction burners. Now at this SoMa space, diners will really see the team stretch those creative chops, thanks to a large, fully-equipped kitchen, dining room loaded with projectors, bar space, wine room, and chef’s workshop designed by Jon de la Cruz of DLC-ID.

There isn’t quite a chocolate waterfall as in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but there will be signs of some tricks up Shelton’s sleeve. The strawberry bubble machine from a previous Wonka-themed dinner was transferred to the new space, where edible, flavored bubbles rain down on guests with the push of a button. (We won’t share where, but diners will want to seek it out.) A workshop in the back also highlights the thought and work that goes into each theme; it’s your typical garage workshop with power tools and is where items like the restaurant’s dishes or props are made. The wallpaper leading to the bathroom features a gallery wall of previous Merchant Roots meals, with fun decor in the bathrooms. Art projections in the dining room feature imagery dialed into the current dish of the meal, and keep the space moving. Whatever you want to call this place, it certainly isn’t stuffy.

Food from Merchant Roots in San Francisco.

The interior of Merchant Roots in San Francisco.

Opening on Friday, August 23, the debut menu for the new space is Color Theory, which explores “the meaning and messages” of color through a 10-course meal of monochromatic dishes. And while the dishes are well-composed and on-theme, there are plenty of techniques and high-end ingredients hiding on each plate. For instance, an orange-colored dish features a puffed carrot alongside salmon crudo, trout roe, and preserved orange. It’s a mad, mad, mad, mad (culinary) world at Merchant Roots and an escape from reality, all located on Mission Street.

Merchant Roots (1148 Mission Street) debuts in its new space on Friday, August 23, and is open Wednesday through Saturday — plus every other Sunday and Tuesday — for two seatings a night at 5 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. Reservations are required and available via Tock.