Mr & Mrs Smith

The Mercer

New York, United States

A six-storey red-brick Romanesque revival landmark building, New York boutique hotel The Mercer is the perfect fit for its SoHo locale. The property’s exposed brick walls and enclaves, neutral hues and hardwood floors go with the area’s cast-iron and glass sidewalks every bit as well as pastrami does with rye. It’s a modern New York classic, with a very Manhattan air of effortless cool.

Need to know

• Rooms 75, including seven suites.
• Rates Double rooms from AU$521.65 ($495), excluding tax at 14.75 per cent. Please note the hotel charges an additional local city tax of $3.50 per room per night on check-out.
  The price shown represents the lowest nightly rate for a double room available at this hotel over the next 21 days. Any price conversions from the hotel's local currency ($495) have been conducted using today's exchange rates from xe.com.
• More details Breakfast is an additional US$20–US$30 a person.
• Facilities Library, CD/DVD library, in-room beauty/spa treatments, free access to a local fitness club, free WiFi, laundry service. In rooms: flatscreen TV, CD/DVD player, air-conditioning, minibar, iPod dock, free bottled water, Face Stockholm toiletries.
• Poolside There is no swimming pool at the Mercer.
• Check-out Check-out is flexible; arrange a time with the receptionist when you arrive.
• Children Kids are welcome at the Mercer. Baby cots are available free of charge, extra beds cost US$100 a night, and babysitting can be arranged with a local nanny from around US$30 an hour. There’s no children’s menu in the restaurant.
• Also Both pets and smoking are allowed at the hotel. There is a one-time cleaning fee of US$100 if you bring your beagle.

Food and drink at The Mercer

• Hotel restaurant The Mercer Kitchen is where world-renowned chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten serves up delicious contemporary French cuisine with an Asian twist – steak in a caramelised soy sauce, steamed shrimp salad – in an exposed-brickwork space before a bustling open kitchen and purple-backlit steel bar. The tables situated right underneath SoHo’s iconic iron-and-glass sidewalks are particularly cool – to sit there and eat is like being part of a MOMA light installation.
• Dress code Anything goes, but there’s definitely an understated edgy, fashion-focused vibe among those choosing crustaceons from the lobster and oyster bar. Think 3.1 Philip Lim dresses and Tim Hamilton tailoring.
• Top table When we were there, a couple in the restaurant told us that they’d met at cosy table 28, returned to the same spot to get engaged and were now here to celebrate their one-year anniversary. Perhaps 28 could be your lucky number, too?
• Last orders Both the restaurant and bar stop serving at 1am on Monday to Thursday, at 2am on Friday and Saturday, and midnight on Sunday.
• Room service Drinks and a comprehensive selection from the restaurant menu are available 24 hours a day.
• Hotel bar Situated at street level, the Mercer Kitchen Bar draws in stylish shoppers during the day, and is abuzz with the fashion and media crowd at night. Aluminium glass-topped tables and black-and-white leather seating furnish the joint, while a huge yellow blossom in a giant glass vase makes an attractive statement piece on the small bar. In daylight hours, it opens out onto the street – though curtains prevent over-enthusiastic paps from photographing the cocktail-sippers inside.

The Mercer 147 Mercer Street, New York 10012