As we enter strawberry season, we very much recommend the Fraises à la Chantilly—berries with vanilla-flecked whipped cream and, for good measure, a bowl of sugar for dipping.
The bar at Marcel is a touch point for the entire space, a gathering place that welcomes diners as they make their way into the dining room. Its faceted geometry echoes the brutalist bridge that leads to the Breuer building and the etched steps that descend to Marcel. They way the mirrors are canted introduces a now-you-see-it-now-you-don’t character to the bar, while the room’s repetitive overhead lighting fixtures define the room without the use of walls.
Marcel Breuer’s original lobby lighting fixtures from 1966 hover over the west half of Marcel’s dining room, casting a defining glow on the space. There are 364 bulbs, to be precise—reflective coated to send light upward, glancing off the orb-like fixtures. All of them were restored for the re-opening of the Breuer building, under Sotheby’s stewardship, as the interior earned landmark status in 2025.
Lunch at Marcel starts tomorrow, Friday, May 8, followed by brunch service this weekend. Join us in the dining room or our sculpture garden for a menu of tartines, salads, charcuterie, soups, spritzes and more. We can’t wait to welcome you.
Cocktail de Crevettes Marie Rose—blue prawns, avocado, grapefruit and romaine with Marie Rose sauce, a creamy, tomato-spirited emulsion from the days of Escoffier, which just happens to match the name of Marcel’s chef, Marie-Aude Rose.
As you descend into Marcel, situated in the lower level of the Breuer building, the global home to @sothebys , you enter a space unlike any other in New York—one that is both hard and brutal, yet rich and warm. It’s a dichotomy that speaks of both tension and harmony, one that is explored in this design narrative from Roman and Williams:
The lower level of the Breuer building is bifurcated into two distinct conditions, and this demarcation shapes the architecture of the restaurant. The landmarked portion of the space—defined by Breuer’s bush-hammered concrete columns, the soaring 30-foot volume connecting to the lobby above, and the building’s original lighting scheme—is inhabited but architecturally preserved. Roman and Williams installed nothing that interferes with the original fabric; the luminous relationship between the lower level and the lobby remains precisely as Breuer intended. East of the column line, in the portion not part of the original Breuer fabric, Roman and Williams made their intervention, covering the walls in warm, rich walnut. The effect is spatially legible—Marcel reads like a section through the building, the column line serving as datum, with two countries sharing a border: on one side, Breuer’s original fabric, monumental and untouched, defined by bush-hammered concrete and the muscular geometry of the original structure; on the other, the warm walnut world of Roman and Williams. 140 guests inhabit both conditions simultaneously.
Our large-format Paris-brest is designed to share—crisp, airy choux pastry filled with a mousseline of hazelnut and almond praline. An indulgent finish to a beautiful evening.
We are thrilled to celebrate the opening of Marcel with CEO @Charlesfstewart and all our partners at Sotheby’s. The restaurant is the culmination of decades of work at the intersection of architecture, craft, art and hospitality. At the iconic Breuer building—Sotheby’s global headquarters—we bring together fine art and culinary tradition in dialogue with one of New York’s great architectural landmarks. With Marcel, we hope to reignite the spirit of historic cultural restaurants as places for gathering, conversation, and exchange.
As Marcel readies to open on Thursday, The Wall Street Journal chronicles the partnership between Robin and Stephen Alesch, owners of Roman and Williams, and Sotheby’s—detailing how they created a singular restaurant, where the food on the plates will be as stunning as the art on the walls. Read the fulll article at the link in bio.
