Late last year, amid the holiday season and art week treks to Miami and back again, design duo Stephen Alesch and Robin Standefer fêted the opening of Guild Bar at La Mercerie. Tucked within the couple’s French-inspired restaurant-showroom concept, the five seat cocktail bar offers patrons an elegant and intimate perch. The cozy alcove is equally suited to diving into a sumptuous novel or catching up with friends old and new—all over impeccable classic cocktails and inventive featured drinks.
A mural by Dean Barger Studios provides an emotive backdrop for the one-of-a-kind glassware Alesch and Standefer sourced for the bar from artisan makers Yoshihiro Nishiyama, Keiko Lee, Yuki Osako, Hyunsung Cho, Naoya Arakawa, Kimiko Yasuda, and J&L Lobmeyr. Each expressive piece carries its own allure. Cho’s gilded and verdant stemmed goblets might evoke the artistry of the Murano glass tradition, but the maker maintains their inspiration is rooted in nature and the budding of greenery in the spring. Yasuda’s kaleidoscopic, crystal-cut rocks glasses feel stepped in Art Deco glamour, yet the kiriko cut-glass techniques she uses to create them are a fixture of Japanese craftsmanship. Like all of La Mercerie’s tableware, each piece of Guild Bar glassware is available for purchase through Roman and Williams Guild.
