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Sage Hospitality Group acquires Alex Seidel’s Mercantile Provisions

The chef has joined the new owner as a ‘collaborator’

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

August 28, 2024

2 Min Read
The exterior of Mercantile Provisions

At a Glance

  • Sage Hospitality Group has added Alex Seidel's Mercantile Provisions to its portfolio
  • Mercantile founder Alex Seidel has joined the hotel and restaurant group as a 'collaborator'
  • Seidel will retain control of Fruition and Chook

Hotel and restaurant operator Sage Hospitality Group has taken ownership of Mercantile Dining & Provision, a Denver restaurant and retail shop developed by award-winning chef and restaurateur Alex Seidel, and plans to expand the concept.

It will be operated under Sage Restaurant Concepts, which also runs dozens of other brands across the country, including Urban Farmer, Departure, and the Denver Milk Market food hall.

Seidel will join SRC as a “collaborator,” and will help to create and support other restaurants within the group.

Like Seidel, Sage is based in Denver. Both declined to provide further details about the transaction.

Mercantile opened in 2014 as part of the refurbished Union Station food hall. It also has a location at Terminal A of Denver International Airport. Sage said it would oversee renovation of the Union Station location, which is near The Crawford Hotel, also owned by Sage, as well as Sage concepts Urban Farmer, Call Me Pearl, Kachina Cantina, and The Original.

“Mercantile showcases the best of downtown Denver hospitality,” Sage Hospitality Group’s president of hotels, Daniel del Olmo, said in a statement. “Since its inception, chef Seidel and his team have consistently delivered outstanding service, innovative menus and an exceptional guest experience. We are very excited to work closely with him to thoughtfully re-launch the Denver Union Station location, grow the Mercantile brand and develop new concepts together.”  

Mercantile’s culinary team is currently led by executive chef Alex Grenier. The restaurant has seating for 108 people in the dining room, chef’s counter bar, and retail space. It also has a semi-private wine room and a 75-seat patio.

“I am incredibly excited about this partnership with Sage Hospitality Group,” Seidel said in a statement. “Mercantile joining the Sage family feels like a natural fit, given our shared commitment to exceptional hospitality and culinary excellence. I have been a longtime fan, friend, and colleague of the Sage team in the Denver hospitality community, and I very much look forward to seeing how Mercantile will continue to grow and what our groups will achieve together.”  

Seidel also operates Denver fine-dining restaurant Fruition, fast-casual chicken concept Chook, and a baking commissary called Füdmill. A spokesperson for Seidel said those operations would not be affected by the acquisition of Mercantile.

Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected] 

About the Author

Bret Thorn

Senior Food Editor, Nation's Restaurant News

Senior Food & Beverage Editor

Bret Thorn is senior food & beverage editor for Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality for Informa’s Restaurants and Food Group, with responsibility for spotting and reporting on food and beverage trends across the country for both publications as well as guiding overall F&B coverage. 

He is the host of a podcast, In the Kitchen with Bret Thorn, which features interviews with chefs, food & beverage authorities and other experts in foodservice operations.

From 2005 to 2008 he also wrote the Kitchen Dish column for The New York Sun, covering restaurant openings and chefs’ career moves in New York City.

He joined Nation’s Restaurant News in 1999 after spending about five years in Thailand, where he wrote articles about business, banking and finance as well as restaurant reviews and food columns for Manager magazine and Asia Times newspaper. He joined Restaurant Hospitality’s staff in 2016 while retaining his position at NRN. 

A magna cum laude graduate of Tufts University in Medford, Mass., with a bachelor’s degree in history, and a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Thorn also studied traditional French cooking at Le Cordon Bleu Ecole de Cuisine in Paris. He spent his junior year of college in China, studying Chinese language, history and culture for a semester each at Nanjing University and Beijing University. While in Beijing, he also worked for ABC News during the protests and ultimate crackdown in and around Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Thorn’s monthly column in Nation’s Restaurant News won the 2006 Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Award for best staff-written editorial or opinion column.

He served as president of the International Foodservice Editorial Council, or IFEC, in 2005.

Thorn wrote the entry on comfort food in the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, 2nd edition, published in 2012. He also wrote a history of plated desserts for the Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets, published in 2015.

He was inducted into the Disciples d’Escoffier in 2014.

A Colorado native originally from Denver, Thorn lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Bret Thorn’s areas of expertise include food and beverage trends in restaurants, French cuisine, the cuisines of Asia in general and Thailand in particular, restaurant operations and service trends. 

Bret Thorn’s Experience: 

Nation’s Restaurant News, food & beverage editor, 1999-Present
New York Sun, columnist, 2005-2008 
Asia Times, sub editor, 1995-1997
Manager magazine, senior editor and restaurant critic, 1992-1997
ABC News, runner, May-July, 1989

Education:
Tufts University, BA in history, 1990
Peking University, studied Chinese language, spring, 1989
Nanjing University, studied Chinese language and culture, fall, 1988 
Le Cordon Bleu Ecole de Cuisine, Cértificat Elémentaire, 1986

Email: [email protected]

Social Media:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bret-thorn-468b663/
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Twitter: @foodwriterdiary
Instagram: @foodwriterdiary

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