Table Mercato’s Wildly Popular Boston Sandwiches Are Heading to New York

Table Mercato’s Table sandwich: chicken cutlet with prosciutto, fresh mozzarella, tomato, arugula, lemon-honey vinaigrette, and balsamic glaze, served on focaccia. / Photo by Rachel Leah Blumenthal

Boston restaurants don’t usually expand to New York—it’s almost always the other way around. South End Spanish icon Toro is one of the few exceptions in recent memory (Dunkin’ doesn’t count), and the Ken Oringer export had a solid seven-year run in Chelsea. Jen Royle, chef-owner of North End sandwich shop Table Mercato and nearby 30-seat family-style sibling Table, is eager to flip the script. “They’ve sent us enough of their food,” says Royle, who splits her time between the cities. “It’s time for us to send them some of ours.”

What the Mansfield native is sending to New York, specifically, are wildly popular Best of Boston chicken sandwiches—crispy cutlets nestled on pillowy focaccia and embellished, nearly to excess, with toppings such as prosciutto or pistachio pesto. They’ll be arriving in the East Village this summer courtesy of a second Table Mercato, a sort of homecoming for Royle. “I lived [in Manhattan] when I was a reporter for the Yankees,” she says, calling from New York. “I was here for over a decade, and I always knew I’d come back, so I feel like I’m coming full circle. Boston will always be my home, but I feel like I always fit in more with New York.”

Open since 2020, the North End Table Mercato consistently draws crowds, selling about 600 to 700 sandwiches on most weekend days, according to Royle’s estimate, with wait times that can easily exceed an hour. So what makes these beauties so special? It’s all about the bread, says Royle, who searched high and low for just the right loaf, and now spends approximately $200,000 a year sourcing focaccia from Rhode Island’s Seven Stars Bakery. Those grains will be an instrumental part of Mercato’s Empire State expansion. “I want to keep everything uniform,” she says. “It wasn’t until I found the perfect bread that I built the sandwich, and I think my search paid off.” Plus, it’ll be easy to maintain the sourcing of the sesame rolls for the vodka parm—the ones she uses in Boston actually come from New York, from Pane D’Oro, to the tune of about $25,000 a year. “This roll will change your life,” she says. “It’s got to be the best. So, why is my sandwich so good? I will spend the extra money to make it great.”

Table Mercato’s vodka parm sandwich. / Photo by Rachel Leah Blumenthal

Signage is already up for Table Mercato’s 10th Street storefront, a petite version of Boston’s bustling original measuring 400 square feet and offering a streamlined menu—just four sandwiches (compared to around a dozen in Boston), all featuring chicken cutlet. (Three will be served on focaccia, while the spicy vodka parm is served on a sesame or plain roll.) The new shop will also sell coffee and house-made potato chips with caramelized onion dip, but not retail items or prepared foods like in Boston, where Table Mercato is stocked with olive oils, trays of lasagna, pints of sauce, cannoli, and more. “People in New York go out to dinner, grab a slice of pizza—they’re not grabbing a piece of lasagna to warm up at home,” says Royle. “When I’m here, I’d be shocked if I ever used my oven.”

All hail the bread as an essential ingredient of Table Mercato’s success, but let us also not forget the chicken. “We make really good chicken cutlets,” she adds, estimating that the flagship shop goes through about 1,500 pounds of chicken each week. “My volume is so big that everything is fresh. Nothing is sitting around; my turnover is so fast that I’ll have a line down the street and we’re waiting for a tray of chicken cutlets to come up from the kitchen.” Pro-tip for anyone wanting to beat the Boston lines: Show up right at opening on a weekday, 11 a.m., and you’ll likely have a sandwich in hand within 15 minutes, says Royle. Another sweet spot is 5 p.m. Go on Saturday afternoons at your own peril.

While the ingredient sourcing and recipes will stay constant with the expansion, Royle wonders whether her sandwiches’ popularity will, too. “Sandwiches are hot [in New York],” she says. “And the viral stuff here is nuts. There are lines to get a cinnamon roll, lines to get a slice of pizza. My lines are crazy [in Boston]; I don’t know if it’ll translate, but we’re about to find out. But my goal isn’t to be viral—my goal is just to provide a good product.”

Will this expansion lead to more Mercatos? Maybe another in New York if all goes well, says Royle—she could see opening in the West Village, her old neighborhood. “But I don’t want to expand in Boston,” says Royle. “I’m good where I’m at.” (Also in the North End, she runs Table Caffé, a seasonal gelato-and-more shop.) “I just think this [New York shop] is the next move, and it was either this or nothing,” says Royle. “I couldn’t imagine doing nothing.”

441 Hanover St., North End, Boston, 617-543-2829; opening summer 2026: 214 E. 10th St. (East Village), New York, New York; tableboston.com/mercato.