Steve Barnes is reporting for the Times Union John DeLucie, a chef and restaurateur on June 4 is opening the farm-to-table restaurant Merchants Social in Hudson. DeLucie has described it as being focused on Hudson Valley ingredients with an approach grounded in the simplicity of Italian home cooking. DeLucie's 20-year culinary career in New York included The Waverly Inn and King Cole Bar at the St. Regis Hotel. Merchant Social is located in the 300 block of Warren Street at City Hall Place, in the space formerly occupied by Ca'Mea, which has moved down the street. The inside space has a casual bar/lounge area and a separate dining room with a rear courtyard that seats more than 70. The restaurant will be open for service Tuesday to Saturday for dinner, and brunch on the weekends. In 2005, DeLucie co-founded, with then-Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter, the Waverly Inn in Manhattan's West Village. By 2014 he was running five restaurants that grossed $40 million annually, but a collapse soon began, according to press reports. DeLucie currently owns Ainslie, a 10,000-square-foot Italian restaurant in Brooklyn, as well as the Empire Diner, on 10th Avenue in Manhattan. Read the full story in the Times Union.