The Mercantile Blends Historic and Hipster at Ogden’s 25th Street
The Mercantile Market and Eatery, at 2501 Grant Avenue, is the latest addition to Historic 25th Street. It’s an interesting partnership of three very different local brands: Kaffe Mercantile, Roosters Hospitality Group, and Beehive Cheese. After interviewing the partners for a Standard-Examiner story, here’s what to expect.
- The old Union bus station building has a retro vibe, while serving up current trends such as lattes, avocado toast, charcuterie boards, and craft beer.
- The Mercantile is Beehive Cheese’s flagship store, where you can buy its award-winning artisan cheeses such as Barely Buzzed, Seahive, and Teahive. There are other local products as well, such as Chocolot Artisan Chocolates, Caffe Ibis coffee, and Slide Ridge honey.
The menu has a heavy focus on local ingredients, so customers can buy some of those products they’ve tasted to take home.
It’s a coffee shop with lots of brunch-y offerings like scrambles and toasts. A seasonal menu board lists featured drinks, including the signature “chillers,” a blended cold coffee. The coffee comes from Caffe Ibis in Logan, and Rosehill Dairy in Morgan supplies the milk for lattes and other drinks.
It’s also a lunch or dinner spot with sandwiches, salads, charcuterie boards for sharing, or a place to just visit over drinks.
One favorite sandwich is the Chunky Grilled Reuben of marbled rye bread, thin-sliced corned beef and sauerkraut, slathered with Thousand Island dressing. You can team it with a bowl of tomato soup for a hearty lunch or dinner.
The Kaffe Salad is a favorite of Kim Bowsher, CEO of Roosters Hospitality Group. It’s got roasted vegetables, cucumbers, tomatoes, mixed greens, blue cheese crumbles, and creamy vinaigrette dressing. She also likes the Breakfast Scramble (two eggs with spinach, peppers, Beehive cheese, potatoes and warm tomatillo sauce.)
Besides being an eatery, it’s also a gathering spot for mini-concerts, wine and cheese education, and other events. To keep tabs on what’s coming up, check the website at https://www.themercantile25.com.
The building itself is a hybrid: the front serves as The Mercantile, while the back side is office space for Roosters Hospitality Group, owners of Roosters, Union Grill, The Coop, and B Street Brewing Company.
Old-timers have memories of the Union bus depot building, built in 1940, and probably more remember it after it became as Greyhound station.
The décor is a hybrid of history and hipster, with an original seat from the old bus station on display. It was rescued during one of the building’s remodels, and ended up in the hands of locals Russ and Sandy Sellers. They offered it to the The Mercantile owners, who re-upholstered the worn upholstery.
After the Greyhound station closed in the 1990s, businesses such as The Imaging Depot and Sabores de Mexico Restaurant came and went. It was vacant when Roosters Hospitality Group, bought the building in February 2021.
“We bought the Depot building so we could house all of our administrative offices for payroll, human resources and marketing,” said partner Kym Buttschardt, co-owner of Roosters Brewing Hospitality. “But knowing that 25th Street needs life and not just office spaces, we wanted to make something really cool out of the front of this building. We knew immediately who we wanted to ask to join us in making something super special down here.”
She invited Nick Morris and Lance Smith of Kaffe Mercantile to collaborate, and well as Britton Welsh of Beehive Cheese. The company’s creamery is located in Uintah.
“Our motto is ‘making friends with cheese,’ and The Mercantile project is the brainchild of the great friends we have made through our adventures in cheese,” said Welsh.
Collaborating with three very different brands can be challenging, especially on a project that’s pretty unique. But Bowsher said the group worked well together, using the skills and strengths of each brand.
“Bizarrely, our biggest argument was whether to have French fries on the menu,” said Bowsher. (They’re not on the current menu; someone lost the argument.)
Morris and Smith run the day-to-day operations. Welsh is in charge of retail and financial management, and Bowsher is overseeing marketing and events.
Roosters co-owner Peter Buttschardt and corporate chef Matthew Lake influenced menu development, kitchen design and training, Bowsher said. Jackson Buttschardt, one of Peter and Kym’s sons, also helped train the kitchen team.
One of Morris’s favorites is the O-Town Toast, layered with avocado, tomato, cream cheese and raspberry jalapeno jam. Customer menu favorites include the Sunrise Toast (avocado, tomato, Beehive shredded cheese, boiled egg, and Cholula hot sauce) and the Med Toast of hummus, cucumber, and tomato, flavored with Za’atar (Middle Eastern) spices.
On its FB page, The Mercantile announced that it’s now featuring desserts and other treats from Dee Licious!
“Pastry Chef Erica aka Dee is the owner operator of Dee Licious now utilizing our kitchen as a commissary for her baked goods. This means you’ll have daily access to fresh baked treats right here at the shop!We’ll always have cheesecakes and brownies in the case, plus a rotating selection of flavors AND you can place custom orders with Erica directly.”
Sounds like a great hybrid of sweet and savory along with both history and hipster vibes.
If you go…
Location: 2501 Grant Avenue
Contact: https://www.themercantile25.com or (801) 648-4664
Prices: $6-18
Hours: Monday – Thursday, 8 a.m.-8 p.m.; Friday, 8 a.m.-9 p.m.; Saturday, 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Currently closed on Sunday, with plans to eventually expand to Sunday.
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