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| - I went to Merchant last night with my friend and sat at the community style table in the back on the first level by the open kitchen. I've been waiting forever for this place to open so my excitement level was high. Unfortunately, my expectations were not met during this first trip. Let me start with the good: we ordered mussels, which were delicious. The broth was just the right amount of garlic with hints of white wine and my palate was pleased. The garlic bread that came with it was perfectly toasted and I definitely wished there was more of that to go around. For our second course, we both opted for a lobster roll. The lobster was cooked just right. That said, when you order a lobster roll- the expectation is that it will come on a thick roll. That wasn't the case here and the lobster came on sandwich type bread that got soggy very fast. I think the execution was just kind of off because of this. The chips that came with the lobster roll were just not for me. The food was not inexpensive. Food overall was a 3/5. Now for the not so good: when I ordered my first glass of wine, it came clearly under poured. I know this because I've bartended for years, not because I just wanted a huge glass of wine. Luckily, when I spoke up, the woman sitting at the end of the community table (who I assume is either the manager or owner) heard me and immediately corrected it. I appreciated her willingness to step in without question. What continued to bother me, though, is that none of the wine is priced under $10 a glass. Further, I'm fairly certain one of their bottles of wine which was priced around $48 dollars is about $32 at Mercurio's in Shadyside. Point being: I will not be coming here for cocktails with a friend again any time soon. Additionally, my dad joined us toward the end of the visit and asked the server for a Makers and ginger ale. The waiter informed us that they don't stock ginger ale and don't plan to. Why, I'm not sure. Ginger ale is a pretty standard drink mixer. But as a new restaurant, if a customer asks for something that you don't have that is so normal at pretty much every other establishment, I'd be sending someone to GetGo to grab a bottle of ginger ale and ensure that my new customer is happy so that they want to repeat business. Maybe that's the sales person in me coming out, but food for thought for the manager and owner. My dad ended up not getting the Makers because they didn't have ginger ale. Our bill after several glasses of wine each ended up coming to around $250, which for two people eating and three people drinking just wine felt extremely high. I could have probably paid less at Ruth Chris downtown. I'll be back for the food, and I am looking forward to trying the oysters (but again, these are priced higher than every place I've seen in pittsburgh) but I won't be spending my money on the alcohol here unless they rethink their pricing.
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