It's hard to miss the new restaurant when walking into The Merk.
The Merkantile Café juts out into the main atrium of downtown Longview's historic building without a storefront or suite number. Customers can look directly into the kitchen as Randy Burns, the café owner and operator, pulls together orders and brings them out to the tables in the center of the building.
The cafe is open for lunch five days a week with a rotating selection of soups, sandwiches and rice bowls. On St. Patrick's Day the café sold out the daily special, an Irish beef stew made with a Washington-brewed dark beer, by 1 p.m.
"It helps when you walk into the building and you can smell it right away. I think that's been a big key so far," Burns said.
He has been working at local restaurants for years, but the Merk Café is the first attempt he's made at owning his own place. He was one of the original kitchen employees at Longview's Mill City Grill and Ridgefield's ilani casino's Michael Jordan Steakhouse when they opened.
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Before he started cooking, Burns worked at the Reynolds Metals aluminum mill for years before the Longview plant closed in 2001. He used the retraining money he received from the company to switch industries, enrolling at the Western Culinary Institute in Portland and traveling down to Arizona for his first restaurant work.
"I knew that wherever I went in the country, I could find a job," Burns said. "I didn't know that I would end up back in Longview."
The pivot to opening his own business was a recent development. Burns said he heard about the space in The Merk in November. He had the café ready to open Dec. 18. The restaurant has one part-time employee who works on Wednesdays, but otherwise Burns runs the entire operation himself.
He makes a lot of the items by hand, from the salad dressings to a gluten-free oatmeal. The food options jump between multiple nationalities with Irish stews, Chinese-style pork belly and Mediterranean rice bowls coexisting on the menu.
A significant amount of the cafe's menu is either vegetarian or vegan. Burns is not vegan, but he knew there were limited vegan options along Commerce Avenue and wanted to appeal to a wide range of eaters.
"I'm not going too far out of people's comfort zones, but I like to stretch a little bit," Burns said.
During the cafe's first three months, Burns said he earned loyal customers from the other businesses in The Merk and across downtown Longview. Burns said he sees high demand throughout the week and Saturdays vary based on what other events are going on.
Burns said once he gets into late spring and early summer, he might expand the hours to bring in more customers on nice days.
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