New Main Street Merc serves up comfort food

Like many people confronted with Oberlin students, Kate Lynn has a few questions.

"I just want to know what kind of soup they like," Lynn said.

Lynn and her wife Sara Manns are the newest owners of Main Street Mercantile. Lynn, a veteran chef, has picked up her pots and pans after a three-year hiatus.

"I wanted to run a restaurant that serves people what I want to eat. It's what I call fresh comfort food," Lynn said. "We opened the restaurant because I love to cook good food."

Lynn relishes even the thought of cooking good food. With great delight, she described a fresh piece of Coho salmon she'd landed. Her customers, listening attentively to her informal ode to food, appeared relieved that the fish would soon find its way to the ever-changing menu.

"Our menu changes daily," Lynn said. "We visit the West Side Market in Cleveland three days a week."

Thursday's offerings included a florentine fritatta, chicken apple suasage pasta and Guiness beef stew. Although the Mercantile currently offers only brunch, lunch and a take-out dinner, Lynn hopes to add dinners and late-night desserts to their repetoire.

Lynn and Manns have worked nearly non-stop since they opened their doors at the end of January. People have begun lining up to partake of Lynn's signature lunches. According to Lynn however, not everyone has been pleased with the Mercantile's new management.

"I don't want to make it more than it is," Lynn said, "but we have heard from numerous people that there are people who will not eat here because of our life, which really blows my mind."

"It's just a really sad thing for me," "It would have been unrealistic for me to expect certain constituencies to eat here. Some Christians, if they think God tells them they can't eat my mac and cheese, then by God, maybe they shouldn't," Lynn said

Oberlin City Council woman Fran Baumann said she was not aware of any sort of boycott of the Mercantile.

"We're not going to pretend we're people we're not," Lynn said. "I've been a lesbian for a very long time. I don't want anyone to support us for anything but good food."