The Mercantile: Shaking My Head in Admiration

You can't say I don't love you.

Because you asked for it, at the moment when I should be peeling potatoes and dusting under the piano (not simultaneously--I'm not that efficient) I am ignoring Best Day of the Year preps to report on my visit to the Pioneer Woman empire.

The short answer, so you can get back to your own peeling and dusting, is that it was So. Much. Fun.

No surprise there, right? I discovered Ree Drummond and her Pioneer Woman blog back in the early days, when her now-college-aged kids were just babies. I read the "Black Heels to Tractor Wheels" saga in episodic blog posts, way before it was a book, and was flabbergasted to realize that the ranch where she made all that delicious-looking food was located near Pawhuska, Oklahoma, just over an hour away from Small Town. I was a fan as she documented ranch life, began writing cookbooks, launched a housewares line, got her own television show, etc., etc., etc., but we hadn't actually made the trip to see the Mercantile for ourselves.

So when Husband suggested we check out her store as a pre-birthday road trip, I was on board.

First of all, I cannot emphasize strongly enough that a weekday in mid-November may be the ideal time for such a visit. The weather was glorious, and the crowds were a perfectly manageable size. We've visited Chip and Joanna's Magnolia Market empire in Waco and the elbow-to-elbow shopping there practically gave me the hives. Last Thursday in Pawhuska there were enough people that it felt bustling and energetic, few enough that we could browse at our leisure. We estimated that 80% of the Mercantile crowd was made up of women approximately my age, 10% were trailing husbands, and the remainder were homeschoolers and outliers.

The Mercantile itself has several sections. A merchandise area opens on to the restaurant, which flows into the deli. Upstairs is a bakery, with huge windows and cozy couches so that you can take as much time as you want inspecting the cool stuff downstairs while your husband watches Pawhuska passing by in comfort, if your husband has low tolerance for dishes and kitchen supplies.

But my Husband is a really good sport, so he was holding the shopping basket while I ooooh-ed and aaaah-ed at everything I wanted to buy, which was pretty much everything in the building.

If you have even a passing acquaintance with Pioneer Woman merchandise, you know what was in the store. It's colorful, practical, vintage-y, and surprisingly affordable. I am in a new stage of my life in which I try to not buy anything for which I do not have storage or immediate use, so my major purchase of the day came from this table:

Yup. A plastic wrap dispenser. I am officially No Fun At All. But in my defense, I've used that dispenser constantly during the pre-BDotY cooking preps, and I love it. It also was less expensive here than in a shop down the road we stopped at later in the day.

And in fact, my very favorite display table was the one that contained items Ree uses in her own kitchen--big mixing bowls, strainers, cutting boards. I regret not purchasing a couple of small sheet pans. They were heavy-duty and at $8 each, a great buy.

Okay, okay, I hear you shouting at me from cyberspace: "But MomQueenBee, what did you eat?"

Oh, my. I need to preface this by reminding you it was my birthday trip, and I checked in with my doctor daughter-in-law:

We waited about half an hour for a table, but it was high noon and there was more shopping to do while we waited. And then we threw calorie counts to the wind and ordered a couple of wonderful, decadent sandwiches. 

The Ranch Hand Sandwich was meaty and ranchy, and featured pulled pork cooked with Dr. Pepper, ham, cheese, buttered hoagie bun, and a side of homemade potato chips. Husband's was the chicken-fried chicken and he had to carve it into pieces before he could fit his mouth around it:

And in full disclosure, we shared butternut squash soup as an appetizer:

We regret nothing. It was delicious.

Our sandwiches were about $14 each, but iced tea was 25 cents, which made the entire meal seem like a bargain. The heavenly pecan cinnamon roll (which we bought at the bakery and took home for actual-birthday breakfast) would have been $4 to eat in deli, but was $6 for three packaged to carry.

All told, we spent about three hours in Pawhuska. Outside of the Mercantile there isn't much to do--a couple of small shops, and one decent-sized antique store that was fun. But that's enough for me. 

It was amazing to look at what the Pioneer Woman has built. Everything about the Mercantile, from merchandise to food to atmosphere, was completely on brand for her and for her readers and fans, and I am both of those groups. 

It was a fun day, and I am shaking my head in admiration of her accomplishments.  

And now it's off to more BDotY preps. I'm going to be spatchcocking a turkey (when I announced this to Husband at breakfast he was taken aback until I explained further) which heightens the adrenaline level as I realize that this could be a recipe for disaster. Hahaha! See what I did there?

It's the Best Day of the Year. Be thankful!