By: Sue Kramer
LAMBERTVILLE — The comfortable upholstered furniture, intimate tables, soft music and friendly atmosphere of The Mercantile coffee shop at 7 N. Main St. go hand in hand with the coffees, New York egg creams, frozen berry drinks, soups, salad, sandwiches and luscious desserts that beckon from the counter.
It’s the perfect setting for discussing company business, reading a newspaper or just talking. People have even gotten engaged there.
But for owners John and Mary Williams, The Mercantile coffeehouse is nothing less than a dream come true. Five years ago, Mr. Williams was managing a Kmart in Kearny and his wife was a cardiac care nurse at Somerset Medical Center.
The Bernardsville couple, not entirely satisfied with their chosen careers, often teased each other about someday chucking it all and opening a coffee shop.
“In August 1996, I was in Borders Book Store, and I thought, if I’m going to do this some day, I’d better learn something about coffee,” Mrs. Williams recalled. “So I picked up a ‘Joy of Coffee’ book.”
The back of the book contained a list of coffee references — from brewers to experts on cappuccino — and Mrs. Williams contacted each one. While the couple learned about coffee, their joking remained just that until they visited Lambertville a few months later. They offhandedly looked at some property, but found the rents to be beyond their means.
A short time later, they heard about someone who had property to rent at 7 N. Main St. They made another trip to Lambertville, and before they left, decided to turn their “someday” dream into reality.
As the couple began to make plans to rent the property, they found out that there was another option — they could buy the property. The Williamses were so excited that they drove home to Bernardsville, forgetting that Mr. Williams had picked his wife up at the hospital after work where she’d left her car.
“From the minute we walked in the door, it was what we always thought would make a great coffee shop,” Mrs. Williams said. “We always said we’d like to have a place where we could live upstairs, a place with wood floors, a fireplace,” Mrs. Williams said.
By December, four months after Mrs. Williams decided to learn a little bit about coffee, the couple found themselves the owners of the property. Only then did the reality of the situation set in, and they realized they had committed themselves to their dream.
“There are crazy things people do,” Mrs. Williams said. “This was crazy!”
But once committed, the couple made renovations, hung Mr. Williams’ paintings on the walls, and were finally able to open The Mercantile Coffee Shop June 2, 1997 — just in time for the four-month resurfacing of Main Street that detoured traffic and necessitated their water being shut off.
Three years later, The Mercantile has evolved from a basic coffee and pastry shop to an upscale shop featuring Mr. Williams’ art.
The Mercantile will be offering 94-cent coffees Friday and other specials during the weekend, including 10 percent off Mr. Williams’ art work.
“It was something John always wanted to do,” Mrs. Williams said. “He always wanted to have a little place where he could sell his art work. “John has sold about 175 paintings.”
“The gallery in the shop (The Mercantile) is all my work,” Mr. Williams said. “I started painting about 10 years ago. I work in watercolors and oils and paint many different subjects.”
Mr. Williams’ love of painting and art led to the opening last year of the MorningStar Gallery in the carriage house behind The Mercantile.
“The art gallery has been the best thing,” Mrs. Williams said.
Her husband added, “The gallery in the carriage house has been open a little over a year, and we have different art exhibits there. The artists sit with their shows so they’re available for the people to talk to. It’s a little more interactive.”
Upcoming shows include a collection of long lost works of artist Armondo Sozio. The gallery is open from 1 to 4 p.m. Friday through Sunday. Artists interested in showing their work can contact Susan Twardus at (609) 394-1685.
