The Mercantile Cafe / Sweet Simplicity Bakery / Ice Cream Shop

The owner has become surly on our last two visits. Several of the vegetables on the last two trips were so salty they remained pretty much untouched. The “meat”dishes, salmon patties and chicken and dressing contained contained no detectable meat.

Manchester deserves better.

Very good place for lunch or on the weekends they are open for dinner. They serve mostly off the hot bar with specials for the day, but do have a small menu to order off of as well. I went for lunch and then the next day for dinner! For lunch I had the Oriental Chicken Salad which was fantastic and large enough for two to share. For dinner the next day I ordered from the hot bar - fried fish fillets and fried shrimp, with parmesan roasted potatoes and creamed corn. For dessert a from scratch pecan bar that was to die for! There is something for everyone here.

The food here is soooooooo good! I love home-cooked food and this place has it, down to the multitude of dessert varieties. The little gift shop has some of the cutest stuff as well. If you haven't tried it, you definitely should. You won't regret it.

We love coming here, the service is fast, the food is good. We love sitting outside. We went back exactly one year from the date we started dating.

Great people and great food. Highly recommended!!

Renee is such an a amazing hostess, and the food is true comfort food. I felt like I was visiting a relative in their home.

Stop by for some cake and fried pies. Definitely worth it

My family has loved the Mercantile food for several years! Renee and her crew catered at my wedding reception this spring, and all of the guests loved the food as well! Fruit tea is also fantastic!

Oh my goodness!!! One of the greatest things about small towns in Tennessee are the meat and 3 places to eat! Comfort food at its finest! The Mercantile Cafe in Manchester is NO EXCEPTION!!!
Its located in the square on a corner and it's open seating allows singles, couples, small and large groups all easy seating options.
We went there on a Sunday afternoon and there was a line but that just tells me the food must be good! We waited for maybe 20-30 minutes as they were very busy but it was well worth the effort!
Menu items were entree and 3 sides but you can add more if you like. Free coffee with order of desert!
I had the meatloaf, green beans and mashed potatoes with brown gravy. Chicken gravy was available as the other entree was chicken and stuffing. We had our choice of jalapeno or regular cornbread or yeast roll.
Everything was EXCELLENT!
The potatoes were some of the best I've ever had. I could have just eaten the whole pan of that it was so good.
The food is served cafeteria style and you tell the staff behind the line what you want. Many choices and a salad bar is available.
Prices were what we expected (less than 10.00 each w/drink) and portions were more than enough.
Everyone there was extremely friendly and one of the owners comes around to everyone and treats you like family. Extremely nice experience!!
Looking forward to going there again!

Really cute place to come have lunch or dinner. We had our Christmas luncheon here and everything was wonderful the decorations were so pretty for Christmas. And the food was very yummy! Would definitely recommend this place to anyone.