The Pioneer Woman Mercantile — Restaurant in Pawhuska

This place is all the rage right now, so I took my elderly Mom there for the experience everyone is talking about. It was Halloween and their one-year anniversary. The Pioneer Woman Mercantile consists of a restaurant/deli, bakery and quaint shopping area.

These folks have completely restored an old building from 1903 into a beautiful masterpiece. The food is good, albeit expensive, and the merchandise in the shop is outlandishly overpriced. Good food, but hyped on their menu so that the customers expectations are much higher than the food quality can live up to. I suspect that will eliminate a lot of repeat business.

I like people like this however, who are willing to invest in their community and restore the historical architecture in it. This was no small task and it required a large financial risk on their part. Obviously it has paid off quite well. I understand they are set to open another fully restored historic building next door that should be complete by the beginning of 2018. Across the street is a very unique old building that is also being restored by someone else, probably because of the success the Drummond's have managed to achieve from their investment.

There's already a lot of traffic through this town but marketing seems to be a talent these folks have, for they have managed to draw in a lot of out of town business from all over the state of Oklahoma and Beyond. Although business is flourishing thus far, I suspect the craze will eventually fade, but I hope not. They've got a lot riding on this venture, but their overpriced merchandise may have to be toned down a whole lot for long-term success.

I recommend The Pioneer Woman Mercantile for a one-time experience but you probably won't be interested in traveling very far to see it again. It's quite a unique experience and the town of Pawhuska has other attractions to see as well. Stick with the sandwiches though. The chicken fried mis-steak is good but has a lot of gristle that is unchewable, and isn't worth $17.

The upstairs is a spacious flat, beautifully designed and houses the bakery. Their pie crust is a little tough but their desserts are luscious in spite of it. There is an elevator if you can't maneuver the stairs. Be prepared to stand in line as there is usually about an hour-long wait. Quite honestly they've pulled out all the stops to make your wait as comfortable as possible.

There are outdoor heaters along the sidewalk to help keep you warm in the colder weather, and they try to get you seated as quickly as possible. It'll be interesting to see what the new building adds to the overall experience and if perhaps it will eliminate having to wait in line. A nice day trip, especially for the ladies but even...

Drove up from Tulsa on Labor Day with the family. 2 hour wait was expected. We spent some time in the bakery upstairs and milling around the shop, no problems there. Got seated at our table and placed our order. We asked for the olive bread appetizer, a side of mac and cheese, a side of biscuits, my wife got a salad and I ordered the BBQ HALF chicken. Waitress brings us the olive bread, says the biscuits are going to take a while because they ran out, they needed to bake more upstairs, go and get them and then reheat them downstairs. Little interesting she would tell us all that but that's not a problem. Waitress disappears for 20 mins, and honestly I don't notice because were wrangling our two small children. Waitress says "Sorry I had to go to the bathroom" and she handles all of our plates and drinks. Again TMI but ok. Another 15 mins goes by and the waitress comes back and says she did not submit our order correctly so it was JUST put in. At this point all we have is the olive bread, getting pretty upset. My wife gets up and walks the baby around to keep him calm, 10 minutes later the waitress comes back with biscuits that come with jelly and says "I think its strawberry" hurriedly than leaves like she's so busy (the crowd has died down significantly and there's at least half the dining area empty). Everyone who had been seated around the same time as us has now ordered, eaten, paid, and left. My wife comes back and 10 mins later our food shows up. My HALF chicken is basically one chicken breast cut in half thin. One of the attached pictures shows what the plate consisted of after I took one bite and removed the lawn clippings. Sides are brussels sprouts, mashed potatoes and apparently grass. The brussels sprouts tasted amazing! Except there was only 3 of them, and what looked like one small dollop/ice cream scoop of mashed potatoes. We were ready to leave at this point so we got boxes immediately and cashed out fast. The waitress comped us basically half of our bill. Not once during this entire fiasco did a manager come over to address the situation or explain the complete and utter breakdown in the service we were provided and the comp felt like the waitstaffs way of buying our silence. The bakery upstairs was great! The dining experience was...

Hello, Pawhuska, Oklahoma!

I came with a large group for a day trip to have breakfast at The Pioneer Woman Mercantile’s restaurant, do some shopping, and do a tour of the Drummond Lodge. The Mercantile has a bakery (upstairs), the shop, and the restaurant.

It took about an hour to get to The Merc from Tulsa so plan accordingly.

All the little shops on around The Merc were so cute. They even have The Pioneer Woman Boarding House next to The Merc. And the restaurant itself was gorgeous inside.

Because we had a larger party, we had breakfast first before we shopped. It took rather long to get our food but the service was decent and the servers were kind.

Unfortunately, breakfast at The Pioneer Woman Mercantile was a disappointment. While the restaurant was beautifully decorated with high ceilings and natural light, the food surprisingly didn’t match the beautiful interior. We were served with complimentary biscuits and these actually came out delicious paired with the butter and jam. Had I known we would get complimentary biscuits, I wouldn’t have ordered their Biscuits & Gravy. The biscuit I got in this order was heavily salted - way more than the complimentary biscuits. The gravy was good. In addition, the bacon was also saltier than normal, as if it were seasoned with salt. I couldn’t eat it because it felt like the salt was going to give me blisters in my mouth. The sausage was dry and it overcooked - you could see it in the photo. And the potatoes were burnt. There was maybe 2 pieces and tasted like they had been sitting out. The ham and scrambled eggs, however, were the only things on the plate that was good (and the gravy). Much of the dish I just didn’t bother finishing. I probably should have just gotten something from the bakery instead.

Back to the shop, I loved the variety of items for purchase here and bought myself a lovely Mercantile t-shirt since it was so hot and humid in Oklahoma, and I mostly brought business attire with me and not a single casual shirt. I loved their shopping bag too!

Overall, I was really excited to be here. Loved the shop, loved the restaurant interior but the food just didn’t make...