Ryan Wisniewski
Chicken fricassee comes on a bed of crisp potatoes with a complex white wine sauce.
In Montreal, where my wife and I spent our honeymoon, clerks and waiters have a custom of greeting people in both English and French, to allow the guests to respond in their preferred language. “Bonjour, hello,” they chime.
At Merci, where my wife and I had three lackluster meals in recent weeks, the waiters at times seem slow to greet new arrivals, perhaps expecting them to turn and walk right back out the door. Having seen it happen twice, I can’t say I blame them.
The problem is not with the design of the space. The dining room is still more or less the same gorgeous hall of minimalist/industrial chic that it was when Field Table completed its dramatic remodel of 10 West Mifflin in 2016. And the big front windows that open on to the Capitol Square are a thing of glory on warm summer nights. It’s true that the banquette seating that now takes up the former grab-n-go cooler area is far too tall for the short bistro tables, unless a diner were to recline like the ancient Romans. But that’s not where Merci runs into trouble. Ambitious dishes too often fall short, and plates are too often padded out with generous portions of cheap starches, then overpriced.
When I read that Sami Fgaier, former owner and head chef at Le Chardonnay (now 10 years gone from its West Johnson Street storefront), would be taking the reins upon Merci’s opening, I was downright excited. Fgaier has been running a personal chef service since closing Le Chardonnay, and a successful, fondly remembered chef would be just the thing to provide a center of gravity to this space. But Fgaier has been a consultant only, and has not been in the kitchen. He is a ghost of an influence at this point.
This could be forgiven with a strong menu and confident execution from the kitchen, but these are not forthcoming.
The menu begins with a selection of small plates. Starting with a baguette and butter sounds ideal for a French bistro, but what arrives is more akin to a par-baked food service dinner loaf, with more butter than any two people should reasonably eat. It’s overpriced at $6.
The novelty of pheasant on a Madison menu drew me to the smoked pheasant soup, but the thrill was canceled by over-peppering.
I don’t know where the grapefruit shrimp gets its name, but it’s not from any grapefruit component; six small shrimp sit atop an unpretty pile of buttery lentils with so little character that “mirepoix” (the chopped mix of carrot, onion and celery at the core of French cookery) is listed as a featured ingredient of the dish. Imagine if a theater advertised a bucket of popcorn as coming with popping oil.
The small plates are not a total loss — the moules frites for which Fgaier gained fame at Le Chardonnay are promising, though my frites were limp and soggy. The plentiful mussels, however, were tender, with a mild cream sauce. Better frites would make this an unqualified winner. It’s not really a small plate, though.
A Lyonnaise salad comprised of one slice of bacon (crumbled), one hard-boiled egg (halved), about a dozen matchstick fries, and a lot of greens, is $14.
Migrating over to dinner from an earlier version of the lunch menu, “Le burger” is juicy and blanketed with gooey gruyere. There are a whole lot of fries that come with it — thankfully crisp matchsticks this time — but the dish is steep at $15.
In the main courses category, a tender Moroccan lamb does lovely things with the funky sweet flavors of raisins and apricots; but at $27, the ratio of lamb to grains was too much in favor of a mound of plain couscous. The chicken fricassee’s graceful presentation immediately pleased the eye, and its bed of crisp potatoes and a complex white wine sauce helped to make it the tastiest dish I sampled, but even then, it’s hard to feel great about spending $22 on a boneless skinless chicken breast. And a fiddly style of pasta like garganelli deserves better than to be so overcooked as it was here, especially when made in-house.
If Merci were to embrace a Belle Époque vibe and run with absurdly rich cream sauces and buttery omelettes for dinner, I think people would come to it. Rich sauces and French character are where Merci currently succeeds the most. But the menu mostly glides over these dishes. I see customers gliding past, too.
Merci Bistro and Bar
10 W. Mifflin St.; 608-630-9222; mercibistrobar.com
11 am-2:30 pm and 4:30 pm-10 pm Mon.-Sat., bar open until 1 am; $5-$34
