My husband, daughter and I captured one of the last lazy days of summer in mid-September on the charming riverfront deck at the River Merchant restaurant in Kent.

It was a warm, sunny, perfect evening and we came to this cozy-feeling restaurant with an appetite. It's a popular spot that accepts reservations only for parties of five or more.

About 20 minutes after we arrived — once we'd perused the restaurant's well-stocked wine shop and pondered what drinks we wanted at the bar — we were seated on the deck overlooking the Cuyahoga River and train tracks on the opposite bank.

The River Merchant, which owner Cameron Thomas opened in March 2020, features a mostly casual menu with flatbreads, sandwiches, soups and salads and a variety of appetizers called merchant bites. More upscale entrees include surf and turf (angus reserve sirloin fillet with two grilled shrimp), shrimp scampi, oven-roasted salmon, chicken Florentine and roasted vegetable orzo.

To start out our al fresco dinner, we shared fried rice-wrapped shrimp, an appetizer that included five long shrimp with a nice crunch from its rice wrappers. The shrimp paired nicely with a sweet and spicy Thai chili sauce for dipping and a tangy Asian slaw.

The River Merchant of course has an extensive wine list by the glass and bottle, with even more selections available to order from the retail area. The restaurant also offers 16 draft beers and an extensive list of signature cocktails and spirits.

I opted for a full-bodied Shoofly Shiraz from Australia, which cost $10 for a 6-ounce serving. The restaurant serves this wine as well as 17 others in 6- or 9-ounce servings and by the bottle.

My husband, Steve, went for The Trade cocktail ($10), made with Old Forester rye, Domaine De Canton liqueur, cherry bitters, maraschino cherries and fire-roasted, expressed orange peel. My daughter Elise enjoyed a delicious bourbon berry smash ($11), which featured bourbon, blackberry and strawberry syrups, pineapple juice and mint.

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Steve and I both wanted to keep our seafood mood going, so he opted for the salmon ($18) and I went for the Cajun crab sandwich ($17) — a seared crab cake with arugula, tomato, red onion and remoulade on a toasted wheat bun. My sandwich was a soft comfort food with a nice kick from the remoulade sauce, accompanied by seasoned pommes frites.

Steve reported that his salmon, one of his big favorites, was cooked to perfection. And his garlic mashed potatoes, which included some skins, were rich and creamy.

Elise opted for the Thai flatbread, which included hummus, Thai chili, broccoli slaw mix, wasabi ginger vinaigrette and crushed peanuts ($9,) adding chicken to it for $3. The full effect created a subtle Thai flavor.

The flatbread crust is imported from Italy, where the dough is made and flash-frozen before it's sent over.

The River Merchant's six varieties of flatbreads are cooked on a seasoned stone that's built into the restaurant's custom Woodstone Fire Deck oven. The gas-powered oven, which has wood-fired elements added, cooks at about 500 degrees with a real flame for the heat.

The custom oven is a "keystone" of the restaurant's kitchen, said Thomas, 32.

"You get to see the fire and the fire's part of the cooking process," said the owner, which gives the restaurant's fire-roasted foods a unique flavor.

Top-selling menu items include the restaurant's signature fire-roasted feta dip ($12), made with feta, roasted tomatoes, cream cheese and basil, served with toasted pita. The dip is roasted and the pita is toasted in the Fire Deck oven.

The top-selling entree is roasted vegetable orzo ($14), which Thomas said is versatile as a summer dish with chicken or shrimp added or as a winter dish with steak added.

The restaurant's cool black and white river merchant man logo can be seen on the menus and throughout the establishment, depicting an old-time merchant with a pack of wine on his back, smoking a pipe. The eatery's name was inspired by the spot's mercantile canal and railroad history.

No visit would be complete without checking out the River Merchant's retail wine market, which also sells craft beers. The wines, which have a good variety of price points, are nicely displayed by varietal and country or region.

Thomas, who does most of the wine buying, said California wines are the biggest geographic area represented in the shop. He also has recently gotten into Oregon and Washington wines, and sells a few Ohio wines.

Restaurant ownership runs in Thomas' family. His father, Charlie Thomas, has owned Ray's Place in Kent since 1977. Cameron Thomas grew up helping in that family business before going away to study business entrepreneurship at Eastern Michigan University and getting a master's degree in hospitality at Michigan State University in 2018.

He and his father purchased the former Riverside Wine and Imports, which sold specialty wine and beer and offered light fare, from Robert Morson in late 2018.

"The deal ended up being too good to pass up," Cameron Thomas said.

They spent 1½ years gutting and renovating the place, which had been unused since a fire shut it down in 2016. That included knocking out a wall and adding a 1,000-square-foot addition to the south side of the building, adding large windows and garage doors to create an open feel. They also reused the building's original deck material to extend the deck around the new addition.

The restaurant seats 90 inside and 60 outside. It's a great place to hang out, both outside and in the addition, which has nice river views and a big wraparound bar.

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The River Merchant offers food and drink happy hour specials from 3 to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday.

For our visit, we three were happy to eat, drink and bask in the beautiful river view, including watching kayakers. And I must admit, sitting right on the sloped bank of the river, covered with foliage, I wondered if folks ever lose a menu over the railing.

Thomas laughed when I asked, saying it's happened more than once. And, in fact, a woman once lost her wedding ring over the deck railing when it was dark outside. He quickly found it for her down the steep bank the next morning, with the help of a metal detector.

Arts and restaurant writer Kerry Clawson may be reached at 330-996-3527 or kclawson@thebeaconjournal.com.

Address: 911 N. Mantua St., Kent

Hours: 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. (brunch) and 4 to 9 p.m. Sunday

Reservations: For parties of five or more

Social media: The River Merchant on Facebook and Instagram