We met Portia and Jared, and Ellen and Ron for dinner at Mercato. We had to sit in the front room because they haven't opened the back room for the evening. The front room is prettier, but much louder. Though, we did manage to keep up a lively conversation by adding to the volume of the room. Nobody else except for Catherine and I had been to Mercato before. Ron and Ellen live in Kent, Ct (for the summers), and Portia and Jared live in Catskill. It seemed like a reasonable distance for everybody as a place to eat. The food was basically good. I had the Orecchiette special, which tasted very good except for the sausage, either because it had gristle in it or because the casing was much too touch made it unpleasant to eat.