Mercury Cafe — Restaurant in Denver

The venue ownership has changed and it's visible. What makes this caffe so exclusive was how used to function, the romantic none commercial way it was organized. Usually on Saturday night there would be bunch of interesting things happening in the piano salon,open Mike, poetry, piano playing, it was beautiful. Yesterday I am my friends decided to stop by and we badly surprised. From the outside it looks like it was closed, one person went inside to see,but looking from outside it seams closed and abandoned. It was open. We walk in and the door that usually goes up the stairs on the right side was closed. So we turn left and enter the piano salon,which was dark and empty and cold. From there we entered the side of the restaurant which was open but there was no kitchen, so you couldn't order food, there was only the bar open to drink. It was Cold. We went upstairs from the restaurant, there was 5$ to get up. They removed all the chairs on the side and put a band to play. Mediocre band, nothing that I would go to see unless on heavy drugs, which I don't use. No offense 😉 So nothing that I would repeat. The top wasn't heated properly. They had very tiny bar on the bottom as usual, no server's and no service. We went to the bar where two girls looking very lost and indigenous ignore me and my friends. We stayed there for some time, nobody even said hello. They was water cups and we poor ourselves water. Self-service! I tried to ask the "door"(which was collecting money for entering up) dude about the program of the Venue. He didn't have any clear answers, adding that he look there like he fail from a construction project 😅❄️ I was trying to understand about the events-which were not existing nor clear, when the bartender come and break down crying because she didn't have alcohol to sell!!! I was discharged as useless bagg and they both focus on their reality. The venue was very cold. Just poor service overall. In the past even the terrible wine they were serving there, everyone was kind,polite and friendly. Just the environment is Left. The culture and the adventure of this place has...

July 2021 - Cool, laid back, Denver mainstay with 30 year history, about to come under new ownership. Great fun to see intimate performances here and has a wide variety of unusual entertainment. Can park Sunday evenings across the street for $3.50. Wanted to support this struggling favorite, so recently came down to attend swing lesson/live band (got all dressed up and looked forward to it for a month), only to be turned away at the door due to them requiring vaccination cards, which we did not have with us. I totally respect that requirement but it says that nowhere on their website and was a huge disappointment for our group. We decided to eat dinner there instead, since we were already there. Atmosphere very cool and appreciate commitment to environment. However, the food is pretty sad indeed, especially for the price. I had the very small, totally unflavored pasta dish with boring vegetables and overcooked breaded tofu for $18. Could easily have cooked the same at home. Everyone in our group was highly disappointed with the food, though I really appreciate that they have vegetarian offerings. Service on this occasion was good until it took over an hour to receive our check on a Sunday at 6pm. Also, be aware they only take local checks, Venmo, cash. No problem there, had I known in advance, except this is also not stated on their website. Hopefully the Merc will see some improvement under new ownership because I really do want this place to stay around.

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Came here for dance classes on Sunday which was awesome. The instructors were funny, kind and patient (which was awesome because I did not do very well at all.) All the people in the 2 classes were very kind as well, although you could tell some of them were kind of frustrated dancing with someone who couldn't, but I don't blame them - they were all extremely helpful and welcoming though. We switched partners often which was really great for meeting people and socializing. You also have the option of not switching partners if you don't want to. There was a live band at the end and tons more people came to dance.

The place is very busy with so much going on upstairs and downstairs. Very kitschy. I caught a live band downstairs as well as poetry. Good beer on tap, I didn't try any cocktails. They do take cards now so you don't have to have cash. Between the dance lessons and social dance we got hungry so went downstairs again for food. Food was terrible. Like it was quickly thrown together the day before and heated up, very dry, kinda burnt, not very sizeable or flavorful. The waitress wasn't very helpful when I asked questions about the menu and our bill was wrong and had an extra charge on it, but that was taken care of.

I want to go back for dance lessons and some of their other events that sound up my alley, but definitely won't get food and not really a place I'd hang out at just to grab...