Photo by: Devin Pitts-Rogers
Strings of red-and-white bulbs illuminate the brick walls coated in fire-engine red paint.
Lampshades are draped in an array of interesting fabrics and dried chilies hang over the bar.
This is the décor at the Mercury Café, housed in the old Denver Post building at 2197 California St.
“Very much a community space,” waitress Aimee Godin said about the café and its list of events that reach out and embrace the community with impromptu theater, poetry readings and dance classes ranging from swing, to tango.
Thursday nights at 7 p.m. film are screened in the Jungle Room, where shadows of hanging vines evoke the right atmosphere of a rain forest.
On each Friday in October and on Halloween, a play “Afghanistan in the Age of Flowers” is being staged. Tickets are $10 at the door.
“We are open to group meetings from anyone. Like we have a group of astrologers meeting today. Then at 2 o’clock we have a wedding upstairs,” said Godin.
The menu is as eclectic as the calendar of events.
“We have a lot of quinoa on the menu instead of rice because we can grow it here. We have Elk because we can get Elk meat from the mountains in Colorado. We get our tofu from Denver Tofu Company, which is actually the state’s longest tofu company. This makes the menu more seasonal. If a fruit is not in season here, then we won’t have it on the menu,” explained Godin.
Breakfast and brunch menus offer daily specials in addition to the hotcakes, omelets, and regular specials.
“The Sunday brunch is the most intensive menu,” said Godin. On a typical Sunday, more than a dozen entrees are offered, ranging in price from $8-$14. A popular dish is the Vegetable Florentine with two poached eggs on a thick piece of freshly baked bread and covered with Hollandaise sauce. The dish is $9.The breakfast menu includes a California omelet for $10. Bacon, avocado, onion, mushrooms, and cheddar cheese are folded into the three beaten eggs.
The hot cakes are made from whole grains or can be gluten free. The apple walnut cakes cost $7.
“I’m so excited because I know this butter is organic,” Alaina Rook, a sophomore and English major at DU, said when she took a bite of her Apple Walnut Hot Cakes. “Everything on this plate is so natural and fresh. I can actually see chunks of apple in my pancakes, and this omelet is to die for. You will never eat another Nelson omelet again.”
“They are very accommodating,” Rook said. She ordered a half-omelet and one hot cake when she could not make up her mind between the two.
The hours at the Mercury Café vary throughout the week. Tuesday-Friday doors are open for dinner from 5:30-11 p.m. Saturday and Sunday brunch is served from 9 a.m.- 3 p.m. The kitchen re-opens at 5:30 until 11 p.m.
Each night, and from 3-5:30 when the kitchen is closed, the bar remains open to serve drinks, deserts, and salads until the late hours of one or two in the morning.
“All ages are welcome. We are aggressive about carding…we are totally safe. But we are open to anyone,” said Godin.
Mercury Café has a full calendar of events that can be viewed online along with their menu.
