Mutiny Information Cafe Closing Denver Location, Moving to Englewood

The news broke on social media on August 7: Mutiny Information Cafe is moving, not only from the Baker neighborhood, but out of Denver. It will be closing at its longtime home at 2 South Broadway on September 22, and re-opening on October 4 at its new location, 3483 South Broadway in Englewood.

"It's a fantastic city to work with," says Mutiny co-owner Jim Norris. "We're just over the moon, working with a city government that cares about small business coming into their town. It's night and day compared to Denver."

It's true that the sailing for Mutiny has not always been smooth. "It's been relentlessly weird for years," Norris admits, perhaps most notably back in September 2022, when Denver seized the property for unpaid taxes. That problem was solved courtesy of Mutiny fans across the city, who joined together to raise over $50K in a single day to help keep Mutiny afloat.

But despite that success, and all the public love it represents, there's one thing Mutiny can't survive: higher rents.

"I always said they'd have to carry me out of here in a pine box," Norris jokes. "But the landlords put the building up for sale, and based on the numbers, there's just no way we could do it."

Norris says this move has nothing at all to do with the sale of the Mutiny Trinidad store, which happened almost a year ago. "It was always the plan to start that with some local folks and then sell it to them," he says. "Trinidad is an interesting place. I've never seen a town so hell-bent on not changing.

"That store is doing much better now that the Satanic communists from up in Denver aren't part of it," he laughs.

But the store at 2 South Broadway seemed safe — until it went up for sale. Norris says he holds no grudge against the family who owned it for years for finally selling. "They were always good to us," he says. "And we've known for a few months they were doing it, so we saw the train coming, you know?"

He and his team had some time to prepare, looking at other sites around town. "We just weren't finding anything good. Then, literally when I was at the end of my rope — I mean, we were going to call it quits. We had to. I even told my coffee roaster that I thought we were closing up shop. But then, like an hour and half later, Matt [co-owner Megyesi] called and said he'd stumbled into this place down by Fellow Traveler that wasn't really on the market yet," Norris says. "It's perfect for what we need."

While the space is slightly smaller than the one Mutiny is vacating, the owners are going to take the opportunity to focus on "coffee, comics, and community," Norris says. "A lot less of the used books. Some of the stuff on our shelves now were there back when it was Ichabod's Books. I'd got rid of a lot of those old books when I opened up the back so we could do live entertainment."

There will still be some books — especially work by local authors and local zines as well as "quality art books, left-wing literature collections," Norris says. "We're still going to carry books — just the important stuff. We won't be the place where you can find 500 Tom Clancy novels, you know?" Mutiny will be doing a 50-percent-off sale until September 22 in order to clear the shelves before the move.

Norris promises that Mutiny will be "keeping all the cool stuff" — the pinball, the photo booth and, most important, the sense of community. The new location, with a fully functional basement space for events and concerts, will only enhance that. "It's going to be a great place for some really groovy stuff," Norris says. "I'm still going to book shows. I can't imagine not doing that."

Norris adds that there will still be a rack devoted to albums from local bands, as well. "My phone's been blowing up with people that want to come play, so we'll be filling up the schedule with amazing stuff at our current location until we leave. And then continuing that in our new space."

Still, it's the end of an era for Broadway. "It was time to go," Norris says with a hint of sadness. "The neighborhood's different now. But we have lots of cool stuff planned before we go. Big plans for the moving-out day. We're going to go out with a bit of a wink and a nod to Denver."

Check out the half-price books — and all the other cool stuff — at Mutiny's 2 South Broadway location through September 22. Keep up to date on when they'll reopen at 3483 South Broadway on the store's website.