Catch a Falling Star: Mercury Cafe Is Back on the Market

The Mercury Cafe is for sale, again. Perhaps the stars weren't aligned after all. Or maybe COVID just pushed the world out of orbit.

At 5:15 a.m. on June 22, 2021, Marilyn Megenity, the longtime proprietor of the Mercury Cafe, sat down with Danny Newman and the other partners buying the business and the property she'd bought twenty years earlier at 2199 California Street. "The stars were great," she said of the time she chose for the closing.

She'd bought the building for $157,000 in 1990 and moved the latest iteration of the restaurant/club she'd been running since 1975 into the space. She turned it into a cultural clearinghouse for the city, the place where people went to get married, hold a memorial, read their poetry, just celebrate a night on the town.

She wound up selling it for $2.07 million, which allowed her to retire and take care of her family. But more important, she was able to keep the Merc in the greater Denver family. "We did community rituals to find the right people to draw the right people in," Megenity said. "I feel really, really fortunate that I had people to choose from."

Danny Newman felt fortunate, too. "When we saw that the Merc was for sale, we were so excited," he recalls. "Growing up, it was one of our favorite places in town. ... We were dedicated to keeping everything that Marilyn had created."

By then, the pandemic was fifteen months old, and My Brother's Bar, another Denver institution that Newman and his family had bought in 2017, had survived all those pivots. Danny and his wife, Christy, felt ready to throw themselves into a new project.

But it turned out that family matters affected the Mercury deal, too. After thinking they couldn't have a child, Danny and Christy learned they were expecting. "That kind of changed everything," he remembers. "Our plan was: We don't have a kid, let's put our time and energy into this Mercury baby."

They didn't have the time they needed, or the energy the project demanded. They were still coping with the demands of COVID, as well as changes in the neighborhood, including homeless encampments surrounding the Merc.

When Mayor Michael Johnston took over, he moved those encampments out of that part of downtown, but other challenges remained — including the difficulties of running a restaurant anywhere these days. They worked through a unionization effort, and replaced managers until they found a fit with Gio from Uptown & Humboldt.

Then, about three months ago, a "fairly life-changing medical emergency in the family changed what we needed to prioritize," Newman says.

While Megenity told him that "some big, positive things were coming our way in August," they had yet to arrive.

So Newman began reaching out to "inner-circle folks," he says, "seeing if they would be in a position to take over in any position...management, operations, even buying the whole thing."

Whatever it takes to save the Merc. The neighborhood is looking better these days; not only are there no encampments, but nearby businesses are coming back. The Triangle, which closed in October, reopened in May as Olympus. The partners who run the Lobby just bought their building as an investment in the future.

Newman has other investments, too, including an old church he just bought and My Brother's, but this deal is different. He thinks it's time for a "new generation" to rise at the Mercury.

As word started leaking out this week that the Mercury was available — the asking price is $2.5 million, although Newman says he'd be happy just leasing the place to someone who could put in the time it needs — he broke the news to his staff and then reached out to Megenity.

"I think the future is really bright for the Mercury," she'd said after closing the last sale. "I think having some young, enthusiastic energy excited about taking care of the Mercury can only mean the Mercury is going to flourish."

Wish upon that star.