It was a typically busy Friday night shift for Mercury Cafe bartender Bekah Nigro.
She was wiping down glasses, closing out tabs, and trying to understand customers’ orders over the wild combination of music coming from the sprawling cafe’s three stages.
But that night, something else was on Nigro’s mind. Just outside the Mercury, the cafe’s employee union was calling for customers to boycott the Denver institution. Nigro is technically a member of the union, yet she and others kept working inside.
The Mercury Cafe opened almost 50 years ago and became a Denver icon — a bar, restaurant and concert venue known for its eclectic events. But for more than a year, it has been locked in a labor dispute between its new ownership and its recently formed union.
“It's exhausting and it's been so terrible to deal with because anytime I even go out into public and I mentioned that I work at Mercury Cafe, it comes up and I have to explain to someone again what's going on,” Nigro said. “And it just sucks.”
In October, the Mercury Cafe Union called for a boycott of the Five Points establishment, alleging that its new owners have refused to negotiate and have illegally fired staff. Union members say the ongoing boycott will force the owners to return to the bargaining table and finalize a contract.
However, current employees, many of whom are represented by the union, say the boycott is harming those still working at the Mercury Cafe. Some worry that the long-lived business is on its last legs. And the new owners are thinking about making a big change.
It started with a sale
Marilyn Megenity, who founded the Mercury Cafe in 1975, announced in 2021 that she would sell the iconic business. Local tech entrepreneur Danny Newman’s ears perked up.
Newman grew up going to the Mercury Cafe as a Denver School of the Arts student. He worshipped the place and its crowd as what made Denver "uniquely cool.” As an adult, he has developed a penchant for purchasing and preserving Denver landmarks like My Brother’s Bar. He thought he was uniquely qualified to become the Mercury Cafe’s new caretaker.
Newman bid $2 million for the Mercury Cafe— joined by his wife, Christy Kruzick, as well as business partner Austin Gayer and Denver developer Charles Woolley.
Newman’s team won a competitive bidding process, which culminated in a vote by Megenity and “longtime community members.”
Megenity said she was looking for a buyer who would preserve the spirit of her 50-year-old business. She wanted the new owner to keep offering the same events, like weekly tarot readings and political meetups, while continuing to cater to community artists and musicians.
What ultimately swayed Megenity was Newman’s promise to preserve that spirit.
That promise was hard to keep
Newman said the purchase was an effort to save a community institution, but now he’s having regrets.
“I wish I could have come in here and just done this all totally anonymously,” Newman said.
Newman’s Mercury Cafe is still hosting some of the same events Megenity’s Mercury Cafe would. But running the business the same way has proven difficult, he said.
“I literally just was doing things exactly as they were and it was not bringing in enough,” Newman said. “We still don't, because we just bring in less than it costs us to maintain this place.”
Financial documents shared with Denverite by Newman show the Mercury Cafe is operating at a deficit. In Newman’s first full year of ownership, the Mercury Cafe reported six-figure losses — due in part to relatively high spending on staffing. While restaurants typically spend 20 to 30 percent of their expenses on staffing, the Mercury Cafe’s staff accounted for nearly 60 percent of its expenses in 2022.
Newman tried to save money by cutting employees with low hours and contracting with a third party to run the kitchen. Now he says he should have made those changes earlier.
“I think it would've made sense to look at this a little bit more like a business and not as just a place that needed to be maintained at whatever cost for an extended period of time,” Newman said.
The business cut its deficit in half in 2023, but it came at the cost of worker morale — and likely spurred on the unionization effort.
The union's founding members don't work at the Mercury Cafe anymore, but many want to return
Nearly everyone involved in the labor dispute told Denverite that they “love the Merc.” The divide is over how to keep this longstanding business alive.
In August 2023, the staff voted on whether to form a union with Communications Workers of America Local 7777. Out of 16 eligible employees, 10 cast ballots, and eight supported forming the union.
With the successful union election, ownership was federally mandated to negotiate a contract with a bargaining committee. But no contract has been signed.
A year and a half later, none of the union’s founding members work at the Mercury Cafe anymore. Some former employees have told the National Labor Relations Board that they were illegally terminated from their jobs — a claim that Mercury Cafe owners have disputed.
Meanwhile, those former employees are still operating as the Mercury Cafe Union, even as they wait to see if federal authorities will reinstate their jobs.
“Our hearts are here at the Mercury Cafe and that's what we stand for,” said Katie Rayne, a former employee and union member. “I personally would like to come back with changing conditions.”
Among the union’s demands are a minimum wage of $21 an hour, regularly scheduled shifts, overtime for unexpected late nights, and exploring options for health insurance, sick leave and paid vacation. Some current employees make Denver’s minimum wage — currently $18.29, or more with tips.
“I put up with terrible conditions for three years before Anna approached me about unionization,” Rayne said. “We were experiencing another round of the same B.S., which was mass firing, lack of communication, not stocked food or drink, just terrible mismanagement, violating health codes, safety concerns, going unmet, unheard, unacknowledged.”
The city has conducted seven health inspections of the Mercury Cafe since 2022. Several noted minor health code violations, but none drew serious action from the city.
Negotiations broke down in August and haven’t resumed. While the union has made several attempts to restart talks, Mercury Cafe owners said they wouldn’t continue unless the bargaining committee sends a full list of demands and tells supporters to stop vandalizing the property. The union says it has already done so.
Current and former employees are facing off
While current employees are members of the union, many do not feel a connection to the group.
“Nobody actually comes in and speaks to the people who are actually working here, nobody from the union,” said Mady Averill, a current employee. “It feels like they're keeping secrets from us. The people who are actually the active union employees of the Mercury Cafe, I feel like we're definitely in the dark.”
They may hold the most sway with management, but many of the Merc’s current crew don’t want to get involved with the union negotiations.
“I think if it would be something that could quickly put this situation to rest, I might be willing to participate in a bargaining meeting,” Nigro said.
The boycott has further divided Mercury Cafe workers
The Mercury Cafe Union called for patrons to boycott the Mercury Cafe in late October, hoping it would force the owners to negotiate. Unlike for a strike, the union was not required to vote on the action, so current employees weren’t given a say.
Union organizers said the boycott was authorized without the consent of the full union because attempts to reach current employees and management went unanswered.
“It was a difficult decision,” said Communication Workers of America Local 7777 President Anthony Scorzo. “We felt like we had to do something because we were being ignored, and honestly, we're still being ignored.”
The union says it doesn’t want to put the Merc out of business. But some current employees say it’s pushing the institution toward the edge.
“They say they're trying not to hurt the business or the jobs of anybody, but I can tell you every one of [the current employees’] paychecks is smaller because of the fewer people showing up here,” said Alex Rizek, who books events at the café.
Rizek said business has been slow during the boycott, and multiple artists have cancelled shows at the venue. In addition, several current staff members told Denverite that union supporters have vandalized the building, harassed employees and disrupted events at the Mercury Cafe.
The union has denounced the vandalization and characterized it as an unintended consequence of the labor movement gaining traction.
“We never could have predicted how people would respond or react. We weren't prepared for anyone to vandalize the space,” McGee said.
With the boycott, Newman expects the deficit to grow again, and he says he can’t keep making it up with his own money.
“That's another thing I feel like potentially been a little bit misunderstood. It’s not like I'm coming in with piles of cash for these things,” he said. “It's not me with just some mountains of infinite cash or anything like that.”
Union stewards said they have their own regrets about the ongoing boycott. On the night the union rallied outside the venue, Anna McGee, one of the union’s founding organizers, said they would raise money to help current employees.
“We are really hoping to move forward and bridge our gaps of communication because we want people to see that we are on the same team and that we are stronger together and that with our unified voices we can make this place even better and that people can be fairly compensated and not have to fully rely on tips for a living wage,” McGee said.
McGee later told Denverite that they hadn’t yet raised enough money to distribute to the affected employees. In early December, the union raised about $45.
Some current employees have no plans to accept an olive branch.
“I don't want anything to do with these people,” Averill said. “They've hurt me in so many ways, hurt us in so many ways. I feel like it's all a facade.”
Meanwhile, union members say that only a unified front will be effective in negotiations.
“It's hard when we don't have solidarity, when we don't have full solidarity and unfortunately with labor disputes and labor struggles, it's very divisive,” McGee said.
The union has painted an ugly picture of Newman and company’s ownership
Scorzo, the CWA 7777 president, blamed Newman for the breakdown in negotiations, saying he “wasn’t taking it seriously” and pitted employees against each other.
“It's Danny who's the bad guy,” Scorzo said. “He's pitted these workers against each other. He turned them anti-union, made them think these people are taking money out of your pocket when in reality, it's Danny who's doing that.”
Some current employees disagree. One of them, Nigro, pushed back on the claim that she had been turned “anti-union,” stating she just doesn’t see a need for one at the Mercury Cafe.
“I don't think that [Newman] is a perfect employer by any means, but I don't think any of us are perfect,” Nigro said. “I think he's trying his best and really cares about all of us and would like to put this to rest in some way if he can.”
Newman has defended his actions, saying there was a learning curve with managing the Mercury Cafe, and insists he didn’t do anything illegal or immoral.
“I know that I've done nothing wrong. I've only been a good person. I've only done the right thing here,” he said.
This could end with the Merc changing hands again
Megenity has come to regret selling the Mercury Cafe to Newman and company.
“They bought a trophy. They're rich techie guys and they bought themselves a trophy and they had no idea that you had to take care of it because the only work I think they've ever done is tech work,” she said.
But, Megenity, who described herself as an anarchist and a progressive, supported the formation of the union, but now disagrees with calling for a boycott.
“I think unions are really important, and yet they don't have anything to lose. And the people who are working there now have something to lose,” she said.
Megenity said she believes fighting ownership is a lost cause. Instead, she hopes current employees and former employees, including those who worked there before the union was formed, can come together to raise funds and turn the Mercury Cafe into a worker-owned collective.
“I think worker-owned in this situation is better than union because the union is in a situation now of ‘us and them’ and boy, that's a negative place to be working,” she said.
Newman disagrees with Megenity’s characterization of his ownership, but agrees with her on one thing: The Mercury Cafe belongs in the hands of its employees and community members.
“We are really exploring the path of what a true cooperative looks like, so community-owned, artist-owned, employee-owned, cooperative,” he said. “And so that's what I always thought we would ultimately get to.”
2025 will be the Mercury Cafe’s 50th birthday — a fitting time to put the iconic landmark into the hands of workers, Newman said. He hopes the change would keep the Merc alive for another 50 years.
