Denver Coffee House Menus: Paris on the Platte, Muddy’s and the Mercury Cafe

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Memories of Muddy’s come rushing back. The more artsy, suburban kids went to Paris. To even mention St. Marks in the same breath is an insult to those of us who were carving out our *safe* spaces when you could only buy Manic Panic on 13th street. Staying up drinking crowbar with others who felt a disconnect in their communities. When bring Emo was death rock, goth. Punk wasn’t on the radio it wasn’t a wall of t-shirts at your local hot topic.
If you weren’t there, don’t write or comment about it.

You could hear punk on the radio late on Saturday nights (if you weren't actually at a show) on the "Smash It Up" program on KGNU. Andy Dean had a show on KBCO (I think on Thursday evenings?) on which he played a mixture of Punk and New Wave. Of course, we weren't so fussy about genre names at that time... as long as it wasn't Top 40 or Hair Metal.

Ah! This days, ( nights), at Muddy's and The Merc...I miss them! Both helped immensely as I was going thru a divorce, a job that provided great exercise but that I still thought was demeaning, and was still trying to 'find' myself... Oh wait, that's not totally past tense... But the people that were there, the inclusion, the music, the good healthy food, what a great place to be! I'm on the coast in Mississippi now, there isn't anything even close to the love and togetherness we all felt for each other at that time, in that space...

Man, so many memories! Along with regular late nights and after school hours spent at Paris on the Platte, we also hung out at Mary & Lou's (the giant donuts!), City Cafe (? I think the outside was graffitied or painted with murals), got into Rock Island with borrowed IDs, and drank 3.2 and danced at Tracks. There was also a Chinese restaurant on Lincoln that my friends and I would go to because they never carded and we could order beer. Remember when Watson's opened and was supposed be a big deal? Nearby, there was a tiny piano bar I'd got to with an older friend and we'd drink Long Islands. All of this while in high school. All of these great memories, interspersed with those of my watching Teletunes or MTV late into the night so I could record all the episodes of The Young Ones on VHS. I was lucky enough to have a beat-up 1978 Toyota Corolla with wood-paneled sides to take me to my job at Le Central. Happy to see these menus and read everyone's reminiscences of the times. The nostalgia runs deep, my friends!

Oh, Muddys shameless bagel!! Always my go to.
Damn... what was in the Egyptian sunrise.

Hi Amanda! I now have it from a reliable source (another former cafe denizen) that an Egyptian Sunrise was Hibiscus tea + apple juice. I think we all feel better knowing that!

In reply to by Amanda J Armstrong (not verified)

I think it was essentially hibiscus tea and apple juice. I have one menu where it's 60 cents and another where it's a dollar, but it doesn't give the ingredients. There are a number of ex-waitrons who would remember but I don't know where to look them up.

Egyptian sunrise I think... was hibiscus tea, orange juice and grenadine

Hibiscus tea, Apple juice and an orange slice. I was close;)
But I’m all seriousness. Those places were monumental safe places for kids in the 90’s. I don’t know what we would have done without them. That was the Denver I knew and was raised in. Gritty, dirty, scary and awesome;)

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