Ultimately, Norris and Megyesi said the goal is to move to a 24-hour schedule, but in the meantime, both were proud to offer an option to people who want to go out to a late-night spot without alcohol and get a similar experience. With all of the nightlife packed into the area, Mutiny also offers something that many other spots don’t: an alcohol-free, all-ages venue that is open late.
So, we want to honor that spirit, you know?” I mean, in the middle of the West? I don’t know, just fierce, fierce people that settled this neighborhood. “So, a gay bar from the 70s to the 80s? Those guys were amazing. “There was Mike’s on Broadway for like 18 years, which was 18 years in, like, the 80s,” Norris said. “And there was the Logan bar, The Cherry Pit,” Megyesi said. “There was the bathhouse, the biggest bathhouse west of the Mississippi kind of deal.
The cafe is located on Broadway and Ellsworth, and it was almost hard to keep up with Norris and Megyesi as they discussed the LGBTQ history of the neighborhood. While creating a space for creativity to thrive is a staple of Mutiny’s culture, the owners emphasized that creating a place for anyone to stop in and feel comfortable exploring was critical.Įmbracing artists, writers, musicians, and an alternative community inherently means embracing LGBTQ people. “So, when some young kid comes in and talks about doing a zine, you just say, ‘Do it,’ you know, and they go, ‘What? I have a spot to do it?’” “We’ve watched kids come and go, ‘cause me and Matt got our start in doing zines a long time ago,” Norris said. “Any given moment, there’s probably someone around here drawing cartoons for a comic book,” Norris said.īoth emphasized that the shop thrives upon community and provides a space for artists of any background to feel empowered to share their work. Talking about their roles in elevating Mutiny to what it is today, they beamed and grinned, speaking about the community they cultivated, especially among Denver’s creatives. It’s clear talking to the co-owners that they are in awe of the work they do for a living.
“Before it was, ‘Get in, get out.’ Now it’s more, ‘Come on in. “That punk rock piece of him was, ‘F*ck you I won’t do what you tell me.’ On the flipside of that, we’ve opened it up, you know? People are encouraged to come in here and sit and look at a book or listen to something,” Megyesi said. As Megyesi said, “This place was a bookstore for 35 years, so there are books on these shelves that have been here for those 35 years,” but Jensen’s ‘f*ck you, get out’ attitude was something that the two co-owners wanted to change when they took the reigns. Jensen’s spirit and initial vision ignited what Mutiny is today. Jack Jensen was the previous owner, “one of the original punk rockers of Denver,” Norris said, when Mutiny was a bookstore with no seats and no coffee. Norris and Megyesi have worked together off-and-on for over 25 years, making zines in the early 90s, running coffee shops, hopping trains, and doing construction, before taking over ownership of Mutiny in 2013. That’s from the Ogden Theatre, when nobody in particular ran it.” I worked with Bluebird and stuff, so all these clip-on letters-those are from the Bluebird, Ogden, and Oriental Theater. That’s all the autographed stuff from way back in the 80s. You know, underground stuff,” Norris said, as he scanned the wall and pointed. Jim Norris and Matt Megyesi sat together, tucked away at the tail-end of Mutiny Information Cafe, the shop they both own, coffees in hand and surrounded by countless shelves of books, a piano, pinball machines and an array of items on the wall that would bode well in an “I Spy” book.
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