The nonstop construction around the city can be overwhelming — but one step inside the Mercury Cafe is like a step back into a calmer time. That's not to say that the restaurant and multi-stage venue's packed calendar of live concerts, lindy-hop lessons, movie nights, dance parties and theater productions isn't just as wild as the world outside. Settle into a wooden booth in the Rose Room for a piano-bar cocktail-hour experience, wander upstairs for a tango class or grab a table in the Jungle Room for a poetry performance; whatever kind of entertainment you're into, the Merc's got it. A fortress of good feelings and a kinder, gentler Denver atmosphere establish the decades-old Merc — and its owner/operator/Jill-of-all-trades Marilyn Megenity — as part of Denver's root system, which keeps the city firmly planted even as it soars as one of the country's hottest destinations.