Mush Love: Plant Magic Cafe Is Much More Than a Coffee Shop

Since opening in Uptown six months ago, Plant Magic Cafe has served as a gathering place for supporters of using a certain plant for medicinal purposes. And if there was any question about which plant they’re focused on, two inflatable mushrooms on the street-side courtyard offer an answer and act as a beacon for mushroom believers.

Plant Magic is just the first step in creating a mushroom haven, which already includes a nonprofit arm,the Heart Quarters. The building itself, dubbed Discovery House, will eventually include the cafe, a bed-and-breakfast, and a holistic health and event space — all centered around the magic of mushrooms.

The historic Cranmer Sterling building, designed by architect Frank Edbrooke at 925 East 17th Avenue, formerly housed law offices. Meaghan Richmond moved to Denver from Breckenridge in search of a multi-use space to use as a retreat center, and found the 5,583-square-foot home that came pre-zoned for an accessory coffee shop. Although she'd worked as a server before, Richmond didn't have much experience in food and beverage, so she enlisted the help of cafe manager Meghan Rose and the group's chief financial officer, Taylor Amason, to open the cafe before the zoning expired and by the fall solstice, on September 22 last year.

“Our mission is to serve an experience with every cup," says Amason. "The cafe specializes in plant-based beverages like adaptogenic mushroom coffee infusions, healthy non-caffeinated teas and lattes, and ceremonial-grade cacao sourced directly from a medicine family farm in Guatemala." It also serves gluten-free and vegetarian soups and burritos, pastries, and coffee from local chain Dazbog.
When redoing the interior, the team embraced the building’s natural light, adding a quaint coffee bar and open kitchen. There is a variety of seating on the main floor, including small tables perfect for conversations or work sessions, and larger tables for meetings or board games, with additional outdoor seating and a porch swing.

The goal was to create a sensory experience. “When you walk in, you’re enchanted," Richmond notes. "The smell of incense is the first thing that activates your senses and drops you into a space that’s calming and serene."

The walls are adorned with Balinese, Oaxacan and Peruvian art that Richmond collected over years of travel. Turkish chandeliers and mushroom lamps give it an eclectic and comfortable feeling, like being inside of someone’s home. There are also goods and imports for sale, such as crystals, gems, mala beads and other handmade items.

In addition to serving coffee, “the cafe promotes education, harm reduction, conscious consumption and community engagement in the psychedelic space,” says Amason. Plant Magic was an unofficial headquarters for the supporters of Proposition 122, which called for decriminalizing the possession of psilocybin and other naturally occurring psychedelic drugs; the measure passed in the November election.

Richmond describes Plant Magic as an “interactive gateway,” offering information and resources for the healing power of plants — though it does not intend to offer psilocybin mushrooms or other decriminalized plant medicines at the cafe. “We’re deemed a ‘heart-quarters’ for the psychedelic activist community,” she adds, a term that inspired the name for the nonprofit. “Plant Magic Cafe is our public portal and access point to share about the magic of plants and open the minds and hearts of Denver." So far, about 900 people have signed the guest book and expressed interest in learning more about the movement.
Richmond began her journey with psychedelics in 2012 during a visit to Peru, but it wasn’t until a car accident and subsequent life flight in 2015 that she devoted herself to the world of plant medicine. Turning to plants to aid in her recovery “certainly helped me recalibrate and realign,” Richmond reflects. Two years ago, she co-founded an ayahuasca church, Sanctuary of the Sovereign Heart, where she leads others in the ceremonial ingestion of the South American hallucinogenic.

"The upstairs offices will be a place where Eastern and Western healing practices are bridged to house a community psychedelic resource center," Richmond notes. The offices, which will host shamanic medicine practitioners, licensed therapists and a legal and medical advisory board during the day; there are also plans for the space to function as a bed and breakfast in the future.

Plant Magic has already started hosting events, like donation-based yoga and sound bath workshops, and the nonprofit is planning a series of lectures during Mushroom March, all culminating with the grand opening of the Discovery House on April 22, Earth Day.

But in the meantime, the cafe offers a welcome, tranquil space for mush-believers and non-believers alike.

Plant Magic Cafe is located at 925 East 17th Avenue and is open from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. daily. For more information, visit plantmagiccafe.com.