PlanJam!From your screen to the scene

Since it opened in 2006, the Mercury Cafe has hosted many poetry, art and music events. Located in West Town at Chicago and Greenview in an old brick house, the Mercury offers great coffee, food and a fun meeting spot for you and your friends.

Come for lunch, dinner, coffee or one of the open mics. Mercury’s Italian style menu features coffee, sandwiches, salads and yummy pastries. Well-roasted coffee comes in espresso, macchiato and lattes ($2.85) or mochas ($3.35) with iced coffee in summer. Most sandwiches include chewy ciabatta rolls. My favorites are the Veggie Medici with pesto, provolone, artichoke hearts, lettuce and tomato and the Sorta Italian with salty, savory prosciutto, salami, pesto, basil and sun-dried tomato. The Caprese salad is the classic trio of tomato, mozzarella, and basil ($5.45) and the roast beef salad is a meal in itself. The inexpensive prices remain the same for lunch or dinner; you and your friends can have half a sandwich and soup $6.10 or half a sandwich and a salad or $6.35. Splurge and split a lamington, chocolate and coconut-covered yellow cake with raspberry jam or try a scone, brownie or cupcake. Loose-leaf tea flavors include rosehips, ginger and Chinese gunpowder green. Chocolate, Tahitian vanilla and hazelnut gelato complete the menu. Tahitian vanilla, with flecks of vanilla bean, is my favorite

The Mercury’s large, open layout with tables and couches and chairs lends itself to hanging out for hours. Groups and clubs sometimes meet up at the tables behind the library shelf in the back. You can take or leave library books from paperback fiction to revolutionary history and social commentaries. Each month new local art is for sale on the walls.

There are three regular open mics at Mercury Café. Poets meet here on the third and last Fridays of the month and an open mic for music, poetry, comedy and all types of performers takes place on the first Wednesday of each month. All open mics begin at 7pm and end at 9pm. Look for art openings and music acts on Mercury’s calendar. Many clubs meet here, including language groups and political meet-ups. The Mercury’s groups are good places to meet friends with similar musical and cultural interests.

You can also bring laptops and take advantage of Marcury Café’s free wireless Internet. If you and your coworkers want to order from the Mercury, call 312-455-9924 for bike delivery to any location between Damen, Lake, Halsted and North Avenue between 11am and 3pm.