Tracy Ross
Reporter
JAMESTOWN — “All we need is 1.5 million people to give one dollar each and we can save this place,” said Rainbow Shultz, sitting in front of the Jamestown Mercantile on a breezy Thursday in late May. And somehow that seems more feasible than waiting around for a “crazy aunt” with a bucket of cash to save the day.
It was several weeks after Shultz, chef/owner of the Jamestown Mercantile Cafe, and four of her friends formed a nonprofit to try to buy the building that houses the cafe before “someone with a suitcase full of cash sweeps in,” she said. Their 501(c)(3) is called The Jamestown Home for Wayward Artists, Pirates and the Somewhat Feral. The founders all live in or near the tiny community of Jamestown about 14 miles up Olde Stage Road from Boulder and anchor their lives to the roughly 130-year-old building that houses the only restaurant in town, the only bar in town and a music venue so popular with bands she turns down about half asking to play there — who’d do so happily without pay.
Suddenly, things were looking up, since the owner of the building, Loupee Burton Jr., had signed a letter of intent giving them exclusivity to purchase for the next 11 months. Burton Jr. signed a letter of intent giving them 11 months to exercise on the exclusive right to buy the property for $1.5 million They started May 1 and so far have raised around $33,000 or 2.2% of the asking price for the the building, which houses the Merc plus four apartments, and two buildings next door, both rented to local artists
The money has come from 130 donors — average it out and that’s around $250 each. But Shultz said most are giving between $100 and $250 (“a huge and generous donation knowing that a lot of the donors are in similar financial positions I’m in”). One gave $15,000 and one gave $2 (“from Australia!“), she said. She also received a commitment from someone with serious fundraising potential who holds a special place for the Merc in his heart.
Gregory Alan Isakov has been playing there since his open-mic days in the early 2000s when he was a student of horticulture at Naropa College (now University). He still makes the occasional appearance. These days he sells the Merc veggies from his Starling Farm east of Boulder. And he’s going to donate $1 from each ticket he sells for shows he’ll perform over the summer, minus the ones he plays with the Colorado Symphony.
Rainbow Shultz preps dinner Thursday at the Jamestown Mercantile Cafe, where she’s been chef/owner since 2009. Fans come from near and far for dishes like mussels in green apple-and-fennel broth, garlic shrimp in Spanish paprika cream or fettuccini with clam sauce and crispy prosciutto — all of which were on the menu in May. (Tracy Ross, The Colorado Sun)Shultz said that could total anywhere from $3,000 to $20,000 — a small amount, but it’ll help toward the goal. A bigger threat has already been thwarted — the nonprofit was keeping its mission quiet until Isakov signed on, “because we were kind of at risk that someone would just show up with a suitcase full of cash and buy it if we were telling everyone it was for sale.”
Why would that be problematic?
Character, community and the “living room aspect” of the funky space with peeling paint, slanted floors and cluttered shelves lined with keepsakes dating back decades. A giant wood-carved ape gazes down on the action. A weird psychedelic painting of a half-naked woman overlooks a cozy nook where kids’ toys sit on a table. Grainy photos show ghosts of the Mercantile past. Shultz said she holds onto all of it because “someone gave it to us. Why would we throw it out?”
Another reason she can’t let go: “I have operated this place for like 20 years and officially bought it 16 years ago,” she said. Before she had a paid gig, she was filling in while attending grad school at University of Colorado and all these years later, she said she still “almost cries” every time she talks about the first time she walked through the door, in her 20s.
It was the 90s. She was a Phish head influenced by The Grateful Dead, and she believed in having fun.
“But the Merc was a different inspiration,” she said. “I walked in and saw all the Jamestown folks dancing on the tables. They were so rowdy. I was a young kid and saw there was a place outside of Dead or Phish tours where people were really being themselves, and I loved it.”
A nook filled with old and new at the Jamestown Mercantile in Boulder County. “People can come in and drink water for six hours, listen to music, dance and meet their neighbors,” chef/owner Rainbow Shultz said. “There’s no pressure of, like, hey, we gotta turn a table. It’s like, this is our space. Here comes a regular.” (Tracy Ross, The Colorado Sun)She built the Merc into a restaurant known for its delicious food that draws people from Boulder, Denver and faraway places. The Merc is a regular stop on Saturday mornings for hordes of road bikers huffing their way up Left Hand Canyon along South St. Vrain Creek, then James Creek, then Little James Creek into the town of around 300 residents. Families pack Elysian Park across the street eating pizza and listening to live music nights all summer. They’re open year-round, five days a week, even when the outsiders are gone and winter is going full bore.
A beer is $5, a glass of wine is $8. You can get a half plate of a dinner including mussels in green apple and fennel broth, garlic shrimp in Spanish paprika cream, chicken Milanese with lemon cream, or fettuccini with clam sauce and crispy prosciutto — all on the menu Thursday night — for around $15 to $20 a plate. The Merc itself is a “pirate ship” for everyone who works there, “and we’re all pirates,” Shultz said.
But there’s a long way to go toward raising the money to save it, and the worst-case scenario if the wrong person buys it is that it’s “no longer a place where anyone can come get community any time that the doors are open,” she said.
The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1989, so it can’t be torn down. But the inside could turn into anything, she said.
“And whether it turns into high-end condos or a traditional restaurant where you have to spend money to come spend time there, the threat is that the community center and living room of our area would go away. Without that, we have lost a huge asset in our lives in the mountains.”
Section by Tracy Ross | Reporter
➔ Visit Save the Merc to donate
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Section by Tamara Chuang | Business/Technology Reporter
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