The Mercury
• 101, 550 - 17 Ave SW | Calgary, AB | T2S 0B1
Average User Rating:
5.97/10
5.97/10
Recommended by:
33%
33%
Sort Reviews by:
"Hip lounge and music"
Henry
June 2011 — "The Mercury is one of many lounges and night spots to pick from on Calgary's popular 17th Ave or what's become known as the Red Mile It is situation towards the east end across the street from the Shell gas station and next to the Ship & Anchor pub. It has a very reserved exterior and could easily be missed if not looking closely. The entrance is just a large wooden door without any kind of bright signage but it is a little gem in terms of lounge experiences. The crowd here is a little more upscale as well as older. There is a small dance floor with a DJ spinning lots of music from the 90's. The lounge itself is actually very small and narrow and sometimes it can be quite the hassle trying to get service or order a drink. On the plus side there is a large patio area on the west end of the lounge to relax and have a few drinks with friends."
User Rating
6.80/10
6.80/10
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"Great Food"
Danielle
July 2008 — "My girlfriend and I went to the Mercury for dinner and drinks on a Friday night. It was a little windy so the patio was deserted which didn't bother us at all. The patio is one of the best in the city. Done in dark hardwood with leather booths and fireplaces. The smell and noise of 17th did not bother me at all. The menu is a little on the expensive side but these days in downtown/17th ave Calgary I would be surpirsed to find dinner for less. My girlfriend and I both had the Tuna Nicose Salad and shared the Bruschetta. Both were fantastic. The Nicose salad was not covered in the creamy often bland dressing that other restaurants use, but instead had a light red wine vinagrette. Their Bruschetta was different but fantastic. Our waitress was prompt and polite, the food was fast too. The only down side was later when we moved inside. The service was still great with our new waitress, but the atmosphere changed into one of those nite club meatmarket attitudes so we left and went to a different lounge to relax. I would absolutely return here for the food and service or even if I am a nite club sort of mood."
User Rating
9/10
9/10
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"The new M - pants I say"Kevin
December 2007 — "I visited the Merc a few months ago...and what I thought was going to be a brilliant evening turned into an expletive I shant utter. It used to be a fantastic hangout when it was in its original location. Beautiful people used to abound and the atmosphere was absolutely stellar. Those times are long gone and unfortunately the Merc no longer has any of the emotion it used to have. The weekends bring the attitude from the burbs in so I would suggest that if you have to go, head there during the week not the weekend...you might find something of the old chic charm simmering in the room. "
User Rating
2.40/10
2.40/10
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"finally, a place with class"
jared
August 2007 — "many calgarians seem to detest a place that doesn't have $3 beer and a rock band playing cover tunes, which is why this place often receives nasty reviews. with seventeenth avenue just hurting with awful places like tequila and melrose, it's glad to see this place cleaned up and showing a bit of style that's different from everything else in this city.
the service is above average, the server was nice and attentive but a bit slow because she was waiting on 10 other tables. this is calgary, oil companies bog down our labour force (amongst other things), so i don't really care. i really like that the server was subdued; instead of being completely phoney and obnoxious, she was calm, friendly, and she didn't start our evening off by saying "welcome to ______, how ya'll doing tonight?"
the ambiance is great, the music is excellent, and best of all, it isn't too loud--a complete rarity in calgary. the place is decorated immaculately and the bar counter with the fishes is really cool. i was pleased that there were no televisions playing; this is COMPLETELY unheard of in calgary and this is something that really pleased me (if i want to watch nascar, i would go to a sports bar, not a lounge). the patrons have class; they don't yell, and they actually dress up instead of throwing on lululemon (glorified sweatpants) and some skanky shirt.
the drinks, however, meh. people in this city complain about a $8 double martini, but that's actually not too bad of a price if you go to NY, SFO, even Toronto. the problem is that the drinks aren't that good. they're not that bad, but not really that good. our mohitos had two raw leaves in them and for $8, we'd expected more than the taste of water.
if a $6 beer, relaxed electronic music, lack of a dance floor, clientèle that leads you to believe that you're not in calgary, and a relaxed server really turn you off, go to rusty cage, earls, or some place in the suburbs like loco lou's. if you want to see some hope in calgary's nightlife, go to mercury. "
User Rating
8/10
8/10
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"If your going for a Glass of Wine, forget it!"
Mitchell
November 2006 — "I visited the Mercury a few nights back just for some simple glasses of wine and conversation with a friend of mine. We both ordered different glasses of red wine only to have our server come back and tell us they were all out of red wine expect the pinot noir. I found it difficult to comprehend that on a Wednesday night at 8:00 pm a place that serves many types of drinks would be out of 4 of 5 red wines by the glass. Well anyways it went down from there. My friend ordered a beer and I ordered a martini. Once the martini came I noticed something a little odd about it, there were two black dots floating in my drink. Upon further inspection I found that these dots were actually 2 fruit flies. Needless to say I was completely turned off. She took the drink back and didn’t charge us for it. After that we went to leave and we got the bill which came to $6.00 for the beer. So we left a $20 bill in the holder and she took it away to get change. Upon returning, we noticed that she only gave $9.00 change.....so where did the other $.00 go you may ask? We were about to point it out to her and she said "Oh Yeah, I'll be right back". We didn’t have to correct the error, she already knew about it, we were completely astonished she though we wouldn’t notice she took $5.00.
Yeah we left very impressed and did not leave a tip. I have been the old and new Mercury many times and I don’t think I will ever go back or recommend anyone to go to this place. The Living Room is much better and their staff is awesome.
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User Rating
2.60/10
2.60/10
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"Really, Really Expensive"Lucie
March 2006 — "I checked out the new Mercury with some friends and we were disappointed to find that it hasn't retained any of its former cool-factor or any of the friendliness of the original. The first Mercury was a hip spot to hang out with friends, drink martinis, listen to DJs, make conversation with other patrons and even spot members of visiting rock bands on occasion. The new Mercury seemed to be full of posey downtown business-types, which would be ok if they retained the former friendliness factor. Instead the entire place was crammed full of groups of people trying to avoid having anything to do with anyone else. It is also incredibly expensive. Even the price of a bottled, domestic beer (one of the cheapest things on the menu) was exorbitant and pretty laughable. They’re definitely cashing in on all the oil money in town, which is great I guess if you work for an oil company. The décor was very nice but pretty uninspiring and unoriginal overall. I will say that the wine we had was good and while we didn’t try any of the food, I’ve heard from others that it is quite tasty. But overall, we found that while the old Mercury was a genuinely hip spot with attitude and originality, the new spot is just like any other random urban hangout. It’s not a bad place to spend an evening but it’s definitely nothing special. "
User Rating
6.40/10
6.40/10
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DescriptionThis trendy lounge returns to 17th Avenue. Black and white boxing photographs adorn the walls and a real fish tank serves as the bar. Lounge is open daily and is connected to the contemporary dining-room, Eight.
Location Information101, 550 - 17 Ave SW
Calgary
AB
T2S 0B1
