Hamburger Mary's Grand Opening

Been a while since I blogged, but felt the need to spread the word about Orlando's newest gay friendly restaurant Hamburger Mary's, which opened at ghost town once known as Church Street Station. Things are beginning to pick up with only a few vacant store fronts in this area, but the crowds are thin at night, and non existent during the days.

So on the Mary's. Went to the grand opening on Thursday May 8 after getting an email from the restaurant's web site. Kudos to the Mary's marketing team for including a coupon, even though I was too lazy to print it out. If you are going to Mary's, be prepared to shell out $5 for parking somewhere downtown as convenient parking is nowhere to be found. We arrived at 7:30 p.m. to a nice crowd, in what surprised me as an extremely small foot print. I hadn't been to the space that was formerly a Toojays. I knew it when it was the Western Clothing Store long long ago. The space had been nicely renovated. Cozy but nice. I was expecting a wait, so was pleasantly surprised to be seated immediately.

There were lots of gays, lesbians, and straights, of all ages but the overall majority was gay and most new each other, or exchanged familiar glances across the restaurant. Our waiter greeted us pretty quickly, gave us menus, and took our drink orders. So far, so good. Our drinks arrived within an acceptable time, and I have to admit, was quite tasty. I appreciated the extremely fresh tasting pineapple juice with my vodka. As we got comfy, several large groups began to arrive and the restaurant quickly filled to capacity. Within minutes, there was a 30 minute wait for a table.

Now here is where things went from fine to DISASTER. I was expecting the service to be spotty since, after all, it was opening night. This wasn't a national franchise with huge training dollars and lots of experience opening new restaurants. I was expecting a bumpy ride. Too bad my dining companions were not.

I think it was a good 90 minutes before even a hint our food would arrive. When you are at a full restaurant, and you only see 5 plates come out of the kitchen within 90 minutes, you know there is a BIG problem ahead. The staff seemed oblivious to any of the issues. They had obviously been dealing with them all day, and were resigned to the fact that nothing could be done. Our waiter seemed almost non-existent during our entire meal. He stopped by the table once every 45 minutes to offer us new drinks. Since nobody was getting food in the entire restaurant, you had to wonder what the wait staff was so busy with.

When we finally got our meal of burgers and chicken, they were not served with any condiments, and we weren't offered any. We were never offered water, and I ate my entire meal without a beverage. My cocktail had ran out easily an hour before. Most of the restaurant could be seen going to the bars and serving their own tables. There seemed to be management present, but they seemed pre-0ccupied with dimming the lights, and adjusting the sound. When we arrived at our 2 hour point, and one of our table mates order had still not arrived, we asked the manager to check on it, and he never returned.

Our dinner of 3 hamburgers and one chicken entree lasted 3 hours. Many of the diners around us gave up after waiting 2 hours for their meals, and left the restaurant without paying. We finally paid our check. There wasn't one apology offered, one drink or appetizer comped. There was not one attempt at service recovery the entire night. I felt sorry for the servers and management of this new restaurant. They had an opportunity to make good in a very forgiving environment and they failed miserably.

As we left the restaurant, we saw several of our friends leaving on the sidewalk, and were shocked to hear that they never got their food, and were now heading to another restaurant in search of something to eat. I would not recommend anyone risking a trip Hamburger Mary's in the near future. I'd give them a couple of months to learn good customer service, and then try again. For now, I'll go back to Friend's for my burgers.