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It’s now gray, but the trim will remain vivaciously violet. The exterior was originally painted purple but had to be redone when the color violated the city code. The experience was formative enough that when Ricker’s husband, Steve, graduated with his MBA from Bellevue University in 2016, the couple joked, “What if we opened a Hamburger Mary’s in Toledo?” After getting a half dozen investors on board, the pitch is no longer a punchline: The restaurant is set to open in the fall. “It’s very important for them not to feel isolated.” “I want my kids to be accepted for the wonderful children that they are, and that doesn’t always happen,” Ricker tells them. When the clan went to Chicago to visit her brother-in-law a few years ago, Hamburger Mary’s briefly became their community center.
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Ricker and her family live in Toledo, Ohio, which doesn’t have a dedicated space for LGBTQ+ young people, aside from a drop-in center for homeless youth. Customers who stick around after the show on Friday nights are treated to “Maryoke!”, in which brave locals try to hit the high notes in “Defying Gravity” under the influence of too many margaritas.Īs a queer mom of two queer kids, the significance of Hamburger Mary’s isn’t lost on Lorrie Ricker. Nearly every single day of the week in Kansas City is booked with a drag-themed event to bring in crowds, whether it’s “Trashy Trivia” on Tuesdays or “Dining With the Divas” on Fridays. Although the San Francisco restaurant attracted famous patrons like Sean Penn and Sharon Stone, its most infamous guest was Divine, who reportedly puked in the diner’s gutter after several too many drinks.īut with the success of RuPaul’s Drag Race, Hamburger Mary’s has pivoted to what Edmondson likens to gay dinner theater. Nearly every restaurant features weekly drag bingo and boozy weekend brunches, with drag being an integral part of Mary’s since the beginning. The Buffy the Hamburger Slayer Burger, complete with garlic cloves and red wine, is a Hamburger Mary’s staple, as are the Brittney Fried Spears, more commonly known as fried pickles. The chains all have certain aspects in common, however. “But Mary’s is a restaurant and people still gotta eat. “Growing up, you’d go to gay bars because you’re hanging out with your friends or you wanted to hook up,” he says. The bathroom at the West Hollywood venue features a disco ball and ABBA’s “Dancing Queen” playing on a continuous loop. The Chicago restaurant has a brewery, while the Kansas City outpost is decorated in Wizard of Oz memorabilia and book covers from vintage gay and lesbian pulp novels. and Germany, Wright says each has its own unique flavor. Hamburger Mary’s began to increasingly focus on entertainment as the franchise expanded in the 1990s and 2000s, seeking to become an LGBTQ+ destination both for tourists and locals. When Jones passed away due to complications from HIV/AIDS in the 1980s, his surviving partner was forced to forfeit all rights to the Hamburger Mary’s name and branding in a lawsuit, as reported by the travel blog Broke-Ass Stuart in " The Secret, Saucy History of the Original Hamburger Mary's." The budding franchise split in two in 1978, when Tom “Toulouse” Mulvey assumed control of the San Francisco locale, while Jerry “Trixie” Jones manned a second location in Honolulu. Today’s locations are related to the original in name only. The restaurant, thus, suggested an answer to that age-old question: “I’m going to Mary’s.” “It was like when you talk to your friends and you say, ‘Hey, Mary, what are you doing tonight?’” Wright explains.