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Wed. August 22, 2007, 04:42pm PDT

Breakfast and lunch at Mary's (update 2)

I started my first day exposure to the new Mary's Burger Bistro at about 7am today. I placed my order at their charming walk-up window then headed inside to wait. As you may have seen yesterday, the place looks great. But how was the food? My sourdough grilled breakfast sandwich was nice 'n greasy with two eggs, bacon and melted cheese filling it up. Everything from bread slice to slice hit the spot and was only made better (and more sinful) with the side of ranch for dipping. Co-worker Joe was there too and put his opinion out there for all to read. Oh, and the race for the best ranch is still between Caper's Downtown and Farrelli's with the latter still in the lead. ;) It was a pretty heavy breakfast that I would probably enjoy more on a weekend when I don't have to sit at a desk and can digest in a more proper, couch-centric setting. They do have grab-n-go muffins and Sarah liked the caramel mocha I got her. Might be more once they get their deli case up and humming.

At lunch the place was nuts! We filled the place up with friendly faces. Let me see if I can list everyone I know and/or met who was there. From our office: Brian, Ken, Dave, Mike, Anna, Joe, Michael, Sarah and I. Fellow bloggers ensie, Frinklin, jenyum, tacomachickadee, and Niki from GritCity. Likewise from the local media were Joseph and Mindy from the News Tribune, briefly Steve from the Weekly Volcano, and Todd from the Daily Index. (I'll link all y'all up tonight -- gotta work at work once in a while, you know!) New old Tacoma resident and blog reader Mike was there as was Heidi who dropped a comment on a previous post. There were also plenty of other folks there at lunch making Mary's work hard for their money on their first day.

The wait was the thing today. With so many people on a first day we swamped 'em. We were easily there for an hour-and-a-half before we got our food. I didn't mind because it was fun chatting with everyone there. Even still, that's pretty rough even for an opening day but I enjoyed my fiesta burger once I got it. The patty was probably slightly over-cooked (though I do like a little char around the edges) but the spice of the burger was just right. Not too much to make me fear for the health of my digestive track. I think the overall sentiment was that some of the burger patties were overdone but, after sending a burger with a really small patty back, ensie was pretty stoked with the larger "mighty" burger they replaced it with. No complaints though 'cause I enjoyed my food and want more.

I'm going back. I look forward to see their progress on the cooking front and want to try the various options of chicken, fish and veggie in future burgers. That and some of the deli selections sound pretty sweet. Any non-blogger folks care to voice their opinion? Oh, and thanks to everyone who came -- I'm really enjoying this blog mobbing of new businesses. I really hope it shows the owners how much locals enjoy supporting locals.

Previously on KFnet

Comments (8) | To Top

8/22/2007 @ 6:02pm

As far as local media representation, don't forget the editor-in-chief of our very own South Sound Magazine who waited patiently with me for her BBQ burger with no BBQ sauce. That crazy gal ... she sure loves her onions!

by tacomachickadee

8/22/2007 @ 8:48pm

Wow. That place looks great.

by RR's Election Day Comic (Tacomic)

8/22/2007 @ 10:35pm

I think that's Mindi (not Misty) from the Trib.

by redmcfred

8/23/2007 @ 6:34am

Thanks redmcfred! I just confirmed with GritCity's Niki that it's Mindy. My brain just went back and forth between the two and the correct name lost out. Whatever the case, good to meet you Mindy!

by KevinFreitas

8/23/2007 @ 9:03am

I wrote a non-review; I was a little too irritated towards the end to properly enjoy my food. I'll write something up once I've been there again, though, in a few weeks.

by Anna

8/23/2007 @ 11:32am

You guy's probably completely overwhelmed the poor owner. Yes they should have been ready but I guess that's the trials and tribulations on owning your own business, still I think 1-1/2 hours is way to long even on the first day. I would have given up and went elsewhere. I’m going to hold off reservations about the place until I try it for myself. But usually at most I’m only going to wait 30-minutes for lunch. Once they get on their feet things should improve. Maybe I'll try it this weekend.

by Steve

8/23/2007 @ 4:51pm

"he patty was probably slightly over-cooked "

Good to err on the well done side for hamburger. I am going to have to check this place out.

by Erik B.

8/24/2007 @ 1:17pm

I went to Mary's today to the burger that I wasn’t able to go pick up on opening day. I arrived with a co-worker around 11:15 and including her and I there were 10 people eating lunch or waiting for their take-out orders.

What we ordered:
I ordered the Art’s burger and my coworker the American burger. The Art's burger is supposed to come with pickles grilled onion mustard and ketchup. The American burger should come with tomato lettuce and onion.

What we received:
The Arts burger is a small burger and unbeknownst to me the burger came with TWO patties and the proper fixing minus the pickle, my favorite topping on a burger. The order was questioned and Mary pointed to something that was supposed to be the pickle - I went and pulled it apart and there was no pickle.

The American burger came with tomato, lettuce, onion, and pickles. (This is where my pickles went!!)

Aside from the orders not being quite right the burgers were pretty tasty. I didn't realize the fries were homemade and I was anticipating nice crisp fries, the fries had no crispness like most hand cut fries. The fries were good, just not what I was expecting.

I will definitely go back and try other menu items, but will wait for a month or so to give them time to get on their feet.

by HEIDI