There are more woes on the way for popular bay area restaurant, Hamburger Mary’s. This comes after a fallout from a hepatitis scare from back in October at the Ybor location. The business closed in November. On Tuesday the owner announced on Facebook that he also has to close the Brandon and Saint Petersburg locations by the end of March.
The Hamburger Mary’s fallout started back in October when the Hillsborough County department of health warned the public about a worker at the restaurant who tested positive for Hepatitis-A. Health officials urged customers who visited from October fourth to the 20th to get tested.
Owner Kurt King said the test actually came back negative and he believes the department director doctor Douglas Holt targeted the restaurant because it’s gay-themed.
“I tried to reopen but when you have news people outside your front door telling people we exposed everybody to Hepatitis, everybody went away, our sales went away. How can I stay open?
King hired a lawyer and says he may soon file a lawsuit.
An American civil liberties union spokeswoman tells channel 8 that he organization is reviewing the situation. On Facebook the owner wrote:
“Both locations have suffered sustained losses from the continuing effects of the slanderous assault on Mary’s good name and that of her employees from the Hillsborough office of the state health department, which forced their sister locations in Ybor City to close in November. Mary has kept the Brandon and St. Petersburg restaurants open in hopes that, as the truth of the Health Department’s false accusations about the Ybor restaurants became known, business would return to its former levels.”
The Brandon and St. Pete stores will close by the end of March. There is another location in Clearwater. That location is not closing.