If Dr. Eric Christensen, the managing partner of the one-year-old Hamburger Mary's restaurant, was concerned about the report in last week's Kansas City Star about his restaurant possibly having to move out of the big purple building at 101 Southwest Boulevard, he didn't seem remotely flustered yesterday.
Christensen was on hand to handle musical duties for the restaurant's fifth weekly "Sunday Drag Brunch" hosted by local performer -- and real live girl -- Jessica "Dirty Dorothy" Dressler.
Christensen says he received notice from the new owner of 101 Southwest Boulevard last week that another tenant had been found for the space -- which previously housed Smokin' Joe's Barbecue -- and that Hamburger Mary's had until February 28 to pack up its gay apparel and vacate the venue. The building's new owner, Christensen told Fat City, is the original owner. Christensen's former landlords lost the venue through foreclosure.
"I'm negotiating for an extension," Christensen says, "so that we have at least a little more time to find a new space. I'd really like to stay in this location, but that doesn't seem possible right now."
Christensen hopes to keep the restaurant in the Crossroads (he's looked at the old Daddy's location and that dazzling Moroccan-Spanish building that once housed the Casa Grande restaurant). He adds that several venues in the metro are trying to woo his restaurant -- there are a lot of empty restaurants desperate for a tenant right now.
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