TOLEDO, Ohio — A new restaurant is making a splash at The Docks in east Toledo: you've probably noticed the new purple paint job to the end restaurant space.
"Eat, Drink and Be Mary. And what's be Mary? Well, it's the open minded place for open minded people," Lorrie Ricker said. She's the wife of the co-owner of the new Hamburger Mary's location.
Hamburger Mary's is not your typical bar and grill, as proven by the purple paint.
"We provide really good burgers, and we have a fun atmosphere and we provide entertainment in the form of drag queen and drag-themed entertainment," Ricker said.
Ricker is a Toledo native and wanted to bring an inclusive restaurant to her home.
"It's always been our dream to own our own business and we wanted something fun and this just checked off all the boxes," she said.
Hamburger Mary is chain that started in San Francisco with a number of other locations across the country. Soon you can add Toledo to the list.
However, its new residency at the Docks didn't come quietly.
"The city of Toledo is trying to make it as easy as possible for businesses to open and when this building became purple on the exterior, some people asked a lot of questions," Toledo City Council Member Nick Komives said.
Turns out that the paint job is actually against city code, but Komives said the city wants to work out a compromise to not only fill a vacancy at the Docks but to show Toledo is welcoming.
"I'm very excited about what this means for not only the LGBT community, but for Toledo as a whole," he said.
As part of the compromise, the color scheme will be toned down.
"No. 1, less purple. The purple isn't going to go away. Part of the code is that we can accent in other colors, so we will be accenting with the purple and pink, but a good portion of the purple that's going to go away is going to be replaced with charcoal gray," Ricker said.
Ricker said she's happy with the compromise and plans to open for Toledo Pride in mid-August.