Farewell Hamburger Mary’s Denver, Welcome M Uptown

Unable to reach an agreement with their former franchiser, the owners of uptown staple Hamburger Mary’s have decided to cut ties with the popular chain and create a little something of their own. In its place: M Uptown.

What’s that mean for the menu and nightly events?

“Nothing,” assures owner and general manager Jeff Kustok. “It’s just a new look.”

He says most of the items on the menu were theirs to begin with, but a few were on loan from the franchise. “Anything with ‘Mary’ in the name obviously has to go,” he says, referring also to the Mary-oke event which will now be simply: karaoke.

So, this afternoon, under the watchful eyes of quizzical patrons, they began the process of transformation. “As far as awnings, signage, and social media, everything should be changed over by Wednesday. We have to act fast — it’s all contractual. We’ve redone the graphics, and the new [streetside] logo should be good to go by tomorrow morning.”

He says that they had been in negotiations for awhile with the franchiser, but couldn’t come to an agreement on how much the restaurant should pay to fly the Hamburger Mary’s flag. “Typically, a franchise pays a certain percentage of net sales per month, and we were one of the higher grossing restaurants in the entire franchise,” Jeff says. “It was a pleasant negotiation between what we thought we should be paying because of the value we brought, but we couldn’t agree on a number.”

Thus, the birth of M Uptown. Jeff says the new name comes from the club side of the location, Club M. “We branded it about eight years ago; we just moved the M logo over to the main side of the restaurant.”

I ask about the risk of undergoing the change and he’s quick to point out that in business, there’s always risk. “The Hamburger Mary’s name and logo is great and huge and is definitely recognizable in the community. Lots of people love the name and logo, so there’s a risk. But,” he adds, “we’re confident with the clientele we’ve made in the community and with our staff.”

Though Hamburger Mary’s has been a reliable hang-spot since 2006, there’s very little change for clients to fuss over. “We’re trying to relax our guests and the people who’ve supported us,” he says. “We really want to reach out to them and say it’s business as usual — same management, same staff, same team we’ve built throughout the years, same nightly events, same location. We really feel we can do a great job on our own.”

Rest assured, all promotional materials such as gift cards and gift certificates will still be valid.

Concerning the cut ties with the trusted brand: “There are no hard feelings — we respect and like Hamburger Mary’s. We had a great relationship and a great time,” Jeff says. “We really enjoyed the Hamburger Mary’s name and brand and wish them the best of luck.”

“The most important thing is for everyone to be aware that we’ll continue our community endeavors — the teams, sporting events, charities, outreach, nothing’s changed; our community involvement is going to remain the same. We’re not for sale, and we’re not thinking about selling. It really is business as usual.”