Mary’s, Newtown

The hipsters speak with hushed, reverent tones when they talk of Mary’s (6 Mary St, Newtown). It begins with the feeling of being in the know as you turn off Princes Highway and walk about 100m down Mary St to an unmarked door with a blue edge and a red light bulb hanging dubiously from above. It’s a pretty dodgy looking door huh?

But make your way in! Don’t be shy! Order at the bar if you’re sitting downstairs or make your way up the stairs for table service and much more comfy seating. I’ve been told that Mary’s at night is ridiculously noisy so I’ve come bright and early for lunch on the weekend where the mood is more mellow and there’s quite a few families around grabbing a bite to eat.

The menu is short, like see that blackboard? That’s all they have. 3 types of burgers, fried chicken and mash & gravy. Short and sweet baby! But sadly no desserts.

But first we drink! There’s a pretty massive list of cocktails, beers and wine on the chalkboard, Noods was tempted to get the Tiny Heiny but turns out it’s just a small can of Heineken haha instead he get’s a My Wife’s Bitter($9) beer and I get… a Bloody Mary ($18)! An uber crispy shard of bacon lies ever so sexily on a slice of American cheese that’s been blowtorched to melt onto the lip of the glass and the drink itself is spicy and just incredibly tasty. It sounds like a monstrosity but eating a bite of everything with a sip of the actual drink it oddly tasted like a super cheesy pizza. It’s a bit on the pricey side but dayum it was delicious.

A basket of Fried Chicken (half bird $16) is first to arrive, piping hot from its swim in the deep fryer. The batter is crisp and luckily not at all oily and the chicken is super tender and juicy.

The Cheeseburger ($14) is wrapped in wax paper and comes with a mountain of golden fries. I of course ordered the cheeseburger with a double patty and cheese for $3 extra aaand then added ‘trashcan bacon’ ($4) which is named after the clean trashcan in which the bacon is smoked. That bacon is so fricken awesome. Like, dude, TASTES LIKE RAINBOWS. Toe curling, eyes rolled back bacon HEAVEN! The cheeseburger bun is squishily soft, airy and slightly sweet, rumours are that the buns are from Breadtop- can anyone confirm? Then there’s the awesome rasher of bacon, the slices of pickles and the patties that have a smoky char and blessed with copious amounts of beef juices. The melty American cheese makes my heart swoon and a good cheeseburger just does a soul good, you know?

The Mash & Gravy ($5) is pretty darn mind blowing with unbelievable fluffy mash and a river of gravy that is perfect to dunk your fries and chicken and well I ended up eating it with a spoon. Hell yeah it was good, comfort food max!

I wouldn’t say Mary’s is my favourite cheeseburger of Sydney (though it’s pretty high up the top of the list!) mainly because I was in such raptures with the bacon that it was all I could focus on and I reckon with a good cheeseburger all components should fuse together to create magic and happiness. But hey I’d totes return! And you should too!