In a social media post Monday night, Hamburger Mary’s Jax 2.0, a beloved Jacksonville institution and safe space for the LGBTQ+ community, has asked for support to prevent its impending eviction from its location on Edgewood Avenue South.
The post pointed out that the restaurant has had to save for nine months without a liquor license, which it just regained this month, but those limitations and the rising costs of insurance, rent and utilities have put the venue behind on rent.
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“Eviction proceedings begin Wednesday,” the post warned. “We’ve been fighting an uphill battle just to stay open. And while we’ve been in that fight, we’ve also been working every single day to climb out of it.
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The post said the restaurant, which was able to start over after a devastating fire in 2023, is starting to see that work pay off with numbers improving and bookings filling up for May and June.
“The momentum is here. We just need to survive the next 24 hours to reach it,” Hamburger Mary’s wrote.
“Mary’s is a place where you can be 100% yourself without judgment,” they wrote. “We are not asking for a handout. We are asking for a bridge.”
Mary’s said the best way to help is to donate via Venmo to @jaxmarys -- but it warned that several personal scam accounts have popped up with slightly different names.
“Our Venmo account is listed as a verified Venmo account under the business section,” Mary’s wrote. “Sad that we have to say this, but some scammers have created personal accounts on Venmo altering the name just a tad since the post was created. Our account is a verified account under the business account with the name @Jax Marys."
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