Top bars, Nat'l Burger Month and spotlighting Hamburger Mary's

SAVORY news for the week of May 4, 2025

—Celebration: Visitors to The Morton Arboretum will be greeted by a collection of massive, colorful, whimsical sculptures. The new exhibition, Vivid Creatures: Colorful Sculptures as Tall as Trees, opens Saturday, May 17, featuring five larger-than-life sculptures of animals essential to the Illinois ecosystem nestled among the arboretum’s landscape.

White-tailed deer scale rendering. Image courtesy of Heather and Fez BeGaetz

Created by Portland-based artists Heather BeGaetz and Fez BeGaetz, the vibrant collection, making its debut at a public garden, includes sculptures of a white-tailed deer, dragonfly, sandhill crane, fox squirrel and brittle button snail, ranging from eight to 23 feet tall.

—For my take on the 2025 Inspired Home Show, be sure to read the column at SAVOR with Andrew—and subscribe, for free or less than $5/month (for full access).

And now on to culinary items…

—Market daze: As grilling season nears and Chicagoans begin to fire up their backyard barbecues, Perry’s Steakhouse & Grille invites food lovers to elevate their at-home culinary game with premium cuts and exclusive offerings through the Perry’s Online Market.

Customers who spend $75 or more at the market will receive a complimentary package of Perry’s homemade Texas sausage, while supplies last. The market offers nationwide shipping on Perry’s signature selections, including its lauded seven-finger-high pork chop, prime steaks, handcrafted sides and seasonings—all packaged for freshness and flavor and delivered directly to your door.

Hamburger Mary's co-owners Ashley and Brandon Wright. Photo courtesy of Ashley Wright

—✨✨SPOTLIGHT✨✨: : Famed drag diner Hamburger Mary’s is returning to Chicago, in the Edgewater area—and many people are looking forward to getting their checks delivered in heels again.

“We are thrilled to announce that our gal Mary will soon be back flippin’ burgers and puttin’ on shows in the Windy City… at a new location in Edgewater!,” a social-media post read. “We’re in the process of sprucing up the place, and we hope to be open later this summer.” (The exact location is 1055 W. Bryn Mawr Ave., where Edgewater Mexican Cafe used to be.) The Andersonville restaurant closed in 2020.

Ashley Wright—who co-founded the chain with identical twin brother Brandon—told SAVOR, “I live in the neighborhood and I had been to the Mexican Cafe many times and always thought it was a cool space. When I saw that it closed, I was sad—but then I saw the sign go up in the window and thought, ‘Maybe I should call on that.’”

Wright said he hopes Mary’s will open “within the next couple of months—sometime this summer. Of course, things depend on things like contractors and city inspectors. But, fortunately, we’re not doing a lot of work because it was in very good shape. We are doing a lot of painting; [the cafe] had green and yellow, and those are not pinks and purples. Plus, those are [Green Bay] Packers colors.”

As for entertainment that was present in the previous Mary’s, Wright stated that it’s all coming back: “So we’ll have Friday and Saturday shows as well as Saturday and Sunday brunches, just like the old location. We will not have an attic or brewpub, but the dining space will be much bigger than what we had in Andersonville. So we’ll be able to fit more people for the shows.”