Nearly one year after a partial roof collapse at iconic Atlanta restaurant Mary Mac’s Tea Room, the eatery has reopened its remaining two dining rooms, the Skyline Room and Ms. Ellen’s Room.
Late Thursday morning, Mayor Andre Dickens stepped into the freshly painted, baby blue Skyline dining room.
“(Mary Mac’s is) a part of the fabric of Atlanta, the infrastructure of the city of Atlanta ... This place is really an important part of our community and it’s amazing to see that it’s gonna keep going and be back in full operation, creating memories for generations to come,” Dickens said.
After the roof caved in early on March 6 during a heavy downpour, the Mary Mac’s team decided to rebuild the damaged sections from the basement up, director of operations Chad Reynolds said.
The Skyline Room, which suffered the brunt of the damage, and Ms. Ellen’s Room were walled off, and the left side of the restaurant reopened two months later.
“Let’s look at the positive side,” general manager Tina Leftwich said. “Let’s take this time and put in the new carpet and paint the walls and just kind of look at our building and refresh it, so it’s not really a rebuild, it’s a refresh.”
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
They decided to use a blue color in the Skyline Room which was popular in the 1940s to maintain Mary Mac’s charm. The original 1978 painting of the Atlanta skyline in the Skyline Room was repainted by a local artist to reflect its current look.
Despite the extent of the destruction, including rubble spilled across Ponce de Leon Avenue and framed photos and newspaper clippings mixed in with the bricks and rainfall, Leftwich said almost all of the photos were salvageable and returned to their spot on the Skyline’s wall.
Mary Mac’s opened in 1945 under the name Mrs. Fuller’s Tea Room. At the time, it was one of 16 tea rooms around Atlanta, which became popular after WWII when widows in Atlanta were looking for a way to support themselves. Since it was frowned upon for a woman to own a restaurant, they were called “tearooms,” although they still served a restaurant’s menu, according to a 2013 Atlanta Journal-Constitution story by Jon Watson.
When Mary McKenzie purchased it in 1951, she renamed it Mary Mac’s Tea Room, and the name has stuck around for decades, despite several ownership changes. Now, it’s the only remaining tea room in the city, and it has grown from one dining room to seven.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
In 2020 it was acquired by local businessman Harold Martin Jr. and Fresh Hospitality, the restaurant group that owns Taco Mac and the Vortex, but the traditional meat-and-three menu persists with such Southern classics as fried chicken, pan-fried cube steak with brown onion gravy, mac and cheese and peach cobbler.
Mary Mac’s has employed several longtime and beloved staff members, including Ellen Fraley, who died in 2020 but worked at the restaurant for more than 35 years. To honor her, Mary Mac’s Board Room was renamed Ms. Ellen’s Room, and her portrait hangs on the wall.
Another longtime server of 47 years, Martha Jean Evans, died in September, and the restaurant plans to hang her portrait on the wall of the refreshed Skyline Room, Leftwich said.
Diners trickled in and out of the historic space early Thursday afternoon as Dickens sipped on iced sweet tea at a table with Harold Martin Jr., an owner of Mary Mac’s. Leftwich said guests are pleased to see the renovations, and “they’re ready for Mary Mac’s to be back.”
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
“There was never a moment where we said ‘woe is me,’ ever,” Martin said. “You know, things happen in business, things happen in life. We’ll always be resilient, we’ll always be gracious, we’ll always do the right thing. We take our role of being the dining room of Atlanta very seriously.”
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