mercury burger bar

residing in corktown, detroit, on michigan ave, mercury burger &baris one of those places that you must visit. a neighbor of slow’s bbq and mudgie’s deli, mercury burger &baris adding it’s own flare to burgers. they have amped up some favorites by putting their own spin on fresh ingredients. the menu includes burgers, hot dogs, shakes, and hand cut fries. what goes best with a burger? yep, you guessed it, beer! it is abarafter all, so mercury offers a fullbarincluding beer and liquor. see how they ranked.

terrible area, never returning!. i was born there in 1957 and live in the suburbs about 15 miles away. i have always been one to "stick up" for detroit and it's revitalization.

no longer. my conclusion is that it is a hopeless pit that i will make great efforts to stay away from.

this sunday evening after a long day of yard work i was craving a couple of good coney dogs and had heard that the mercurybarwas a good place to relax and get just that. my wife and i decided to pay it a visit. it is on michigan avenue across the street from sloe's, near the old train station. we arrived and drove around a couple of minutes to try to find a parking place. after a couple of loops we parked in a goodyear auto service lot one block away. it was closed, there were some spaces and no signs saying we could not park there.

we got inside and were seated in the basement but after about 15 minutes (we still hadn't even received a drink) the restroom smell chased us upstairs to the bar. i must admit the coneys were exactly what i wanted and my wife said that her burger was very good also. after about an hour we finished our meal and left. as we approached the parking lot we saw that our vehicle was gone. it was locked and there were also some personal items in it. we noticed broken glass where it had been parked and came to the conclusion that it had been stolen. we returned to mercurybarto contact the police and wait for a ride. i was on hold with detroit police for at least 15 minutes. while we waited the barmaid told us that someone had also broken in to her car recently so we came to the conclusion that these things happen often in this neighborhood.

i do not believe the b.s. about what a great little neighborhood corktown is ...or detroit for that matter. the government/business leaders that preach how we should all come down and enjoy detroit largely have special parking areas where they don't have to be exposed to the problems that the average detroit visitor is. they do business, have dinner, see a game and go home while their vehicles are in guarded or enclosed areas.

i am 57 years old and have had my first vehicle stolen in one of detroit's "upcoming gem" neighborhoods. i can guarantee that won't happen again. a stolen vehicle and the thought of higher insurance premiums are not worth a couple of chili dogs...or a filet for that matter!

hit or miss. usually a miss. floor staff is super friendly.barstaff are always overwhelmed and ignore customers after the order has been taken and food served. and i would say that they must go through chefs like a revolving door. this could only account for the reason burgers are never cooked to order :well, medium, rare. and not seasoned. there's always food in the water.

i don't think i'll go again.. the highlight of the experience was the burger. i ordered the shroom burger, it was above average but not great. i ordered medium well and it was medium well and juicy. it was slightly under-seasoned but nothing major. in general, i was happy with the burger.

what killed it for me was the atmosphere and service. we were seated in the basement. the tables in the basement are setup more like something you would see in a gas station bbq joint in texas than abarin detroit. the basement is loud and echoing so it was hard to hold a conversation with my boyfriend. there was a fairly continuous line of people waiting to use the one-stall men's bathroom in the basement which made it feel like you were sitting the the back row of an airplane flying back from las vegas just after last call.

service was slow. we waited to order drinks. we waited to order food. we waited to get our drinks. we waited a lot, at pretty much every stage of the process. i think it took 10 minutes to swipe our credit card at the end just so we could leave.

as we walked out the door there was a hostess/server near the door that was waiting for people to come in who ignored us as we walked out the door. no "thank you for coming." no "have a good night." being ignored as we left sealed the deal. i won't be going back.