New Bedford Guide Your Guide to New Bedford and South Coast, MA
This January we showcased a slice of foodie heaven: Mary’s Home to the Mini Hot dog & Steamed Cheeseburger. We highlighted the great personality behind Mary’s, Mary Hocking herself, and her mouth-watering hot dogs and steamed cheeseburgers. We tempted and teased you with pictures of food that induced drooling and told you about her fun, original menu.
A lot has happened in these short, six months. Her menu has expanded, she has added family to her staff to provide quicker service, and the buzz about the place has gone into overdrive. There are a few things that haven’t changed: Mary’s is still an affordable, fun, family-oriented destination.
Mary’s has been called a “Hidden Gem,” “The Restaurant Next Door.” “ A Hole in the Wall,” and “The Best Burger Joint in the New Bedford” by her customers. Her burgers are so good, that she estimates that nine out of ten orders are for burgers! Pretty good for a hot dog joint!
What is it about these burgers that engenders comments like this? For one they are steamed goodness. This steaming not only makes a healthier burger (means you can eat more!) as opposed to frying or grilling, but instead of drying out the burger, it absorbs all the natural juices. You won’t find a juicier burger. Anywhere. That flavor you taste is burger, burger, burger not grease. Mary could easily stop there, serving the perfect burger and she would be popular enough. However, magic happens when you get to choose from over 60 toppings – MOST of which are free. Yes, you read that right. If you want to have ketchup, onion crunch, jalapeños, sour cream, crushed potato chips and sauerkraut on your hot dog or hamburger, you may be an ill foodie, but you can have that…and all those toppings are FREE.
Mary isn’t unstable, she just has passion. Passion coupled with pride, produce something special. She has it in spades.
What other types of symptoms of food madness does she exhibit? Are you a bacon lover? Who isn’t? How does one of these amazing, steamed cheeseburgers with five slices of bacon sound? Go to a local breakfast joint and order a side of bacon and it’ll cost you about $4 for 2-3 slices. You get the steamed cheeseburger with five slices of bacon, and all the other toppings you want for $7. Compare that value to other burger joints in the area.
Other signature burgers:
- Fly’n Hawaiian Bacon: Bacon, pineapple, and BBQ sauce.
- American Sniper: Texas meat sauce, onion petals, jalapenos, nacho and American cheese.
- Insane, crazy, stupid, triple bacon cheeseburgerr: 15 pieces of bacon!
- Sweet Georgia Peach: Cheeseburger, sausage patty and maple mayo.
- Yankees Suck Cheeseburger: Fried Mac & Cheese, cilantro, ranch dressing, onion, lettuce, and tomato.
- Candied Bacon Peanut Butter Cheeseburger: topped w/ candied bacon, peanut butter, maple mayo and onion crunch.
- Drunken Cheeseburger: topped w/beer glazed candied bacon, vodka sauce and friend pickles.
Mary loves the New Bedford community and every time I visit – that is often – she has some funny or positive anecdote to share. She said the community has an equal amount of love for her and the rantings and ravings (and even marriage proposals) make her day. Mary gives back to the community by not only sharing her fare, but in buying her ingredients from local businesses and designating one local charity as the charity of the month. This charity gets all the tips given to her. Since opening 6 months ago, Mary’s has donated thousands of dollars of tips to local non-profits as well as donating gift certificates. On Super Bowl Sunday, Mary’s prepared hot dogs for 109 on duty police officers and firefighters in New Bedford, Fairhaven, Acushnet and Freetown.
One of those local businesses that she has paired with is New Bedford Salchicharia who provides her with freshly ground linguica from a family recipe. No preservatives you can’t pronounce, no vacuum sealing, just linguica love. While you can get New Bedford Salchicharia’s linguica piled onto a hot dog or one of those perfect steamed cheeseburgers, you’ll want to add Mary’s own Sam Adam’s beer cheese sauce and get the “Boston Strong.” Again, for $7. After one of these, you may want your mommy to hold you. The world and life can only go downhill from that moment.
New Bedford Salchicharia also provides Mary with her thick cut home-style bacon which she also offers candied with beer and brown sugar. If you aren’t drooling at this point, you are a martian, communist or in a coma.”
Now, I don’t want her hot dogs to feel lonely. There are a lot of hot dog joints in New Bedford. An astounding number of them. I believe there are at least four on the “Ave” or just off it. I grew up eating at these places and think they are ALL fantastic. While Mary’s has regular hot dogs as good, where she separates herself is with the amount of aforementioned toppings and she is the only one locally that offers the famous mini-dog. This dog is an import found only in small patches of New York and been around since the 1920s. They are about half the size of a regular wiener and have a proper snap from a natural casing. No wet noodle here. SNAP. Kids will absolutely love these and will have no problem piping down, keeping calm and enter devour mode.
My particular favorite – what I get every time I go, and cannot stray – is the Brady: Homemade Texas meat sauce (spicy version) banana & jalapeño peppers, and red pepper flakes. Drool. Mary makes this tangy, savory Texas meat sauce from scratch. It’s the perfect blend of spices and meat and you can get it spicy or mild if you’re a big wimp. It’s so good that I often order a bowl of it and pretend it’s a bowl of chili.
Mary’s has quickly become one of the South Coast’s number one destinations. A family oriented restaurant serving comfort food with love and passion – one that is affordable enough to feed the family without breaking the wallet. Her amazing variety of mostly free toppings, steamed cheeseburgers, mini-dog and signature sauces distinguish her from the others. Her connection to the community extends to benefiting local charities, buying from local suppliers, and always sharing her favorite spots to eat at on her Facebook. That tells you the type of big-hearted person she is, as anyone who has visited will tell you. She doesn’t compete with other hot dog or cheeseburger joints or restaurants; she feels that there is enough room for everyone. One bite will tell you that this love is one of the ingredients in all her food.
Affordable, mouth-watering comfort food, prepared with lots of love, by someone who cares about the community and offers a fun environment and menu. If you don’t count yourself as one of Mary’s rabid followers, you will after a visit or two.
Mary’s Home to the Mini Hot Dog & Steamed Cheeseburger
2112 Acushnet Avenue, New Bedford, MA
Phone: 774.451.0222
Mon-Friday: 11:30am-8:00pm
Saturday & Sunday:12:00pm-8:00pmFacebook: facebook.com/pages/MarysHometotheMiniHotdogSteamedCheeseburger
Website: marysminidogs.com/
Menu: Mary’s Menu
