CityView Magazine

50 September 2021 You Won't Leave Hungry Café is heavy on portions and a quirky '70s vibe, thanks to a tough gal from Montana named Mary BY JANET GIBSON | PHOTOGRAPHY BY CINDY BURNHAM Y ou've got to love a place that puts a dish on the menu called "e ing." And the customers eat it up. Sometimes they even bring in their own biscuits to be added to the bottom of the concoction, and folks who crave spicy request lots of jalapeños on top. What exactly is "e ing"? e menu says, "Only your server knows what the thing is." But if you ask Mary Saucier, owner of MaryBill's Café, she'll give it to you straight. "It's a layer of hash browns, then a layer of sausage gravy, another layer of hash browns and sausage gravy, and then top it with an egg and your choice of ham, sausage or bacon," says the pint-sized, platinum blonde dynamo. She adds that, if you're military, you've heard about a version of the sausage gravy dish called SOS. (We cannot print what the acronym stands for here, but ask an Army buddy.) Mary Saucier, a gal of modest means from Montana who began working at age 10 in the restaurant where her mom waitressed, is nothing if not saucy. If her establishment was a saloon, she would be Miss Kitty. If you are grumpy, she will probably tell you so. And then she'll serve up a slice of her homemade honey bun cake to sweeten your demeanor and make you swoon. Nobody stays mad at MaryBill's Café. For going on two decades, she has been running one of the most popular breakfast and lunch places in town, just off Bragg Boulevard in Eutaw Village North. Before opening MaryBill's (Bill is a former partner), she ran Mary Do's on Skibo Road. But her influence on the local food scene dates much further back. She arrived here in the mid-'70s to manage Tuesday's, a restaurant in Cross Creek Mall that was famous for its mile-long salad bar with the big cheese wheel and crunchy bread. GOOD EATS Sometimes customers bring in their own biscuits to be added to the bottom of "The Thing" and folks who crave spicy request lots of jalapeños on top. Tuesday's also was known for its hot crab dip, the same recipe that Mary proudly serves at her namesake café. Some customers even order it for breakfast, sopping up every last drop with garlic bread. But mostly, breakfast-goers come for the omelets that are as large as platters with names such as Momma's Favorite, e Western Boy, and is Little Piggy. MaryBill's Hot Crab Dip GO BEHIND THE SCENES: Just point your smartphone camera at this QR code:

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