ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Hamburger Mary's will close its Brandon and St. Petersburg locations in March and is blaming the state health department for declining business.
- Brandon, St. Petersburg restaurants to close doors
- Health department identified hepatitis A case in October
- PREVIOUSLY:
The locations will shut their doors for good on March 31 and possibly sooner.
In late October, the Florida Department of Health in Hillsborough County identified a positive case of hepatitis A in a Hamburger Mary's employee at its Ybor City location.
The restaurant closed a few days a later but locations in Brandon and St. Petersburg remained open.
In a Facebook post, Hamburger Mary's wrote, "Both locations have suffered sustained losses from the continuing effects of the slanderous assault on Mary’s good name and that of her employees from the Hillsborough office of the State Health Department, which forced their sister locations in Ybor City to close in November."
The post said, "No employee of Hamburger Mary’s tested positive for Hepatitis A" and said the health department made "false accusations."
We've embedded the restaurant's Facebook post below.