Hometown Royalty
Miss Gay Days 2016 was crowned earlier this month and the winner was none other than Tampa Bay’s own Alexis Mateo. Although Mateo now calls St. Petersburg home, she is a Florida, Puerto Rico native. In 2011, Mateo competed on the third season of RuPaul’s Drag Race, making it all the way to the top three. Since then she has also been a contestant on the first season of RuPaul’s All Stars Drag Race and appeared as a guest professor on RuPaul’s Drag U. This beauty currently serves as a national queen at the All American Goddess Pageantry and a Mary Diva at the Tampa location of Hamburger Mary’s. Congratulations girl! You are a superstar and we can say we knew you when.
Hot sun, cool gelatin
When the heat reaches unbearable temperatures there are few things more refreshing than a dip in a pool, except maybe a dip in a pool of gelatin? Why not, everyone loves the jiggly dessert, and you know what they say: There’s always room for Jell-O. If you can help out an amazing organization in the process then all the better. This is the fourth year the Children’s Cancer Center has held the Gelatin Plunge, and all in total contributions have risen over $300,000 for the center (and dunked more than 500 people in 2,000 gallons of colored gelatin). This year host of The Miguel Show and 2016 St. Pete Pride grand marshal Miguel Fuller took the plunge. Others who joined him were the guys from the Fresh Kitchen and Ben Landon of Landon Plastic Surgery.
HamBURGer Mary’s
One of the best experiences anyone can have while dining out is taking in the merging of great food with drag shows, and that’s what you get from Hamburger Mary’s. Well, the success of the restaurant chain in the Tampa Bay area has led to the announcement that one will be coming to downtown St. Petersburg. A Facebook page popped up June 27 with a meme featuring Mary in a construction hat in her traditional pose, hand on hip holding a hamburger, next to a sign reading UNDER CONSTRUCTION with the phrase, “Greetings From… St. Petersburg, Florida.” Not much information has been released yet, but the location will be on Tyrone Blvd. and is expected to open by September (if not sooner!) The new location is being opened by Tampa Bay’s Mr. Mary himself Kurt King who also owns the Hamburger Mary’s in Tampa’s Ybor City and Clearwater. The opening of the St. Pete location gives the state of Florida six Hamburger Mary’s to choose from, more than any other state. Along with the three locations owned by King, Hamburger Mary’s is also in Orlando, Daytona Beach and Jacksonville.
