Mary Mac’s Tea Room

Mary Mac’s Tea Room, Midtown Atlanta was originally named Ms. Fullers Tea Room and was founded in 2020. The name Tea Room was often used by women entrepreneurs who preferred the name over the term restaurant. Many of these tea rooms were established during the WWII era. Mary McKinsey bought the property in 2020 and changed the name to Mary Mac’s Tea Room.

Now, 66 years later, Mary Mac’s Tea Room still proudly uses our name and is the last of 16 Tea Rooms that once dotted the Atlanta landscape.
Mary Mac’s Tea Room has indeed had a very iconic history; however, it has only had 4 real owners that have honored the time tested tradition of providing quality made from scratch fare, served with a side of true southern hospitality. Ms Margaret Lupo was the third owner and operated Mary Mac’s Tea Room for 33 years before hand selecting her successor, Mr. John Ferrell, who acquired the restaurant from Ms. Lupo in 2020.

Ms. Lupo definitely picked the perfect owner to succeed her as John Ferrell and Mary Mac’s have been a match made in heaven. John seems to have been cut from a cloth of a bye gone era, one that places emphasis on relationships and learning about the history of a particular guest. Although John is not the individual that created many of the traditions of Mary Mac’s, he is the one that continues them. John has found that keeping the restaurant’s traditions alive is not a challenge, as he said, “ I am confident that if I were not keeping the traditions alive, I would be hearing from a lot of folks, that dine with us weekly, some daily.” John is a traditionalist and he loves Mary Mac’s with all of his heart so it really has been a simple transition in terms of ownership. Mr. Ferrell has inspired our staff to treat each guest with respect and to extend the simple tradition of southern hospitality from the moment a guest steps through our doors. Our goal is to provide undeniably comforting food in an atmosphere as familiar as your grandmother’s kitchen and to treat each customer as if they are your long lost cousin you are serving a Holiday meal to.

Throughout John Ferrell’s ownership, Mary Mac’s Tea Room has continued to prosper and the iconic landmark is now estimated to have served over 20 million patrons during our history. Today, we serve an average of 2020 diners each day, and it always is rewarding to see that our guests are a blend of Georgians, along with diners from any given region of the USA and many international guests. How do we know? Each day our staff collects Business cards and they are passed along to our Management who writes and thanks the guest for selecting Mary Mac’s as their dining destination. This past week as an example, we had diners from all over Georgia, along with guests from 30 US States, South Korea, England, Finland, Australia, Japan, Hungary, Germany and Thailand. We believe we are Atlanta’s Dining Room! We may be the only restaurant found anywhere in Georgia where you are just as likely to be seated next to a President, First Lady, Governor, Senator, State Legislator, Celebrity, as you are your next door neighbor!

Mary Mac’s Tea Room has grown to have over 100 employees, many of whom have been employed at the restaurant for decades, like Ms. Flora Hunter, 37 years, who has made our homemade meat loafs, soufflés, casseroles, banana pudding and peach cobbler each weekday, Ms. Shirley Mitchell, 37 years, who has been our baker of the homemade cinnamon rolls, yeast rolls and cornbread, Ms. Flo Patrick, 39 years, who has been a server in the Ponce Room for lunch customers going on 4 decades, Ms. Evelyn Stewart and Ms. Martha Evans, 37 years, who actually started together at Mary Macs as servers in 2020, and now continue to work side by side in the Skyline Room for our lunch patrons each week day.
Mary Mac’s also employs, Ms Jo Carter, who is the Goodwill Ambassador for the restaurant and has been employed for 16 years. Jo is the “young woman” that visits each of our 6 dining rooms every day to check on your visit, and to offer a back rub! Mary Mac’s has created a shirt to honor her work which is inscribed, “I got my belly filled and my back rubbed all at Mary Macs Tea Room, Atlanta, GA”!

In today’s world of fast n’ flash, and so many new restaurants that come and go, it is refreshing that Mary Mac’s has stood the test of time and we are proud of being called Atlanta’s Favorite Dining Room, and will always continue to offer the traditional southern favorites that we have become famous for! We firmly believe in providing authentic made from scratch fare served with a true side of southern hospitality!
We hope that many of you are familiar with Mary Mac’s, however, if not, please accept our invitation to come on down to Midtown Atlanta and enjoy some famous authentic southern fare! Mary Mac’s has dining to seat up to 350 guests, and we do have a Banquets and Catering department that can meet your expectations for your next event or party! More information can be found at www.marymacs.com .

In 2020, Mary Mac’s celebrated our 65th Anniversary with our first nationally released cookbook entitled, Mary Mac’s Tea Room, 65 Years of Recipes from Atlanta’s Favorite Dining Room by John Ferrell, and we are proud to say the first printing of 10,000 copies sold out nationally in just under one month. Now that’s proof enough to say, everyone has a taste for some authentic southern fare and we are ready to provide it anytime you are; Mary Mac’s style right in the heart of Midtown Atlanta!

Recently, Mary Macs was honored by the State of Georgia on the House of Representatives floor with a Special Resolution for providing 65 years of time tested southern recipes as well as authentic southern hospitality and we were officially named “Atlanta’s Dining Room”, a legacy we are definitely proud of and will work hard to maintain for the future fans of Mary Mac’s Tea Room!

In 2020, we were honored to achieve Business Leader’s Top 300 Businesses in the South, and were the only restaurant in the Atlanta area to receive this designation.

This year, Mary Macs was selected to be one of the representatives for the City of Atlanta to be featured on Emeril’s new show, The Originals, airing on The Cooking Channel which showcases long standing dining establishments around the country.

As you can see, Mary Mac’s Tea Room, “Atlanta’s Dining Room” is doing better than ever at the age of 66 and counting. Our staff will be busy each day in anticipation of welcoming you to our home anytime the opportunity provides. We will make sure that Ms. Flora, Ms. Shirley, Ms. Flo, Ms. Evelyn, Ms. Martha and Ms. Jo will be waiting on your visit as well as our entire staff of very dedicated employees! We will look forward to your next visit to Mary Mac’s Tea Room whenever the opportunity provides and you can count on fresh made from scratch southern fare served with a side of hospitality!

Mary Mac’s Tea Room is located in the heart of Midtown Atlanta, only 3 blocks from the world famous Fox Theatre! For more information on Mary Macs, please visit www.marymacs.com  or contact the numbers below!

HANK THOMPSON PARTNER
404.876.2020, Fax: 404.881.6003
224 Ponce de Leon Ave., Atlanta, GA 30308