Keith Garcia “Things kind of really came to a head with our building,” says Jennifer Kustok, co-owner of M Uptown with her husband, Jeff. Please visit our Facebook Page for Updates! Thank you and hope to see you soon!” Yesterday the restaurant was still decorated for the holidays but was dark, with this optimistic sign taped to the door: “Closed for Renovations. Within hours, social media was filled with 'in memoriam' items on the space as former employees and performers shared memories and videos, documenting M Uptown's role as a fixture of the community. News of the sudden closure broke on Facebook January 3 as employees, waitstaff, bartenders and drag performers - who had made the location’s weekly Dreamgirls revue the city’s longest-running drag show - weighed in with shock, disappointment and requests for new jobs. A little over a year ago, we were reporting on the transformation of what was then Hamburger Mary’s into M Uptown, a new face for a decade-old business at 700 East 17th Avenue after its owners decided to scrap the Mary’s franchise for an independent, local and, most important, still very gay-friendly eatery, bar and club.īut M Uptown is now closed, though there's hope it will reopen with a remodel and new concept.