Hail Mary, the cute gourmet "diner" on Greenpoint Avenue, closed over the weekend after less than a year in the neighborhood. This is sad news for mac and cheese lovers, funfetti fanatics, and anyone who enjoys high quality comfort food in a cozy, welcoming environment. If you love a restaurant, go there frequently, or risk saying farewell.
Reached via email, owners Ham and Sohla El-Waylly told us they "tried their best" to keep their Greenpoint dream alive. "We made something we loved and that completely represented us through and through," they told Gothamist. "Unfortunately, it wasn't enough. We're happy we got to try and that this experience has made our relationship stronger."
In his May 2016 review of Hail Mary, Quick Bites columnist Scott Lynch expressed some worry about the restaurant.
There's an excellent restaurant to be found within the ambitious new Hail Mary: Greenpoint's Finest Diner, but I worry. I worry because, despite its heavily-trafficked location toward the end of Greenpoint Avenue, it's hard to stumble upon this place...I worry about Hail Mary because it's an ambitious, almost special-occasion restaurant wrapped inside a burger-and-shake joint. These sorts of hybrids have successful precedents, of course, but it's not the easiest trick to pull off.
The accomplished chefs—with resumes that include names like Del Posto and Atera—said they "hope [they're] lucky enough to try again." We'd be lucky to get that deep fried burrata if they do stage a comeback.
