The restaurant is Hamburger Mary's and the image first got attention over the weekend after some customers noted its appearance on a stainless steel plate on the wall near the kitchen.
"From certain angles it does look like the Virgin Mary," says acting manager Melanie Todd. "I never have noticed it myself, before [this weekend]."
This isn't the first time the Blessed Virgin has appeared on an inanimate object in Tampa Bay. For several years an image said to be her adorned the glass windows of a Clearwater office building. Vandals destroyed the several of the windows in 2004.
Todd says the image at the restaurant -- known for its gay karaoke and drag queen bingo nights -- reminds her of that earlier appearance in Clearwater. "Everybody is curious to see it," she says. "It's a true image, it really is."
Whether or not it's divine in origin, people seeing faces or things out of shapes is a rather common phenomenon called pareidolia.
Todd hopes that the faithful who may now flock to her restaurant will then stay for some food and a drink.
"We need as much guidance and overlooking as we can get!" she says with a laugh.
Photo Gallery: Virgin Mary spotted at restaurant
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