Mad Hatter

Located at 201 Smyres Place off of West Friendly Avenue, Mad Hatter specializes in craft beers and specialty burgers. Sandwiches, salads, and small plates are also available. There are daily drink specials, outdoor seating, and a brunch on weekends.

Mad Hatter effectively illustrates why defying expectations is not always a good thing. The sign out front says Craft Beer House, but the selection does not seem especially large. The name suggests the zany and colorful, but the silver and black mock-industrial décor is anything but (It is, however, an improvement over the kitschy innards of the original Ham’s, the business Mad Hatter replaced). The preponderance of TV screens evokes a sports bar while the focus on specialty burgers mimics Hops and the pricing reaches for upscale casual. In short, almost nothing here is what it is supposed to be.

The one exception is the quality of the burger. In this area, Mad Hatter hits a home run. The default options include a Kentucky bourbon burger and a PBJ burger (among others), and you can build your own. The Boss, a 50/50 beef-bacon patty topped with pulled pork, sauce, slaw, and fried onions, certainly lived up to its name. The burger had a nice char that was balanced by the sweetness of the sauce, and both the slaw and the onions provided a palate-pleasing crunch. It’s a big burger, but the bun proved both sturdy as well as tasty. This may not be the best burger in Greensboro, but it merits serious consideration, and it won’t leave you disappointed.

Unfortunately, for as good as the burger was, it was not enough to elevate what was otherwise a decidedly mediocre experience. At $10-$12, the burgers are overpriced as is most of the menu ($8 grilled cheese, anyone). The build-your-own menu has some intriguing possibilities (grass fed beef, Asian slaw, goat cheese) but leaves out some essentials, like mushrooms. Among the sides, the fries tasted hot and fresh but the chips were underwhelming.

Service and ambiance is similarly hit-or-miss. Our server was very efficient – albeit joyless – and order-to-table wait times were shorter than expected. On the other hand, the medium well burger my companion ordered came out medium. The ever-persistent music ranges from tolerable to terrible, and the building fills up easily.

As of this writing, Mad Hatter is only a month old, and there is plenty of time for it to turn things around. Until that happens, the best way to describe it is limited: limited selection, limited parking, limited high notes, and, ultimately, limited appeal.

6.75/10