Mad Hatter

this review is for bangarang's - the new music venue/bar where the mad hatter used to be.  the mad hatter gets 2 stars.  bangarang's gets 5.

the mgmt is superb, the food is great (gomez salsa - you may have had it at longworth's) and the music is gonna be great!

opening weekend just occured and the musical acts were diverse and talented.  

yes, i was one, but so was suave (from new orleans) and perfect norm.  

andy, the mgr, is planning on keeping the rock that gave mad hatter a name, but also branching out and using his connections to being jam rock, folk rock and any other hip genre to the stage.

be sure to patronize this awesome new club!!!

I can remember going here in the early 90s when it was a dance bar and loving it.  Unfortunately, it's now a shadow of it's former self and the only sign letting you know it's Mad Hatter was a little handmade one on the door itself.  It's now dirty and half the bar stools have rips or chunks gone from them.  There were 2 bartenders on a Saturday night and one was borderline rude for no apparent reason.  The drink prices kept changing, maybe they thought we were drunk and wouldn't notice?  Where you normally see bottles of alcohol was almost empty and by 10:30 they were out of several kinds of liquor despite there being a pretty small crowd.   The only saving grace was the band which we really enjoyed.  

To the reviewers who mentioned smoking, it is not a smoking facility now but who would want to go outside to smoke anyway when there's a very strong urine smell and garbage smell outside the building??

As to it's sister RadioDown, it's sign says The Point.  We only knew where to go because the doorman at Mad Hatter told us.  The only chairs in the place were ones people brought themselves and the "bar" that serves only beer was filthy with spills all over it at 8pm even though the "barmaid" had plenty of time to wipe it off since there was no line the entire time we were there.  

To sum it up in the words of my son "I'd only go there again if I really really wanted to see the band playing".

Pretty stand up place. Convenient and yet confusing parking in the Lee's Famous Recipe lot. My only real beefs are with Radiodown. Couldn't they splurge for a SIGN that says Radiodown on it? You have to enter through the "secret" entrance. Also, RD has no full bar. Lame.

MadHatter is a great venue for small shows. I saw the New York Dolls at RD and it was a great time.