The Mad Hatter | Penny Beer Night

My friend Gary from Southwest DeKalb recently posted a Facebook thread on The Mad Hatter.  Boy, now that was a place that if the walls could talk, what kind of stories they could tell!  Actually, I suppose the walls can talk because everybody who went there on a regular basis or even only once has a story about the place.  

The Mad Hatter was located in old Underground Atlanta, although it actually was not in Underground per se.  It was located in the top of one of the old warehouses at the corner of MLK and Central Avenue.  For about five years, it was THE place to be on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday nights.  I’m not sure if it was even open any other nights of the week.  Fridays and Saturdays there was a one dollar cover charge, beer was seventy five cents a cup and mixed drinks a dollar and a half.  Wednesday night was Penny Beer Night.  We’ll get back to that later…

All the high school alumni in South DeKalb had their hangouts.  Walker, Gordon and Cedar Grove’s was Mother’s Pub in the back of South DeKalb Mall.  Southwest DeKalb’s was Bud’s Picnic in Chapel Hall shopping center on Wesley Chapel Road at Snapfinger Woods Drive .  Columbia and Towers alumni frequented The Keg on Glenwood Road just inside of Columbia Drive.  We all visited each other’s establishments as well.  I’m not sure about other schools in the area, but these are the ones I remember.  

But EVERYBODY went to the “Hatter”.  Often times you would meet up with others at the above mentioned watering holes before heading downtown as a group.  You would walk up two flights of stairs to get to the front door.  Three City of Atlanta police officers worked the Mad Hatter.  Officer Cochran carried a pearl handled revolver on his left hip.  The other two officers were Officer Drummond and Officer Pope.  It helped to get on a first name basis with them.  One of the officers would check your ID.  You would then pay your cover charge and they would stamp your hand to show you had paid.  You were then free to enter and dance the night away. 

The ID check was a science all its own.  I would hazard a guess that on any given night, probably a third of the crowd in the Hatter was underage.  The ink they stamped your hand with took days to wear off, so some would try wetting their hand and then rolling the hand of someone whose hand had already been stamped over their own.  This worked sometimes, particularly on the nights they stamped your hand with the number “8”, which would transfer correctly if you could get it to work.  This method was dicey, at best.  The best method was License Alteration.  

I never could figure out why, but they would accept the paper temporary driver’s licenses that were issued as valid forms of ID.  These were very easy to change.  A clean eraser, a sharp #2 pencil and a steady hand were all that was needed.  You would erase the last digit on the birth year, pencil in the updated digit and suddenly the bearer was two years older and legal.  Occasionally the exam date would have to be updated as well, but once you got the hang of it, it was easy pickings.  The light was low at the ID checkpoint, and though the officers used flashlights, a decent alteration would get you right in.  Since the statute of limitations has probably expired, I suppose it’s okay to divulge the following information… I did this for a couple of friends.  Once it became known I was proficient at it, I did a few more for five dollars apiece.  Five dollars was enough for Penny Beer Night with a dollar left over.  Penny Beer Night… we’ll get back to that later.

Upon entering, you would take a right, and the bar was straight ahead against the far wall, which wrapped around to the back wall at the left.  To the right were tables with a path in the middle leading to the elevated and lighted dance floor.  To the left was a supporting post covered with shag carpeting and television screens scrolling through photos taken of the patrons on different nights.  Some nights the last thing you wanted was to have your picture taken… If you continued straight you would come to the door of a small staircase leading to the bathrooms downstairs and a back exit.  People would try to sneak in the back exit, but this generally never worked because there was a bouncer stationed down there with big arms and a small sense of humor.  You were better off ponying up the cover charge and entering through the front.

Above the dance floor were the speakers, the DJ and a miked drum set.  A drummer would play along with the music.  One night after I arrived at the Hatter, a friend I had not seen in a while, David Haney,  came running up to me.  David was a professional musician even then, and he was the last person I ever expected to see in The Mad Hatter.  He told me the regular drummer was a friend of his and had asked him to sit in for him that night.  I remember how cool it was dancing, looking up and seeing David playing the drums.  While on the dance floor, it was inevitable you were going to hit a slick spot and slip.  This was due to spillage from people taking their drinks up on the floor with them.  When you hit a slick spot, you would either fall on your butt or appear to be busting a move, depending on your luck.

The carpet in the Hatter was red shag.  I don’t know if they ever had a carpet cleaning company come in and clean it, but it certainly didn’t appear as such.  If so, they probably would have needed hazmat suits.  From night after night of drinks and Lord knows whatever else being spilled, it became so sticky that your platform shoes stuck to them as you tried to walk.  The only other place I can compare it to is the Madison Theatre in East Atlanta.  I am convinced that when they removed the carpets from the Madison and the Mad Hatter and burned them, that is what cause the hole in the ozone layer.

Penny Beer Night… as I stated earlier, Fridays and Saturdays the cover charge was a dollar.  Wednesday night was Penny Beer Night.  The cover charge on Wednesdays was the then astronomical sum of three dollars each, but draft beer was a penny apiece.  The cups were large green and white paper cups filled with draft beer that I’m convinced had been brewed that morning.  You’d put a dollar in the big jar at the bar and you were good for the night.  Mixed drinks were a quarter.  You could also get an Original Mad Hatter Wine Cooler for a quarter.  An Original Mad Hatter Wine Cooler was Boone’s Farm Strawberry Hill served over crushed ice in one of the large green and white paper cups.  Bottoms up…

I’m not sure how many people would be in the Hatter on any given night, or what the capacity might have been.  But things would get tight, very tight.  Given the amount of alcohol, cigarettes and polyester in the place, to say it was a fire hazard would be the understatement of the century.  And yes, there were fights.  Lots of them actually.  You can’t have that many hormones fueled by cheap beer in tight quarters such as the Hatter and there not be some sort of altercation.  I managed to avoid them myself, but managed to see some pretty good fisticuffs over the years.  

On Wednesdays they closed at 1am.  I would leave about midnight or so and go home.  I would get a few hours sleep, wake up, shake my head, take a cold shower or just stick my head under the faucet.  I would throw on my clothes, jump in my Mustang and be at work by 8am, good to go.  If I did that now, I’d be in traction for a week, either from drinking, dancing or both.  But back then, owing to youthful stupidity and tolerance, by lunchtime I was a new man.  Ready to go back and, to quote Peter Frampton, “Come On, Let’s Do It Again!”… Still Cruisin’!  –J.