ABOUT US

 

Hello!  My name is Amy Pate, and along with my partner Hance McCain, we started The Mad Hatter Tavern & The Mad Platter Pizza

The journey to this place began with me being a hatmaker (www.appalachianhatco.com for more info about that journey!) and realizing that combining a bar and a hat shop would give people more than one reason to visit the shop.

We began in Black Mountain, NC and for various reasons after Covid was over, we moved to Bakersville, NC and discovered a unique space for rent in the neighboring town of Spruce Pine.

The people involved and the friends we've made so far, in just a year, are far too many to list here. But suffice it to say, we couldn't have done any of this without them - starting with our landlords, Amy & Danny, who helped us so much.

We began in the upper part of our building with the hat shop and bar.  After Hurricane Helene wiped out many of the businesses and restaurants in Spruce Pine in September 2024, I decided to buy a food trailer and build it into a pizza trailer for our shop and our new town.  It was a hit!  It's not my first time managing a food establishment and I have been cooking  and baking for large numbers and small since I was a kid.  So the addition wasn't too difficult.  However, again, I would not have been able to do any of it without Hance and our amazing staff.  I hired Dale Russ, a local who we became friends with, that had managed a pizza restaurant in Pittsburgh.  Without him, we would have never been able to do the pizza trailer, and it was with him committing to the project that I purchased the trailer.

One thing led to another after the success of the trailer and the long and arduous clean up of the hurricane.  The restaurant originally in the lower part of our building decided not to come back and Amy & Danny made me an offer to rent the whole building that was hard to pass up. Having had such success with our pizzas and sandwiches and loyal bar patrons, we decided to take the plunge and make the move.

So here we are!  Not the first to re-open a space on lower street, which was entirely flooded out by Helene, but one of the first.  We rebuilt the space with the help of all our friends and neighbors. We moved the bar and the food operation and opening day in the new location here was Tuesday, August 19th, 2025.  Almost one year after the storm.