The Hatter Cafe Celebrates 5 Successful Years in Mentone

The Hatter Cafe owners Roger and Pam Wald.

When Roger and Pam Wald first drove up the mountain to Mentone, they didn’t plan to stay. The couple — he from Nashville, she from Michigan — were longtime Floridians, busy with their careers and family. But what began as a spontaneous detour during the “World’s Longest Yard Sale” turned into something extraordinary: a divine nudge toward a new life, a new business, and a community they would come to call home.

Last September, The Hatter Cafe celebrated its fifth anniversary, a milestone born of a joyful leap of faith.

In 2015, Pam had one birthday wish — to travel the yard sale.

“I wanted to start in Gadsden and head north,” she recalls. After making their way along the route, they ran into a woman at the Fort Payne hotel where they overnighted before a planned trip through Chattanooga. The woman urged the Walds to explore Mentone, a town they’d never heard of. They drove up to check it out, and within hours, both knew they belonged here.

“We spent the whole day talking to people in the community,” Roger recalls.

“We both had the strongest urge we’ve ever had — we needed to be here. It wasn’t the scenery necessarily,” Pam says. “It was a feeling…”

Roger chimes in: “It was God touching us on the shoulder.” The couple decided to plan their retirement here.

They returned within about a month and soon bought a house. Within two years, after a series of life events that felt like divine intervention, they had sold their Florida home and retired from their careers.

One of The Hatter’s many savory creations: Meatloaf Pie.

Creating a Place to Gather

Roger’s background reads like a training manual for their dream. With a degree in hotel and restaurant management from Florida State University, he worked with Bennigan’s and Chili’s for over two decades, learning the business of hospitality. Pam ran her own therapy clinic and managed staff across Florida. Together, they shared a love of service, community, and people. And they wanted to create a space in Mentone that would serve as a gathering spot where folks could spend time together and enjoy a bite to eat.

When COVID delayed their planned March 2020 opening by several months, they used the downtime to decorate and finish renovations. “We were two weeks from getting ready to open up and then COVID hit,” Roger says. “But it gave us plenty of time to decorate and create.”

That dream became The Hatter Cafe, a wonderland of vintage teapots, repurposed furniture, and tables named for storybook characters. Guests dine at the “Alice” table, the “Mad Hatter,” or the “Cheshire Cat.” Every detail evokes the spirit of Alice in Wonderland — curious, charming, and slightly topsy-turvy.

“The quote that inspired it all was, ‘The secret, Alice, is to surround yourself with people who make your heart smile. Then and only then will you find Wonderland,’” Pam says. “For us, that place was Mentone.”

Walking into The Hatter, as locals call it, is like stepping into a storybook. Chairs hang on the walls. Tables are sawed in half and reborn as art. Teacups dangle above your head. Each corner tells a story, crafted from the Walds’ love of restoration and imagination. Pam wanted the decor to evoke memories of times past. “We repurpose everything,” Roger adds. “Pam dreams it; I figure out how to build it.”

But behind the whimsy lies a deeper mission: connection. They envisioned The Hatter as a place where people could get together again after the isolation of COVID — “a space where people make memories,” Pam says. The Cafe quickly became just that. A large men’s breakfast group meets in the Cafe each week, and locals and travelers alike return again and again, some driving hours just for breakfast.

“Word of mouth is our best marketing,” Roger says. When you walk in during open hours, you will almost certainly see customers taking videos and photos of the walls and chandeliers and other decor to share with friends. And you are very likely to see groups of friends and family around the tables, celebrating their special occasions, as well as individuals who came alone and made friends in the Cafe.

Building a Wonderland

A tea fit for royalty.

The building itself has a history of its own. The 1950s home once housed a restaurant called Windwood Farms, known for whiskey ribeye and shrimp and grits. It also was the site of a sandwich shop back in the day. The Walds saw the potential right away. “As soon as we walked in, we said, ‘This is it,’” Roger says. They expanded the kitchen, added porches and two charming lodging rooms — both with private entrances, porches, and hot tubs — and built The Rabbit Hole, a combination gift shop and bakery next door.

Their days are long but joyful. Roger cooks most days the Cafe is open, often serving 120 – 200 guests daily during peak season for breakfast and lunch alone. They operate five days a week, Thursday through Monday, offering breakfast and lunch, with dinner served on Friday and Saturday evenings. As the mountain slows down in the colder months, so does The Hatter. Beginning in January, the Cafe shifts to its winter hours, open Friday through Sunday for breakfast and lunch only, giving the team time to rest and recharge before the busy season returns.

Faith, Food, and the Future

To the Walds, The Hatter Cafe is more than a business. It’s a calling. “We don’t question God anymore,” Pam says. “When He closes one door, another opens.”

Roger gestures toward the space they’ve created and adds, “This is our testimony. We created it for people to come and relax.” Roger calls the restaurant their “retirement project,” and though everyone knows how much work it must be, the Walds don’t see it that way. For them, it’s magical.

Roger spends many hours in chef’s clothes. “I tell people I’m not a chef,” he laughs. “I’m just a good home cook.” But the scratch-made menu says otherwise — Southern comfort classics with a creative twist, inspired by family recipes and customer favorites like “Down the Rabbit Hole,” a layered brunch dish of collard greens, grit cakes, and an egg, invented by a loyal regular.

Future plans could include take-away casseroles and items to ease the burden of cooking for folks who are visiting and living in the area. And look for information in this issue of The Groundhog about The Hatter’s Great Gatsby New Year’s Eve party.

Even after five years, the wonder hasn’t faded. “We want people to walk in and say, ‘Wow,’” Roger says. “Because when they do, they’re already part of the story.”

For the Walds and their dream, that story continues — colorful, heartfelt, and full of grace.