With a menu boasting elevated bar fare, 16 beers on tap and a variety of craft cocktails, Mad Hatter Neighborhood Pub has become more than just a place to garner physical sustenance, it’s morphed into a source of emotional well-being as well.

“Our goal is always to have people be able to come down, belly up to the bar, have a beer, have something to eat, and not feel like they're loners—that's what I mean by neighborhood pub,” business co-owner Chris Jordan said. “You come down here, and after one or two times, you feel totally comfortable—you don't feel like a newbie, you don't feel like an outsider.”

Meet the chef

Jordan owns another Mad Hatter Neighborhood Pub in Fort Worth, but that one doesn’t serve food. When he, Kristin Thomas and Jywon Young decided to open the Richardson location in 2023, Young took the helm in creating recipes for the menu. Young said it was a collaborative effort between the three of them as to what was added to the menu.

Young said he pulled from years of industry training as well as working side-by-side in the kitchen with his mother and grandmother.


“When I got bored [as a kid], I’d go to the kitchen and play with flour, spices and sauces,” Young said.

On the menu

The menu includes sandwiches, salads, wings, pizzas and more. Bacon wrapped jalapenos, which are stuffed with chicken and cream cheese, are customer favorites.

“I tried to keep the menu simple. We’re mainly a bar that serves good food. We won’t have frozen chicken—we have fresh meat,” Young said. “Our chicken is brined for 12 hours.”


The pub serves brunch Saturdays and Sundays.

“About six months in, [Young] decided he wanted to start brunch so he came up with recipes for that,” Thomas said. “We’d always done chicken and french toast but within the last nine months, we added waffles. He worked on the batter a lot.”

What else?

Throughout the week, social events, like music bingo, trivia and karaoke are held.


“Music bingo is a lot of fun,” Thomas said. “It's 90 seconds of a song, if you don't like the music, good news, it changes in 90 seconds. It's a great way to be with your friends and still have conversation in between.”

Quote of note

Jordan said he met Thomas about 20 years ago “while I was working at a bar and she was drinking at a bar.” He said she helped him out financially multiple times during the first few years after he opened the Mad Hatter Neighborhood Pub in Fort Worth. He hired Young to work there about 15 years ago.

“I've written it down. My goal is to make them millionaires in five, six years,” Jordan said, “I know the more I pour into them, and the better off they are, the better I'm going to be.”