Step into whimsy at Mad Hatter Cafe & Confections to open in Warner Robins

A mother and her two daughters are opening a Victorian themed restaurant inspired in part by the quirkiness and uniqueness found in the pages of Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland."

Stephanie Saunders, 47, and her daughters, Sage, 24, and Drake, 28, are transforming a former lounge at 85 Ga. 247 in Warner Robins into the Mad Hatter Cafe & Confections.

The women dressed in vintage attire for The Telegraph interview to promote the Victorian theme of their restaurant, which is now expected to open in the fall.

Stephanie Saunders has a passion for millinery, the design, creation and selling of hats. Sage Saunders and Drake Saunders have worked together in the restaurant industry for a while with the goal of one day opening a cafe.

"We were goofing around one weekend and I said, ‘I am going to open a millinery shop and call it Mad Hatter because I love hats,' " Stephanie Saunders said. " "I love making hats … I'm going to create these outrageous hats ... and we all laughed.' "

A couple of days later, Stephanie Saunders had the idea of her and her daughters opening an ice cream and confections shop and calling it the Mad Hatter.

As they took steps in that direction, the decision was made to buy instead of lease a building and open a quick-serve restaurant.

‘Unique environment', ‘The cherry on the top of your day', Fizzes with delightful ingredients & names, Some items from the menu, A father's influence

The face of a fanciful faux grandfather Victorian clock at Mad Hatter Cafe & Confections expected to open this fall in Warner Robins.

‘Unique environment'

Mad Hatter Cafe & Confections will offer soups, salads, sandwiches, ice cream, baked goods, snacks, coffees, teas and specialty beverages.

The decor is expected to include realistic-looking cake chandeliers purchased on Etsy, a fanciful faux grandfather Victorian clock, and handcrafted cake-themed Victorian hats resting atop animal figures, including a rabbit.

"It's definitely going to be a unique environment," Saunders said.

Now under remodel, the spacious cafe & confectionery will include a large kitchen, a bakery, a pastry counter, a 16-foot-long seating bar, a dining room, a comfortable conversational area and a fireplace.

Vintage jazz is expected to be softly played over the speakers.

The women expect to add a retail boutique and patio seating shaded by Victorian-style umbrellas.

The outside of the restaurant, with its black awning, is painted shades of aqua blue with Victorian-style appliques above a window and on the front of the building. Interior walls are painted aqua blue and frosted green.

‘Unique environment', ‘The cherry on the top of your day', Fizzes with delightful ingredients & names, Some items from the menu, A father's influence

The Mad Hatter Cafe & Confections logo pictured on a the side of trailer the owners use for storage and advertising.

‘The cherry on the top of your day'

Sage and Drake Saunders took two quarters of culinary classes together at Helms College in Macon before joining the Pond Restaurant in Warner Robins where they worked in the kitchen, waited tables, served as hostesses and filled in wherever needed.

They also worked together at 3rd & Cherry in downtown Macon, where they gained bar tending experience, which gave them the know-how needed to create their specialty non-alcoholic beverages called fizzes. That's also where the seed was planted for the restaurant's catch phrase, "Let Mad Hatter Cafe be the cherry on top of your day!"

An appreciative customer once pulled Drake Saunders aside while she was working at 3rd & Cherry and told her she was "the cherry on the top of her day." That stuck with Saunders so much that the women decided to turn the phrase into their logo.

‘Unique environment', ‘The cherry on the top of your day', Fizzes with delightful ingredients & names, Some items from the menu, A father's influence

A mother and her two daughters expect to open the Victorian themed Mad Hatter Cafe & Confections in Warner Robins in the fall. They dressed in vintage clothing for The Telegraph interview to promote that theme.

Fizzes with delightful ingredients & names

"It's like a soda we create," Drake Saunders said of their fizz beverage. "It's made with fruit purees and syrups."

Each of the women have their favorite fizz. Stephanie Saunders' favorite is the Southern Belle, a peach fizz.

Sage Saunders enjoys the Gibson Girl fizz, which has peach, plumb and a hint of amaretto orange. The name is a nod to the Gibson Girl pen-and-ink drawings by Charles Dan Gibson that depicted the modern woman of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Drake Saunders' favorite is the Violets are Blue, a subtle violet fizz with lemonade and blueberry.

Stephanie Saunders interjected that her husband's favorite Mad Hatter drink is the Bombay Spice and Everything Nice, an exotic chai tea with ginger beer.

Glen Saunders is active military at Robins Air Force Base with his wife and daughters' new cafe and confectionery across from the base near the Russell Parkway exit off Ga. 247.

Considering their love of all things Victorian, it's not surprising that the Saunders family lives in a historic, grand Victorian house that they've been restoring on College Street in Macon.

"We all live together," Stephanie Saunders said. "We're unconventional … and we do everything together.

"We cook together, laugh together, live together - clean together," she laughed.

The ongoing transformation of the former lounge into the Mad Hatter Cafe & Confections started with a deep clean.

‘Unique environment', ‘The cherry on the top of your day', Fizzes with delightful ingredients & names, Some items from the menu, A father's influence

The Mad Hatter Cafe & Confections at 85 Ga. 247 in Warner Robins is expected to have a comfortable conversational area when it opens in the fall.

Some items from the menu

While they're keeping the restaurant's overall menu under wraps, a couple of sandwich options are expected to include a barbecue brisket sandwich and a German bratwurst.

Also, the bakery will feature goodies from family recipes. Saunders is known among family and friends for her cinnamon rolls that she calls "fat cats" that are baked - not fried - and taste like doughnuts.

The new spot will serve Michigan-based Ashby's Sterling Ice Cream, which is billed to have 30% more toppings in the ice cream than any other ice cream distributor, Saunders said.

She came across the brand at a nostalgic little ice cream shop down the road from her sister's home in Mansfield, a visit that planted a seed in her mind that would later blossom.

"We fell in love with the ice cream, and we're like, ‘Oh, we should do something like this,'" said Saunders, who typically shies away from ice cream because of a dairy allergy but tried her daughters' servings because the ice cream looked so good.

Her sister and brother-in-law, Sandy and Warren Overbaugh, are moving to Middle Georgia to join them in the venture.

An early inspiration on she and her daughters' journey to opening a restaurant was a trip to Gatlinburg, Tennessee, where they were drawn into a tea room by the beauty of the building and its windows. The interior was lackluster, though.

Saunders, who knows how to dress sets, recalled thinking of how she could do something extraordinary with such a space.

‘Unique environment', ‘The cherry on the top of your day', Fizzes with delightful ingredients & names, Some items from the menu, A father's influence

Mad Hatter Cafe & Confections at 85 Ga. 247 in Warner Robins is expected to open this fall. The owners use the trailer shown in the parking lot for storage and for advertising.

A father's influence

Her late father, Steve Wilson, was part of the production crew for Jay Sekulow's radio show for a while and then he was an art director for a production company in her hometown of Conyers.

"He really taught me how to decorate," Saunders said of her father. "He taught me everything I know.

"I used to set dress - just dress the sets - for the production company, and without me working with him; he was so creative and detail oriented; So this restaurant ... is going to be incredibly detail oriented," she said.

Saunders inherited her father's creativity.

"It just comes with the nature of growing up the way that I did with a very creative dad, and he always did things over the top but fantastic," Saunders said.

One of her fondest memories of her father is his building of a 1930s reproduction bungalow "with the light switches and everything."

"It had a hidden library. You push the bookcase, and it's a hidden room in the attic with faux brick and everything. And it was just, I mean, living with him was a delight."

Saunders, who experienced a season of darkness upon her father's death 15 years ago and then the passing of her grandmother and next her grandfather, wants the restaurant to be a place of light where heaviness is lifted.

‘Unique environment', ‘The cherry on the top of your day', Fizzes with delightful ingredients & names, Some items from the menu, A father's influence

A Victorian-style applique above a window at Mad Hatter Cafe & Confections at 85 Ga. 247 in Warner Robins.

Also, Saunders grew up traveling all over the world and tasting different foods, which continued with her husband and daughters. Those experiences likely will factor into her and her daughters' menu choices.

With Mad Hatter Cafe & Confections, they aim to create an "avant-garde" appeal that challenges traditional dining expectations.

"Why must everything look and taste the same," Saunders wrote in part in a promotional statement she's planning to post on the restaurant's website. "In a world that's high in agitation and struggling for joy, Mad Hatter Cafe & Confections wants to inspire and delight with our food and unique atmosphere.

"We're all mad here … about food. So, be mad too!"

The Saunders women had hoped to open by August but that's been pushed into the fall. The restaurant will offer dine-in and takeout. Hours are expected to be 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sundays.

The latest local, national and international news delivered every weekday morning.