A 77-year-old Saratoga Springs institution
In 1938, Louisiana native Hattie Gray settled in upstate New York and opened Hattie’s, a restaurant that served southern-style comfort food, swarmed with speakeasies and sultry, smoky jazz luring them to have a taste, a drink and a dance.
While Chef Jasper Alexander can’t take credit for bringing the Big Easy vibe to the Big Apple—well, upstate New York to be precise—he can take pride in continuing its legacy. Having owned the 77-year-old restaurant for 14 years, Alexander talks about finding the hip in historic.
Talk to me about the challenges you face as a small business owner—moreover, a restaurant owner.
There’s everything from managing costs to labor to things more unique to our restaurant, which is balancing—staying current and hip in the restaurant community to keeping one foot in the past with the historical nature of our restaurant. Restaurants don’t typically last 77 years. We’re stewards of the past and keeping the restaurant alive.
Let’s pick apart the tasks. How did you manage the costs?
Restaurants are dynamic businesses. We make anywhere from 5 to 10 cents on the dollar is about what the average restaurant would hope to pull in between rising labor costs, rising fees and that pie is just getting smaller and smaller.
The options for us help balance manage costs and profits are getting more difficult everywhere. We do it by watching everything [like] trying to buy appropriately. We’re very lucky we have long-term employees. We manage labor costs by retaining employees and cutting down the amount of training that needs to be done, by being good to our staff. The average length of our staff is seven to 10 years, which is pretty unheard of for a restaurant. Usually, restaurants have a high turnover.
As you’ve mentioned, Hattie’s has been around for 77 years. How do you find that balance between being hip and maintaining history?
That’s a complicated question. Basically, we stay consistent—staying true to who we are. We don’t get into every trend that comes around. Just because spiced marcona almonds is a hot thing for many Mediterranean menus, it doesn’t mean that’s the right thing for us. We stay true to who we are in our food quality, presentation and delivery.
Right now, comfort food is fairly popular, and that’s right in our dish. Instead of doing something like a dry-aged steak, it’d make sense for our price point, for our restaurant to do a pot roast. It fits with our style and what we do.
And you’re a seasonal business, too.
Saratoga is an extremely seasonal town. We go from 400 to 500 customers in the town during the season when the racetrack is open to 20 in the middle of the winter on a snowy night. It’s hard to balance.
What slice of advice would you offer to up-and-coming small restaurant owners?
You got to be there. You got to be involved. Owning a restaurant is a daily business. It’s not something you can just stand by idly and watch people. You got to be diligent and keep track of all aspects of the business. You have to jump in with both feet.
What would you say is your favorite part of this business?
Dealing with the people, the public. Delivering on expectations. People come to you, and they want a certain level of care. It’s rewarding to go by and exceed their expectations.
What makes Saratoga Springs a good place to own a business?
Saratoga is a fantastic town. It’s the envy of upstate New York. We have the only growing economy in upstate New York. We’re one of the very few stable economies, and it’s also highly feasible, which has its own challenges. Probably one of the nice things about Saratoga is the state of overwhelmingly sense of community pride and community support. We’re in an extremely well-funded, charitable area.
This year, we raised a $100,000 for a local charity, a local nonprofit. Over the course of 14 years we’ve been doing Mardi Gras [Benefit], we’ve raised over half a million dollars for local charities that we pick. We keep it very street level. It’s not the American Lung Association or the United Way. It’s community organizations that really take of care of people in our community and those in need.
What do you like to do off the clock?
We have two children Zoe, [who’s] 15 years old, and Charlie, [who’s] 9 years old. [We like to] spend time with our family and ski in the winter—and time in Cape Cod during the warmer months. [Of course,] enjoy all that Saratoga Springs has to offer from the ballet to the racetrack.
