Glens Falls Chronicle Serving the Glens Falls/Lake George region; Warren, Washington and northern Saratoga counties since 1980
By Cathy DeDe, Chronicle Managing Editor
When Shaun Hazlitt cuts the ribbon next Friday, Sept. 13, to launch his newly re-imagined Southpaw Bistro at the former Craft on 9 on South Street, he’ll represent a lineage of Glens Falls chefs that started with the late Shawn Whalen and his storied Bistro Tallulah.
Shawn, who died in 2017 at just 43, is often credited for changing the face of downtown Glens Falls dining with his New Orleans-leaning Ridge Street bistro. (Brian Bowden now operates Radici restaurant there, next to A.J. Richard’s eclectic [farmacy] “restobar.”)
Chef Whalen trained Rob Murphy, who later opened Craft on 9, first on Route 9 in Moreau, later moving to South Street just off Glen, downtown.
Meanwhile Shaun’s kitchen jobs started at Chateau on the Lake in Bolton and led eventually to Tallulah, “the first time that I worked with Rob Murphy.”
This spring, Rob reached out to Shaun to take over Craft on 9 as Rob continues battling a neurological illness.
“He’s one of my best friends,” Chef Murphy told The Chronicle. “No other person on earth would be getting my restaurant beside him, literally, unless someone came in with a stupid amount of money. He’s the only one I trust with my baby.”
Chef Hazlitt says, “Rob, the Murphy family, Jeremy and Maria, have been second parents to me. They’ve done a lot for myself and my family. So they called me. We mulled around the idea for a while and decided to go for it, because why not add a restaurant to everything else? The Murphys did such a great job of building this place. It’s so beautiful already.
“Over the next few weeks, we’ll complete the purchase. My business partner is Chris Patten, who owns the building,” says Chef Hazlitt. “He’s a good friend,” he says, referring to Mr. Patten as “C.J.”
They’re redesigning the space, “just a little, with his very hard-working team of guys. I needed it to read a little differently, so when folks come back in, they’re not like, ‘Oh, this looks just like Craft on 9.’”
They aim to add a signature water element to the main dining area, possibly even in time for the reopening.
Chef Hazlitt says he’s been gradually shifting the recipes to his own style.
“When we reopen, I’m gonna drop a brand new menu.” It’s not so much “Farm to Table,” he says. “I’m not a ‘put-a-radish-on-a-stick’ kind of guy.”
He says the menu will be “very seasonal,” changing often.
“What we start with will be maybe not very different from what we’re currently running. It’s usually based off of what my local farmers have, what I can get my hands on. Then we play from there.
“I have several local farmers that have absolutely phenomenal products. We have great, world-class ingredients right here.”
Also, he says, “We’re elevating the bar program, the menu, the service.”
Chef Hazlitt says he has 12 employees and he is looking to add a part-time bartender/server and host or hostess.
He plans to be open six days a week for lunch and dinner, “to really just go for it.”
“I wanted to go for seven days a week, to be like the Log Jam, just always open, so you never have to wonder or Google if they’re open or not. But everybody wants Sundays off for football,” and “I need some time to rest at some point too.”
Chef Hazlitt, 33, was born in Johnsburg, “next to Gore Mountain. We moved to Queensbury when I was four, did all my schooling in Queensbury and then went out to Buffalo for college.” He said he played football for two years before returning home.
“It was a little while before I landed in my first kitchen. I always had, like, three or four jobs. Then I found out that, in the kitchen, you can work 90 hours in just one place.”
After Chef Whalen’s death, Shaun said he had 20 job offers on the table.
“I went to work on a farm in Virginia, just to clear my head a bit…When I came back up here, Rob called me and said he needed a hand,” at the new Craft on 9 in South Glens Falls.
“I can’t remember how long we were at that location before they started building this place” on South Street, he says.
“We would work all day (at Craft), and then at the end of our shift we would come up here and help them with all the demo, destroying the old Mikado” in the total re-do. (Meanwhile Mikado chef-owner Danny Chang was moving to his own new digs on Glen Street.)
“It took the Murphys just over a year to build it to what it is,” Chef Hazlitt recalls.
“The amount of love and care they put into this place is just phenomenal.”
“I stayed on for a while,” he says, “to help get this place off the ground,” then says he left to reopen barVino in North Creek as executive chef.
He moved on to launch his own Big Bear Co. catering and food trailer businesses. “I’ve done everything from backyard barbecues to high-end weddings and upscale events.”
“I did a vegan-vegetarian wedding, actually, for the Murphys last year, when one of their sons got married. That was a lot of fun. I did a squash carving station, stuff like that. It was unique, for sure.”
The catering is now based out of the South Street kitchen, to simplify.
“Yes,” he laughs: “Two kids and three businesses, no sleep. Luckily, my wife is absolutely amazing.”
Southpaw Bistro:, Name refers to South Street & bear paw, not wife’s left hook
Why did Shaun Hazlitt call his new restaurant Southpaw Bistro?
“I get asked a lot: Am I a lefty?, which I am not. My response is typically, ‘My wife’s got a great left hook.’”
He laughs, “The reference is actually to being here on South Street, and then the Paw is reference to a bear.”
“Big Bear Co.” is the high-end catering and food trailer business Chef Hazlitt and wife Renee Scarinzi started after their first child was born.
Chef Hazlitt, born in Johnsburg, where much of his family still lives, is a self-proclaimed Adirondacker.
He based Big Bear in Johnsburg and operates one food truck semi-permanently alongside Revolution Rail Co.’s rail bikes in North Creek.
Thus, the Glens Falls restaurant is also his south location, he notes.
The Southpaw logo, a roaring bear looming over a mountain range, was designed by their PR person George Normandin, “probably one of the biggest supporters of local community that I’ve ever met,” Chef Hazlitt says. — Cathy DeDe
Rob Murphy: ‘Stay positive, Shaun’s my dude,’ new job at Bean’s in Queensbury.
Chef Rob Murphy closed out of Craft on 9 with a farewell and benefit party on Saturday, August 24.
Since May of 2023, he’s suffered from a sudden and mysterious neurological illness that curtailed his work in the kitchen. “My mouth and brain still work. That’s where I was at,” directing operations, as long as he could, he says.
Besides physically demanding chef’s work, “I do everything,” Chef Murphy says. “Downhill, mountain biking, snowboarding. I literally just woke up one day and my arm didn’t work, then it spread down to above my ear, down to my big toe, just on my right side.”
Dozens of doctors, trips to hospitals around the Northeast, many sometimes grueling tests later, he says, the advice is simply, “Just keep doing physical therapy and hope it keeps getting better.
“But I don’t agree with that,” Chef Murphy says. “I’m 36. I’m not gonna live with this for another 50 years.
“We’ve done some research ourselves for other neurologists. Harvard Med is one of the options, and there’s a place called the Mayo Clinic in Minneapolis, where apparently there’s a guy who’s some sort of neurological wizard. But of course, both of those places don’t take my health insurance.
“That’s why we did the benefit.”
“It was really nice. People really turned out for the baskets, the raffle, there was probably 40 or 50 of them. I got to see a lot of old friends,” and they raised upwards of $8,000 he says he was told.
Of new Craft on 9 owner Shaun Hazlitt, he says, “I love that dude. We ski and snowboard together. One year, we went to Gore together 68 times. That’s a lot of long chair lift talks about food, whatever. If it wasn’t for him, I’d still be there (at the restaurant). I’m very happy to pass the torch to him; I really am.”
Meanwhile, Chef Murphy works now at Bean’s Country Store in Queensbury.
“I work hard up there, but I don’t have to manage anyone or worry about any bills. It’s definitely a different experience. I never thought I’d be making subs and breakfast sandwiches.
“Everyone there is super cool. Owner Jeff (Bean) and his whole family, everyone is awesome. We’re all on the same team, and he’s running a really sweet operation up there. It’s what they do at Bean’s is absolutely ridiculous. I really love it there.” — Cathy DeDe
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