Hattie Moseley — Where Grit, Grace, and Fried Chicken Met Legacy

From $33 and a Cast-Iron Skillet to Saratoga Springs Legend

Hattie's fried chicken is a Saratoga Springs, New York staple—partly because of the recipe, but mostly because of Hattie herself. Lots of people will be enjoying it this summer (and year round).

Born Hattie Gray in Saint Francisville, Louisiana sometime around 1900 (even Hattie herself wasn't sure of the exact year), she moved to New Orleans for school before going to visit her sister in Chicago. In Chicago, Hattie got a job as a cook for the A.E. Staley family. Known as "The Starch Kings," the Staleys had built their fortune on cornstarch, and Hattie traveled with them between homes in Chicago, Miami, and Saratoga Springs, carrying with her the recipes of her Louisiana childhood.

In 1938, after becoming widowed, Hattie decided she wanted to stay in Saratoga Springs permanently. She stepped off the train with just $33 in her pocket, a cast-iron skillet, and an unshakeable faith in her future.

She had no family waiting, no safety net, and was arriving in the thick of the Great Depression.

Widowed and motherless—her own mother had died giving birth to her and raised by her widower dad, Harry—Hattie had known struggle for as long as she could remember. She had worked as a maid and labored in restaurant kitchens, enduring a world that didn't offer many favors to women like her. But what Hattie carried inside her—a fierce will to rise—proved more powerful than any hardship.

"I didn't have but $33. I bought a stove, an icebox, table, and chairs. It was very shoestring. It still is shoestring," Hattie said in a 1985 interview. What she did have, however, was grit, determination, and the best fried chicken recipe this side of the Mason-Dixon line (and, quite possibly, the best fried chicken recipe in the whole United States).

She opened Hattie's Chicken Shack on Federal Street, serving what she knew best: fried chicken, cornbread, and biscuits—the kind of comfort food that wraps around your heart like a warm hug.

Photo credit: provided by Hattie's Restaurant. Photo Credit: Michael Noonan

By the late 1930s and 1940s, when Saratoga Springs was a town of gambling, speakeasies, and jazz clubs, Hattie's 24-hour establishment had become the heartbeat of the community. "Saratoga was fast man; it was real fast. It was up all night long," Hattie would later recall. Just off Congress Street and all those smoky jazz clubs, her Federal Street location attracted everyone from locals to famous musicians and socialites. Lines began forming for her food, drawing jockeys, tourists, and even legends like Jackie Robinson, Cab Calloway, and Mikhail Baryshnikov.

In one often-shared anecdote from the Federal Street years, Hattie arrived at the restaurant to find an impromptu parade happening on South Federal Street. When a police officer asked what was going on, she replied, "Honey, I don't know; all I know is I better go cook 'cause they're going to be awful hungry after this."

The West Side neighborhood was racially mixed, home to mostly African American, Irish, and Italian families, and the diners at Hattie's reflected this diversity because at Hattie's, everyone was welcome. Charles Wait, chairman and CEO of the Adirondack Trust Bank, remembered Hattie's importance in the community: "Hattie's always represented a place where everybody in the community felt comfortable and it didn't matter if you were the president of the bank or a groom at the track. You would go there cheek to jowl, sit down, and enjoy some good fried chicken and be treated the same, and everybody had a good time."

What Hattie built was more than a business—it was a home, a community table, a place of belonging and pride for everyone who entered. When Hattie's moved from Federal Street to 45 Phila Street in 1968 due to urban renewal, local lore has it that she managed the relocation by reminding the mayor that he owed her for the cookies she had given him as a boy. She worked relentlessly at this new location, right into her 90s, not retiring until age 92.

Hattie's generosity and commitment to the community became legendary.