Looking to the future, Hage said he wants to continue expanding his clientele and open a butcher shop in downtown Opelika to sell the cured bacon and homemade sausage that Zazu currently makes in-house. She’s definitely still a big factor in my life,” Hage said. “Obviously, there’s tough days that you’d want to call on the phone and hear the words of wisdom and encouragement, but I still can kind of hear her talking to me when stuff’s not going right, telling me to keep my head up and just get through it. We’ve got steak, seafood, chicken, burgers, a huge beer selection and a good wine selection,” Hage said.Īs both Zazu’s restaurateur and executive chef, Hage said he overcomes daily hassles and stress by dwelling on his mother and her lasting impact on his life. “Hopefully, there’s something here for everyone. Hage characterizes Zazu’s offerings as “comfort food made from scratch.” Partnering with local businesses and groups including Red Clay Brewery and O Grows Community Garden, he said the menu is seasonal and constantly changes to mirror the availability of produce used at the restaurant. It was just walls, floors and dirt at the time, but I knew right away that this was where I wanted to be.”Īfter a 14-month-long renovation process, Hage said they reopened the business as ‘Zazu Gastropub’ in October 2015.Īt his Opelika location, Hage describes the atmosphere as a casual, laid-back dining experience, and a menu that is simple but broad. “I called my friend Pam (Powers) Smith and she told me that the owner of this building was looking to renovate and rent it out to someone. One thing we loved right off was the old architecture of the buildings here in downtown,” Hage said. “We started looking in Opelika first, because we’d been here a few times with the wine trail and other events. Rebranding the business and renaming it ‘Zazu Eclectic Eatery’, Hage said he transformed it into a fine-dining establishment with a focus on seafood, which overnighted products from as far away as Hawaii.įollowing a relocation to downtown Auburn in 2008, soaring rent prices sent Hage looking for a new home for his restaurant in 2014. Struggling financially, ACL owner Beverly Webster offered the business to Hage, who said he jumped at the opportunity to own and operate his own restaurant.
Hage said his first job out of culinary school was at the Weston Lakes Country Club in Houston, where he worked as both their general manager and executive chef.įour years later, Hage said he received a job offer to return to Auburn to work at Auburn City Limits. It was a fun and enjoyable experience, and I learned a lot,” Hage said. “Having worked in the industry before, I knew a lot more than most of the kids that were there, and I helped them when I could. While in college, he said he worked part time at several restaurants, which helped cover tuition and served as a method of honing and strengthening his cooking skills.įollowing his mother’s death in 2002, Hage said he went home and enrolled in a year-long program at Houston’s Culinary Institute LeNotre to realize his lifelong dream. Hage, a Houston native, said those childhood memories in the kitchen stoked his desire to one day attend culinary school and become a chef.Īfter high school, Hage said he followed his sister Emily east to Auburn University, where he majored and graduated with a degree in international business.
“My mom, except for some other life experiences I’ve had along the way, is the biggest influence on me and my cooking.” I enjoyed doing that with her, and as I got older, she would teach me to do dishes that her parents and grandparents had made,” Hage said.
“My mom (Anne) was always cooking … I remember at Thanksgiving I’d come down and start helping her cook when I was little. A smile of remembrance crosses the face of Zazu Gastropub owner and executive chef Graham Hage as he reflects on the woman who inspired him to cook.
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