The iconic restaurant, Hazel's, is serving it's final meal next week. The Gulf Shores landmark diner has been sold and will be changing it's name. The owner of the past four decades made the announcement this week and reflected back on what the establishment has meant to his family and the community.

Richard Schwartz leans forward in his chair a twinkle in his eye as he tells stories about times past in his years as a restaurateur in Orange Beach and Gulf Shores, 44 years to be exact.

Those memories recently came full circle with the sale of the first property he bought to enter the coastal restaurant trade after a seven-year stint at the corporate level with Waffle House overseeing 15 stores. He has to be the longest-running continuous owner on the beach.

But that list of owned restaurants past and present no longer includes Hazel's Nook.

"I was in the kitchen and frying fish," he said. "I put it on a plate and when I brought it out and set it on the table all the breading fell off."

Schwartz opened the restaurant as his own June 6, 1980. And it kept the same name for all those years. Because Hazel, who financed part of the sale, made sure it stayed true to what she started in 1957.

“Hazel worked for us for two summers and was my cashier and I bussed tables,” Schwartz said. “What she was doing was watching to see if I was doing good and keep her name good. She said if you don’t hold up my standards, I want you to change the name. For the first two months, I couldn’t change anything.”

After Monday, July 15, when Hazel’s will have its regular hours, Garrett Spence will take over the Hazel’s Nook building and business and soon will open a second Duck’s Diner location to go along with its iconic Orange Beach restaurant. A Duck’s Diner once briefly operated in Gulf Shores at the former location of the Drunken Shrimp. Duck’s is owned by Spence and his mom, Michelle Deerman.

The move is a bit bittersweet for Schwartz and his family because the thriving businesses of Doc’s Seafood Shack on Canal Road and Doc’s Seafood and Steaks on beach road first started when he took over Hazel’s Nook.

“The turning point in my life is I’m about to borrow from my parents and I told Sally ‘we’re not going to throw away my parents’ money,” Schwartz said. “This is my 46th summer and this has been a blessing to me because it’s the first restaurant that my name was on the restaurant.”

What followed was a string of restaurants that at one time included Hazel’s Family Restaurant on the beach road where Cactus Cantina is now, Jake’s Steakhouse in two different locations, Bubba’s Seafood House, Franco’s Italian Restaurant, a second Doc’s Seafood in Gulf Shores and the first restaurant at Zeke’s Landing Marina. Many of those restaurants were operated with partner Jay Schenk who eventually bowed out of the partnership due to health issues, but he and his family retained Bubba’s in the separation.

But Hazel’s Nook almost didn’t happen at the start. Schwartz said he couldn’t come up with the right amount of money to complete the deal with Hazel and he set a meeting to tell her the deal was off.

“I went to her and said I just want to say thank you and I appreciate your time, but this is all I can do,” Schwartz said. “She then said we’d do the deal on my terms.”

Wife Sally, Schwartz said, has been an integral part of all those years of running restaurants on the Gulf Coast and sons David and Jimmy are following in his footsteps.

“This is where I grew up,” Schwartz said. “I was 37-years-old when I got here, raised a family here. I don’t know if I could have done it all without Sally. She has been a real partner and I couldn’t have done it without her.”

He and the family team may not be done yet as they are contemplating a new restaurant location that is still in the planning stages. But mum’s the word for now.