Harts’ 3rd generation steps up

By Zander Frost, Chronicle Staff Writer

Julie (Hart) Murphy, the third-generation of the local Hart pizza-making family, plans to move her Queen of Harts Pizza across Lafayette Street to a larger space in the Noon Whistle Deli building.

“We officially bought it in April,” said Julie, adding that she may be the last Hart family member making pizza. “I’m the last standing one in the game.”

The Harts started what is now Talk of the Town in Glens Falls and long operated The Harvest in Queensbury.

Julie said she managed The Harvest from 2000 to 2015 before opening Queen of Harts in 2016.

“I knew there was a hole that needed to be filled, and it was with delivery for this kind of pizza,” she says. “A lot of people want the pizza delivered, and they don’t want to go pick it up.”

Julie’s business model is not focused on sit-down: it’s roughly 50% delivery, 25% pick up and 25% take-and-bake.

The take-and-bakes are frozen; customers heat them in their ovens at home.

“I sell a lot of take-and-bakes. People take them all over this country,” she said, adding that a recent customer “came in with a cooler. He bought 25 pizzas, and he drove them down to Georgia.”

Julie said there are myriad reasons for making the move across Lafayette Street.

Besides owning the building, she said she’ll be able to expand the dining options — and enhance air conditioning around the very-hot pizza ovens.

Come October, she plans to offer “a bigger seating area, like a dining room,” instead of the current “bench with a couple tables,” plus outdoor seating and eventually a deck on the back.

Noon Whistle and A Cut Above will still operate; Queen of Harts is on the other side.

Julie says she intends to get a beer and wine license. Her husband, Jedediah Murphy, will do the construction work.

“We’re not going to turn into a full restaurant. We’re still going to keep it counter service,” she added.

Julie said the Hart restaurant heritage goes back 80 years. “My grandfather opened Hart’s Cafe in 1945, and then he moved three years later to where Talk of the Town is now.”

She said that after her grandfather passed away in 1978, her father Phil took over operations before selling to Dave and Debbie Holderman in 1980, when it became Talk of the Town. It’s now owned by the partnership that also owns The Bullpen restaurant on Glen Street.

Phil and Linda opened The Harvest — short for “Hart’s Investment” — in Queensbury in 1972. After 52 years they sold it in February to the Hoertkorn and DelSignore families. It was Phil’s The Harvest — now just “The Harvest.”

Julie said she believes she may be the last generation of Harts to make pizza.

Her son Owen Young is a junior at Dartmouth, studying Quantum Physics.

As to the family heritage, Julie says, “It’s a high standard that I have to live up to. And I enjoy carrying on the line…

“On a Friday night, we sell 250 pizzas, and of the 200 people that walk in the door, I can name every single one of them.

“We live in a small town, and keeping all these things that people love about this small town, keeping it going, is why people love small towns, right?”

Julie said she’s constantly getting customers who “tell me a story back of when they graduated high school, and ‘I got a beer for a dollar and a slice for a quarter.’”

“I’m happy the success that pizza has brought me. And I hope to do a good job.”

What makes the pizza so good?

“Our pizza is unique to this area,” Julie said. “I think people love our pizza because it’s a little sweeter than everybody else’s pizza.” What’s the secret? “It’s all the sugar we put in,” she laughed.

Copyright © 2025 Lone Oak Publishing Co., Inc. All Rights Reserved