On Mallory
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“Shelby” frames, $65 at lookmatic.com
“No Sleep Till Brooklyn” bangle, $88 at katespade.com (
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A mere three weeks after Mallory Hagan tap-danced her way to the Miss America crown — becoming the first Miss New York to do so in nearly 30 years — she was ushered to New Orleans for the Super Bowl.
The 24-year-old, who for two years waited tables at swanky Lure Fishbar in SoHo before winning the title, was attending a press conference when she suddenly came face-to-face with one of the restaurant’s A-list customers — Beyoncé.
“We caught her coming out of a door,” recalls Hagan, a native of tiny Opelika, Ala., who moved to New York in 2008. “A photographer said, ‘Hey Beyoncé! Would you like to meet the newly crowned Miss America?’ ”
The pop star happily obliged. It was then that Hagan casually mentioned the pair had met before — under far less glamorous circumstances.
“I said, ‘I waited on you at Lure Fishbar.’ She said, ‘OMG! I love that place,’ and I said, ‘Yeah, I know. You eat our fish and chips!’ ” says Hagan in a raspy lilt reminiscent of actress Emma Stone.
“And then immediately I was thinking, ‘Shut up! Stop talking!’ ” she adds with a self-deprecating eye roll.
Therein lies the beauty of Hagan: Though she has a decade of pageant experience on her résumé, you won’t mistake her for a grown-up version of the terrors you see on “Toddlers & Tiaras.”
The curvy, 5-foot-6 blonde is now about 60 days into the job. And while she no longer has a full-time residence here, she continues to check items off her NYC bucket list — from cutting the ribbon at the reopening of the Fairway in Red Hook to singing the national anthem at a Barclays Center Nets game.
“It’s a tough balance, because you want to be as real and relatable as possible, but it’s not about you. It’s about representing the organization as a whole,” says Hagan, adding, “I love it . . . but I knew it was a job, and it was going to be long hours.”
Her Miss America duties include traveling the country to speak out against childhood sexual abuse and doing meet-and-greets. She’s currently single, and lives mainly out of hotels, having packed up her Windsor Terrace apartment when she nabbed the crown. (She currently stores her belongings in the home of a woman on the board of Miss America.)
This particular day, Hagan’s morning started with a meeting with Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes. There, she filmed a public service announcement to raise awareness of child sex abuse (her personal platform), read to children and finally arrived at The Post’s Midtown offices for a photo shoot.
Despite her rising star, she remains refreshingly sound-bite-free. She has publicly struggled with her weight and hasn’t forgotten her humble Big Apple roots, which started not with a hipster-approved pad in Williamsburg but with a South Brooklyn apartment at the tail end of the F train.
She calls the employees at Lure her “family” and prefers sneakers and jeans to sequin column gowns.
“I’m a jeans-and-tennis-shoe girl, but my style is really eclectic. I like a very classic look with a bit of an edge,” says Hagan, who for official appearances wears demure duds from Joseph Ribkoff, which is Miss America’s clothing sponsor.
“I love Jennifer Lopez’s [style]. She can look super classy or really funky.”
Though her favorite shopping spot is cheap and cheerful chain Forever 21, now that she earns an undisclosed salary representing Miss America, Hagan is planning to make at least one major high-fashion upgrade at a store she used to walk by every day.
“The first stop I’m making is to Prada to buy myself a black bag. Lure is right underneath. Talk about torture. It’s like ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ staring at Prada through the glass,” she laughs.
After briefly attending Auburn University in her home state, Hagan moved to New York in October 2008, settling in South Brooklyn because a family friend had an apartment there.
After about a month she moved to Bensonhurst and got a job waiting tables at Planet Hollywood.
But her new neighborhood wasn’t friendly to her waistline.
With only a Chinese restaurant near her digs and a job at a burger-and-fry factory, the svelte Southerner began to pack on weight.
“No wonder I got really chunky after moving to New York! I worked at Planet Hollywood and ate burgers and fries. My option at home was Chinese food. I wasn’t much of a cook.”
It wasn’t until 2010 that the fried-food fan got serious about adopting a healthy lifestyle.
“When I decided I wanted to compete in Miss Brooklyn, I had a lot of weight to knock off,” admits Hagan, who began adding cardio (tap dancing, and also weights) into her daily routine.
She also upgraded her server gig to the decidedly healthier Lure Fishbar, and began taking classes at FIT (working toward a degree in advertising, marketing and communications).
“When I was getting ready for Miss America, I was working out six days a week. Now, since I’m traveling so much, I try to work out three to four days a week.”
Hagan was recently criticized for packing on a few pounds after a photo of her in a bikini appeared on TMZ. And she addressed the dig with her trademark pluck and candor.
“I’m human,” she said on “Anderson Cooper Live.” “I like to equate getting ready for the Miss America pageant to getting ready for a boxing match. We get in shape and then afterwards life goes back to normal.”
Along with the crown, Hagan won a $50,000 scholarship, which she’ll use to continue her classes at FIT next January.
And she hopes to eventually move back to Brooklyn, because, as she puts it, “Once you’re [in Brooklyn], you don’t want to leave.
“I intend on moving back,” she continues. “It depends on what I find.”
But the gal who, until she was Miss America, worked full time while going to school, won’t be idle.
“I’d like to get into [TV] hosting,” she says. “I’ll go on auditions and see if I can’t get commercial work to pay the bills while I continue my education.”
Her dream job?
“I really want to get on ‘Dancing With the Stars.’ It’s actually become an obsession of mine,” says Hagan, the daughter of a choreographer.
Wherever she lands, this year is a dream come true for Hagan — who knew her life had changed when she was recognized by a stranger in the NBC Experience store.
“Some random lady said, ‘You’re Miss America. I watched you tap dance!’
“I said, ‘Yes, I am Miss America.’ It was kind of cool.”
kirsten.fleming@nypost.com