Meet Matthew and Tesia Scruggs of MattChews in Midtown

Today we’d like to introduce you to Matthew and Tesia Scruggs.

MattChews started as a small dream between the Scruggs. Chef Matthew Scruggs has always been a go-getter but it was finally his time to become an entrepreneur in the culinary world. He comes from a big family, where everyone had to pitch in. Even as the youngest child, he had to cook meals for everyone… And he loved it! Cooking was always his passion but it took a minute for him to rediscover this passion.

After graduating with honors from Albany Tech in Culinary Arts, he started putting action behind that dream of a opening his very own restaurant. From looking at food trucks to a brick and mortar, the search seemed endless until he found the new ghost kitchen in Midtown. It’s a fairly new concept and a great way to get started fairly quickly and it was the perfect way to try and open a new business in the MIDDLE of a pandemic. But with lots of hard work and prayers, it all worked out.

Chef Scruggs used his southern Alabama roots and his Vietnamese culture to create MattChews. They opened on Oct 1st, and although it wasn’t easy and COVID slowed some things down, the decision was well worth it. The Asian fusion restaurant specializes in unique and flavorful sandwiches like the bulgogi cheesesteak as well as other hot items like the pork belly fried rice. Almost everything is made in-house from the meats to the sauces (except for the bread which is bought local).

The Ghost Kitchen on 800 Forrest Street NW just all made sense. It’s a conglomerate of dozens of chefs preparing so many flavors and cuisines. The “ghost” part comes in because there’s no servers, tables or chairs. It’s a takeout based concept, where only pickup/delivery is available. The best part… its a huge family atmosphere, all looking to help the next chef out because we know how hard this industry can be.

So the chef handles the kitchen and his wife Tesia takes care of the marketing and social media… While still maintaining a full-time career as a news anchor! As you can imagine working together as a couple is not always easy, and it does get hot in the kitchen sometimes… but they find a way to make it work!

The Chef and his wife Tesia have been all over the state, from meeting in college at Georgia Southern (GO EAGLES) to moving around for her journalism career from Columbus, Savannah, and Albany. They knew it was time to follow his culinary journey and they’re so glad the right spot ended up being in Atlanta!

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
COVID-19! This pandemic has been tough on everyone. From the family’s affected by losing loved ones to income loss and changes to everyone’s daily routine… 2020 has been rough. But in the midst of the pandemic, we knew it was our time to make a move. When God says move, you better move!

In this business world, things moved a lot slower, and we had to find unique ways to communicate in some circumstances but we made it work. This is also a brand new venture for the couple. So just figuring out how to start a legit business took time. As soon as a you got one step forward, it felt as if you got pulled back a few more, especially in the beginning, but as we continued to push through, it all worked out.

Please tell us about MattChews.
Chef Scruggs used his southern Alabama roots and his Vietnamese culture to create MattChews. The Asian fusion restaurant specializes in unique and flavorful sandwiches like the bulgogi cheesesteak as well as other hot items like the Loco Moco Patty Melt, pork belly fried rice, Beyond Mi Burger and the hot chick buns. Almost everything is made in-house from the meats to the sauces. (except for the bread which is bought local). You wont find many Asian sandwich shops in the south, so we try to be unique as possible.

The fact that we’re a Ghost Kitchen sets us apart. We had not heard of the concept before and loved the idea. Its a conglomerate of dozens of chefs preparing so many flavors and cuisines. The “ghost” part comes in because there’s no servers, tables or chairs. Its a takeout based concept, where only pickup/delivery is available. The best part… its a huge family atmosphere all looking to help the next chef out, because we know how hard this industry can be.

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
We’re still new so it will take some time to figure everything out but being that we’re in the midst of a pandemic and some restaurants and businesses are continuing to close we think the Ghost kitchen was the best option.

Pricing:

• Sandwiches comes with fries and range from $12-15

Contact Info:

• Address: 800 Forrest Street NW
  Atlanta, GA 30318
• Website: MattChews.com
• Phone: (678)863-8597
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mattchews_atl/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MattChewsATL/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/Mattchews_Atl
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/mattchews-atlanta
• Other: https://www.doordash.com/store/mattchews-atlanta-1218830/en-US

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