Today we’d like to introduce you to Matt Ruppert.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Back in 2007, I was fired from a serving job by a boss I couldn’t stand, and since I had worked there for 4 years the thought of starting over somewhere else – at the bottom of the food chain – just didn’t seem like something I could bear. So I gathered my friends around a table of snacks and booze and we didn’t get up until we had a plan for my future sketched out. It took 15 months from that fateful day for Noni’s to open its doors, including the months it took to find the right spot – a smelly old veterinary clinic on Edgewood Avenue – and time to renovate, develop a menu, hire a staff, and lose almost all my hair from the unrelenting stress of it all.
Since then it’s been a crazy blur-coaster of meatballs, garlic fries, dance parties, rehearsal dinners, wedding receptions, homemade noodles, wine flights, cocktail programs, and more dance parties. In July we celebrated our 10th anniversary with a highly inappropriate anti-Trump party, we’ve just introduced some new food items to the menu, our 2018 Fall/Winter cocktail list will be out soon, and things will keep on rolling for hopefully another 10 years.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
No, definitely not smooth. Let alone the obstacles of opening your own place – getting funding, finding a spot, wrestling with city and state government over licenses and permitting – one of the biggest ongoing challenges for a mom-and-pop place like mine is plain old competition. Every time you turn around the new “it” place is opening, occasionally even mammoth projects like PCM or Krog Street with dozens of spots that people rush to try.
For Noni’s, now that we’re 10 years old we’re sort of torn between this desire to become Manuel’s Tavern-style institution where the goal is comfort and familiarity, and the nagging temptation to keep things new and buzz-worthy. Most of the time I think we manage to achieve the right balance between the two, but it continues to be an internal tug of war that keeps us on our toes.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Noni’s – what should we know?
We’ve got this weird Jekkyl/Hyde duality at Noni’s wherein the majority of the week we’re a somewhat respectable bar/restaurant that suddenly transforms into a sweaty dance club where people younger than me come out to party until late.
For lunch and dinner, we get serious with our Italian-American fare, items like enormous sandwiches, homemade pasta, sauces that simmer for hours, hand-cut fries tossed with garlic and herbs, homemade mozzarella, hand-stuffed grape leaves and other time-consuming-but-worth-it comfort foods. Our beverage program includes an all-Italian wine list, a craft cocktail program, and loads of ever-changing brews on draught and in bottles.
But when the lights go down we cater to a younger crowd who take Edgewood en masse every weekend, showing them a good time with loud music, affordable drinks and plenty of space to roam around and mingle with friends.
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
It definitely takes a village to make a restaurant successful. I’m grateful to so many villagers, including my family and friends, my staff over the years including Toby Johansson and Charles Pinkham, my staff right this very moment who are getting ready to open for lunch, my GM Ryan Buchanan, my bar manager Jennifer von Schlichten, my kitchen manager Colin Minard, our regulars who have shown Noni’s so much love over the years, my biz partner Russell Meyer.
I’m grateful to Preston Craig, Tom Bruno, Rusty Weidinger, Kimber Turner, Rob Jones, Joseph Fuller and a number of other DJ’s for giving us the gift of dance parties. And a special shout-out to my husband Brooks for scraping me off the floor on so many occasions.
Contact Info:
- Address: 357 Edgewood Avenue
Atlanta, GA 30312 - Website: www.nonisdeli.com
- Phone: 404-343-1808
- Email: mail@nonisdeli.com
- Instagram: nonis.deli
- Facebook: Noni’s
Image Credit:
Raegan Hodge
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