We were lucky to catch up with Matthew Scruggs recently and have shared our conversation below.

Matthew , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?

Although success can be measured in different ways by different people…I stand firm on my belief that anyone can be successful with enough hard work. And not just sometimes or here and there. I’m talking truly out working the competition in every aspect, and not being lazy. That means many sleepless nights, sometimes not eating the best and losing some so called friends because you can’t hang out like you used to. But it will be worth it in the end!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m Matthew Scruggs. A chef, small business owner, husband and father. My wife and I own the Asian fusion restaurant MattChews in Midtown Atl. It started out as a food truck idea but turned into us opening a ghost kitchen. For those who don’t know…ghost kitchens are inside a facility with other restaurants with the option of pickup or delivery only. So it does not have a dine in option (something we eventually want to expand into) but it gives the opportunity to start small and figure out the kinks of running a restaurant on a smaller scale. It can be a hinderance because we don’t have the visibility of other restaurants but this allows us to use social media to our advantage to reach those customers. We also have a small but mighty staff. With everyone doing multiple jobs to keep the business afloat. We’re a small family business that opened in the middle of the pandemic. So the ghost kitchen concept worked in our favor.
I’m a strong believer in hard work. Which may mean working 16+ hours but this is my passion and I want every customer to taste the love in our food!

How did you build your audience on social media?

So being in a ghost kitchen, the only way people knew about us especially in the beginning was from work of mouth and social media. I would recommend finding the best Atl food influencers to come out and try your food. They put out an honest review on your menu items to their huge audience. Then it’s shared multiple times and it allows for your audience to grow. It was critical for our business. Some charge a monetary fee while others just want their bellies filled. Either way it’s been worth it for the exposure but also the friendships we’ve made along the way. From there you learn about festivals and other catering opportunities. Also posting consistently and using reels to your advantage.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

It takes pure resilience to be in this Industry. From staffing, slow days/weeks, to making sure you’re making payroll and other unexpected costs. I’m not the biggest technical person when it comes to computers etc. but having a ghost kitchen I had to get my hands dirty, do some studying and learn the tech side of things because having a restaurant is so much more than just cooking food. We rely solely on technology and a tablet to get our food to our delivery customers who use the different food delivery customers. And as you can imagine technology does mess up at times, or the internet goes down and that affects every order coming into the store. So I’ve definitely learned patience and how to work more than just my cell phone lol

Contact Info:

• Website: Mattchews.com
• Instagram: @mattchews_atl
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MattChewsATL
• Yelp: https://m.yelp.com/biz/mattchews-atlanta
• Other: TikTok @mattchewsatl

Image Credits
Ryan Aaron Photography