General Manager & Beverage Director, Nick’s Westside in Decatur
Matthew Gibbons, 28, has a knack for being in the right place at the right time. His first job in the hospitality industry was at the beginning of the burgeoning craft coffee craze –as a 17-year-old barista working in Rome, Ga. Soon he was entering – and winning – coffee tasting competitions and quickly realized that you could turn something you love into your life’s work.
Serendipity struck again when Matthew got his first “serious” job at Cakes & Ale, the acclaimed Decatur restaurant. Always a quick study, Matthew watched and learned from their bar team. Entering the world of mixology, he says, “sparked a bug.”
Finally – at 21 – Matthew delved into the world of cocktails and wine at the Castellucci Group. Over the next four years with well-seasoned mentors who encouraged his creativity, Matthew thrived. Seeing mixology as both an art and a science, he says, “There’s an intuition and logic to it – you can almost think of it like baking. You can’t just throw things in and expect it to rise.”
His thirst for knowledge of French wines led to his next stop nearly three years ago – with Chef Nick Leahy at his French restaurant Aix and wine bar, Tin Tin in West Midtown. With a post-pandemic switch to the more casual concept Nick’s Westside, Matthew took on the role of general manager in addition to beverage director.
A self-proclaimed “big tech nerd,” Gibbons has married his love of wine and mixed drinks with technology, leading more than 50 virtual wine tastings and mixology demos during the pandemic for companies like Google, Spotify and Apple. He’s always looking for ways to better integrate technology and apps into the restaurant to streamline operations and better serve its guests. That includes helping launch a chicken delivery-only service operated out of the Nick’s Westside kitchen and expanding a dine-in wine dinner series to a take-out experience to continue to serve guests in a more vulnerable population who are still unable to dine in.
“My passion is really the whole operation,” he says. Tasked with keeping the staff motivated and customers happy – as well as providing tech support – Matthew admits his job can “be all over the place.” But, he adds, “there’s always a mystery to be had every day, which is something I enjoy – it tickles my brain like nothing else.”
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