Meet Chef Jim

A Lifetime in Restaurants, Under One Roof in Waco

Jim grew up outside Boston, where the roast beef sandwiches on Revere Beach and his Italian grandmother’s cooking set the bar for good food.

His first real job, at 16, was washing dishes at Victoria Station. He moved up to the salad station, then the line, then carving prime rib. When the company opened a new restaurant in Framingham, he asked to help, and that turned into years on opening teams in West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Boca Raton, New Jersey and Dallas. Later he traveled with TGI Fridays to about 20 states.

He never went to culinary school. He learned by watching, asking and picking the brains of anyone who did something well. His first cake was for his brother’s wedding in 1978: a tiered garden cake covered in handmade gum-paste flowers. Requests never stopped. He’s made wedding cakes, and he’s made grand pianos and tractor-trailers out of cake. Along the way he built a savory pastry business inside a French commissary, making pot pies, torta rustica, quiche and empanadas.

Nicolas Matthew puts all of it under one roof: a diner first, with a scratch bakery, a deli counter and food to take home. Deli meats roasted and smoked in house, real Maine lobster, and family recipes that have been around longer than any of us.

This is what we do. Come in and try something new.