The Alps in the Windy City

Photography and intro By HENRY HARGREAVES, Interview by LAUREN LEVINGER

A “REGULAR’S” RESTAURANT

Matterhorn is a bit of a melting pot, we welcome a multicoloured array of clientele. Originally a Swiss coffee house opened in 1963, it has metamorphosed into a regular's restaurant, café, cocktail bar and supper club. Attitude is valued over attire…..

Executive Chef Sean Marshall presents a menu that is fresh and unpretentious, showcasing the best of our country's seasonal and artisan produce in a truly original fashion. This is supported by a wine list traversing old and new world styles and one of the most comprehensive selections of spirits and original cocktails in the World.

Also on rotation are some of the country's finest working musicians, a criminally talented band of gypsies mining the vein that is original music, while obsessive-compulsives dust off their most obscure and rare of vinyl collections. Whether for wayfaring vagabonds and rogues to distinguished politicos and intellectuals, the Matterhorn gives it to you seven ways in seven days.

OUR PHILOSOPHY

Fresh, seasonal, delicious, unpretentious, innovative flavours and great presentation.

EAT, DRINK, BE ENTERTAINED

When customers visit our restaurant, we want the experience to be memorable. Matterhorn has a solid tradition of excellent food and drinks, innovative presentation of both, and eclectic atmosphere. The essential Wellington experience is to eat, drink and be entertained - that's what we offer our customers.

THE TEAM

We have around 20-25 staff, mostly full time with a few part time. We don’t open for lunch so apart from a couple of staff most of our waiters and bartenders start work early evening and finish anywhere from midnight to 4am. Our kitchen team arrive at about 1pm and finish around 11pm.

FAMILY MEAL

Staff dinner, or family meal as we like to call it, is usually served at the end of dinner service. The kitchen will prepare a big pot of something (often they will have prepared this earlier in the day) and send it upstairs to the staff room. The kitchen staff often eat together whereas Front of House team usually rotates breaks and sends a couple of people at a time to eat.

We have to feed about 15-20 people on a Friday or Saturday night so there could be 10 people eating at once (front of house or back of house) or if it is crazy busy we might only be able to send people on a break one at a time.

We enjoy family meal in our staff room with bowls plate knives and forks (sometimes spoons)

SUNDAY’S

The kitchen preps the meal. Often they will order stuff for the week and have a plan, but they can also use it as a way of using up food that needs to be used. For example Sunday night can be the best or the worst. We do a Roast special on Sundays if it is slow there will be this amazing buffet of leftover roast. Or if it has been really popular and there is nothing left then we might get a quickly prepared mac n cheese.

CREATIVE & BORING

Staff meal can be creative. It can also be dead boring. Depending on who’s cooking and how busy the kitchen is. It does vary daily but we can often get the same thing every week.

STAFF BANTER

Most staff breaks are about half an hour, but if it’s busy it could be a quick stop to fill up. Conversations vary from a service debrief, banter and random conversations.

FAVORITE PART OF FAMILY MEAL

It’s a great way to bond with the staff and it also helps with the divide that often exists between the front of house and back of house team. The chance to sit and eat together creates a social bond that really helps with our team dynamic.

FAVORITE FAMILY MEALS

I like when they do Ramen or build your own burgers. Interactive food!

Find the Matterhorn here!