photograph by bruce vanwyngarden
Matt Fischer mans the bar at the Embassy Suites.
“I’m not a mixologist, I’m a bartender. I can take the classics and do them well, but I think my most important job here is to cultivate a comfortable environment for people.”
That’s Matt Fischer, the fellow who mans the bar at Embassy Suites by Hilton in Germantown, which was the bar at Frank Grisanti’s when he first learned the restaurant trade there. It’s also a place where Fischer has found a home of sorts, after a circuitous journey.
“I actually started working here in 2003, when I was 19 and a student at the University of Memphis,” he says. “It was a great college job.” After changing majors a couple of times, he graduated with a B.A. in economics six years later, at which point he quit Grisanti’s to take a job at First Tennessee Bank. That corporate sojourn in downtown Memphis lasted five years — until Fischer felt the pull of food service calling him back.
“Some friends of mine had started CFY Catering, which at the time did mostly weddings,” he says. “I worked for them as a ‘weekend warrior’ while still at First Tennessee. By then I’d decided banking really wasn’t for me, and my friends wanted to expand into having a bar service, so I ended up leaving the bank to manage it for them through Memphis Botanic Garden.”
But while he enjoyed it for a couple of years, he decided he’d rather be a teacher. “One of my former coaches had become the principal at Houston High School, so I had a connection there and decided to take advantage of it,” he says. “I left the catering business in late 2019 with plans to go into teaching high school. Then Covid happened, which was not the best time to get into teaching, to say the least.”
After a Covid-induced down period, Fischer returned to the restaurant trade, managing Bounty on Broad for a time, then working for Kelly English at Second Line and Iris. But he wasn’t home yet.
photograph by bruce vanwyngarden
The “Italian Margarita”
“After banking, catering, restaurant management, and attempting to start teaching, I was at a career crossroads,” he says. “I needed a course correction and I’d saved up some money, so I took a brief sabbatical. I still knew a lot of people who worked here at Embassy Suites, and one day I came in just to hang out and talk. I sat down, looked around, and said, ‘It looks like you could use a bartender.’ They said, ‘You want to come back?’ And they were serious. That was in 2024, so it’s kind of come full circle, and it’s been a perfect fit.”
“So, what do you think is the main difference between a hotel bar and a regular bar?” I ask.
“Ninety percent of my business at Embassy Suites is people who are on the road, working,” he says. “They’re not able to go home after work, so I try to make a home for them here. I’ve got local regulars, but I also have weekly regulars, monthly regulars, and quarterly regulars from out of town. A lot of people don’t realize that Memphis still has a pretty robust level of business travelers, and lots of them stay here. My thinking is that we live in a complicated, stressful world, and alcohol — used responsibly and moderately — can make that world five percent better; it can soften those harsh edges.”
“So, if I came in off the road with my edges feeling harsh and sat down here, what would you recommend?” I ask.
“Well, a gentleman was in here last night asking about an ‘Italian Margarita,’ which uses Amaretto in place of the traditional Triple Sec. I made one for him and I think it turned out pretty well. Want to try it?”
“Absolutely.”
“I’m using Reposado tequila, fresh lime juice, and Disaronno amaretto, which is an under-rated classic liqueur,” Fischer says. “I think you’ll like it.”
Minutes later, a salt-rimmed cosmopolitan glass filled with a rich, golden elixir is sitting before me, taking dead aim at my harsh parts.
“That looks pretty delightful,” I say. And indeed it is. As is Matt Fischer’s thoughtful company. And the good thing is, you don’t have to travel very far to enjoy it.
Embassy Suites, 1022 Shady Grove Rd.
