Meet Matthew Bettinger


Matthew Bettinger

co-owner, SideBar & Hank’s Downtown Dive

I enjoy people. I like to hang out. It’s an opportunity to throw a party every day, and to me that sounds like a good time.

Origin Story: Like a lot of people, I got into hospitality because I needed a job and didn’t have anything else going on. A buddy of mine was working at a restaurant and said, “We need some servers.” … It was a good fit from the get go.

Inspiration: Being able to be part of a community is the part that I enjoy the most. … Seeing people leave really, really happy is great.

A Proud Moment: The moment that we realized SideBar was really going to take, and we decided to start exploring something else… It was about a year after SideBar was open. It wasn’t necessarily an aha moment, but it was over a couple of weeks.

With Hank’s, we wanted to offer a full service restaurant, and that’s something I really wanted to get back into. I’ve been doing spirits and bars for a decade plus, which is wonderful, but there’s also something to be said for providing the full experience, a place where people can bring their family and sit down and eat.

More From Our Jun-July 2021 Issue
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