Eric Hervey, a co-owner of Mythical Coffee, was eager to help host. He admires their obsession with the experience. “Something Matt is capturing is this unhurried community,” he says. “Like come for the food, stay for the hang.” Hervey points out that the group showed up five hours before they boxed up their first Irma pizza — something customers don’t notice when things run seamlessly. “What he does with this pop-up makes it feel effortless,” Hervey says. “It’s not just casual. But they make it look casual, which is such an art in service.” Más Amable ended its year on a high, cooking at the second anniversary party for Huarachis Taqueria, the second restaurant from James Beard Award-winning chef Rene Andrade. But the hustle started to take a toll. Más meets Matilda While the passion remains, the constant shuffle and push for a new menu each week wore the guys down, Celaya says. The driving, loading, unloading and late-night cleaning in their commissary kitchen became a Sisyphean task. Though Celaya, Petry and Dean believe in the potential for a Más Amable restaurant, they considered the grind of getting funding, of finding investors and the right space. Celaya didn’t want to gamble or dive headlong into something that would consume the precious time he has with his wife and kids. “Unless you have deep pockets or right- place, right time,” he wonders, “what are your options?” Then a spunky little orange-and-navy coffee truck needed a party. While Devon McConville worked on her next project, a downtown Phoenix cafe, she also wanted to celebrate the seventh year of her mobile coffee cruiser, First Place Coffee. She and the First Place team hosted a weekend-long fete in March 2025. They invited local pop-ups and food trucks to serve alongside the coffee truck. They set up outside the former Garden Bar on Sixth Avenue and Roosevelt Street, a bungalow that would soon transform into Matilda’s. Más Amable’s crew was among the cooks. McConville noticed how they worked. “They were having fun together,” she says. “I could just see that they just really enjoyed what they were doing and enjoyed doing it together.” That weekend started a conversation between McConville and Celaya about moving into the kitchen at Matilda’s. They saw eye-to-eye on food and hospitality as well as managing teams and balancing work against having a life. “He’s the leader,” McConville says of Celaya. “But he also lets his team flourish and shares the spotlight with them just as much.” Celaya brought Petry as his right hand. Since the cafe opened in February, the pair has guided a small kitchen crew who cook breakfast, lunch, snacks and, as of April, dinner. The downtown nook has become a hot spot. Devoted First Place Coffee customers, a homey space and thoughtfully made food created a perfect storm at Matilda’s. On week- ends, lines stretch out the glass door of the little white house, down the walk that cuts through the front yard, and sometimes onto the sidewalk past the picket fence. It’s the kind of crush that Celaya and Petry know from their years running the popular pop-up. Most of the dishes at Matilda’s are built for quick prep in a small kitchen. Hit with an endless ticking of tickets, they didn’t panic. Instead, they staffed up and encour- aged everyone to relax. “I tell the cooks, just cook like jazz,” Celaya says. “Things are going to happen every single day. If you can’t learn to anticipate that and go with it, you’re going to be a stressed-out human being.” The recently-released dinner menu includes ribs with a sweet-and-sour, agro- dolce-style sauce, fresh malfadine pasta with Bianco DiNapoli Tomato pomodoro and hearty roasted chicken with Medjool dates and capers. Diners can finish the meal with a quirky bruleed brioche sundae topped with Cream of the Crop’s titular scoop made with vanilla bean, cream cheese and a hint of lime. At Matilda’s, Celaya and Petry infuse their creativity into a permanent home, without worrying about packing up at the end of the night. The daily grind of cooking on the line has surprised Celaya. “I don’t think I anticipated enjoying it as much as I have, which also excites me,” he says. “It kind of has re-sparked that excitement of being in restaurants and operating them.” More Más Though Petry and Celaya’s focus has been on Matilda’s, they’re not giving up on Más Amable. They’ll continue Saturday night dinners at Sauvage, albeit monthly. They’re also taking on passion projects, like a recently sold-out dinner hosted with Issam Rafea, the musician and composer, and Layali Al-Sham, ASU’s Middle East music ensemble. The benefit of a collective is that its chefs can be in several places at once. “We’re not going to stop with Más Amable, we’re not going to stop with Irma,” Petry says. “If anything, Matilda’s will give us even more firepower to keep doing (them).” Matilda’s owner, McConville, also wants to see Más Amable continue. The cafe could be just the start of their collaboration. “This was a really great next step for Matt and his trajectory and his career and his food,” McConville says. “My hope is that we can continue to partner and grow together in other ways and see how I can support him and his dreams as well.” Whether that means this partnership grows into another restaurant or the Más Amable crew scores an investor and finally stakes out a place of their own is anyone’s guess. They’re trying to write a hit. You can’t force it. Celaya is realistic. He knows budding restaurateurs can do everything right and still fail. In the face of the risk, he pushes forward with Más Amable. “I don’t think any of us saw it going where it ended up,” he says of the pop-up. “When it’s received and recognized, it feels like a dream.” Living Más from p 9 Justin Dean and Más Amable have a residency at Phoenix’s Sauvage Wine Bar and Shop. (Dale Steffen) The chefs launched a pizza pop-up in 2025. (Meyers Films)
