Matt's Big Breakfast to Open in Tempe Next Year

Heads up, Tempe! You're the lucky winners of the fourth location of Matt's Big Breakfast. According to owner Matt Pool, the new restaurant is expected to open in late 2016 inside the Marina Heights development in Tempe. 

"The chance to be in Tempe is such a big deal to us," says Pool, who graduated from Arizona State University before he opened his namesake restaurant in downtown Phoenix in 2004. 

The news of the Tempe restaurant comes a few months after Pool announced plans to open a third location (the second being inside Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport) in the Biltmore neighborhood, specifically at the intersection of 32nd Street and Camelback in the former restaurant Noca space. That restaurant, Pool says, is "pretty close to being ready" — though he wouldn't give an exact date of when it might open.

As for the Tempe location, Pool says the restaurant should be about 120 seats plus a patio, something new for the restaurateur and his wife, Erenia. The Tempe Matt's Big Breakfast will be a part of the sprawling, five-building Marina Heights development located on Rio Salado east of Mill Avenue. Pool says much of the complex will be occupied by State Farm employees, providing the restaurant with a built-in customer base.

Oh, and in case you've been wondering about the original Matt's Big Breakfast building (the one the restaurant moved out about three years ago), Pool says he's no longer planning to use the tiny brick building as a to-go version of the restaurant. Instead, he's playing with the idea of offering coffee, pastries, and retail goods in the space and using it as a waiting area for restaurant patrons. 

"That building, you know, for us, it's a part of our history," Pool says. "We want to use it in the best way possible."