James Beard Award winner
Matthew Maddy
- Discipline
- James Beard Award winner
i. Biography
Beginnings
Maddy’s earlier work in Brooklyn came through design, a background that gave him a close view of how a restaurant or venue feels before a guest ever sits down. At Lilia, he worked as a designer, part of the team shaping one of the borough’s most closely watched dining rooms. He then brought that same eye to Public Records, another Brooklyn venue where design and hospitality intersected, before extending the work to Grand Army. That path shows how he entered hospitality through the architecture of experience rather than the pass of a ticket or the cut of a knife. Before his current partnership at Celestine, he was already helping define how places in Brooklyn looked, moved, and held attention.
The Rise
The next turn came with No. 7, where he became a partner. That role marked a step beyond design alone and into ownership-minded hospitality, suggesting a broader hand in how a venue operates and presents itself. From there, his career kept moving toward the room itself, not just the objects within it. Celestine is the clearest expression of that shift. As partner there in Brooklyn, he is part of the group behind a restaurant that demands both taste and judgment: how the space reads, how the service flows, and how the whole experience is carried from the door to the table. For Maddy, the move from designer to partner traces a line through several Brooklyn addresses, each one adding a new layer to his work.
Today
Today, Maddy’s name is tied most directly to Celestine, where he serves as partner in Brooklyn, New York. The role sits at the junction of design sensibility and restaurant leadership, the same junction that has defined his path through Lilia, Public Records, Grand Army, and No. 7. He has worked across spaces that ask different things of him, but the throughline stays clear: he understands how restaurants are made to feel.
FAQ What roles has Matthew Maddy held? He has worked as a designer at Lilia, Public Records, and Grand Army, and as a partner at No. 7 and Celestine. What is Matthew Maddy's craft? Partner — Celestine (Brooklyn, New York).
