chefs in morningside kitchens

Matt Coggin
Managing Partner

Matt Coggin is the Managing Partner and familiar face in the dining room at DBA Barbecue.  He has worked for over 12 years in many of Virginia Highland and Inman Park’s popular neighborhood restaurants.  As Meredith Ford Goldman said in her review of DBA, “Matt excels at hospitality”.  Matt graduated from the University of Florida where he majored in advertising, but knew early on his passion was the restaurant business. He got his first taste of the restaurant business while still in college working for Harold Marmelstein at Dick and Harry’s in Roswell, one of two OTP fine dining restaurants.  Although perhaps the roots of his love for hospitality started in high school when he hosted all those parties while his parents were away.  After graduating from college, Matt worked at Harvest, La Tavola, Wisteria, Sala and Kevin Rathbun Steak, learning the different aspects of the business.  In June of 2009, Matt followed his dream and opened the doors of DBA Barbecue on the corner of North Highland and Amsterdam.

Tara Mayfield recently joined DBA as Head Chef after working over 15 years in the restaurant business.  Tara grew up in New York City, but had family roots in the South where she would spend her summer on her Grandparents’ farm in North Carolina.  She learned how to cook the produce grown on the farm from her grandmother and how to barbecue from her father and grandfather. At the University of Alabama Tara studied to become a history professor, but cooking was where her heart was. She learned her trade at the Atlanta Metropolitan College and worked her way up from prep cook at the Georgia International Convention Center and the Carter Center, to line cook at Buckhead Life Group’s Corner Café, then Sous Chef at the Flying Biscuit, and finally Head Chef at the original KC Pit Barbecue.  Tara is passionate about barbecue and considers it an art form, which she still avidly studies.