Business Spotlight: Three Blind Mice

Matthew Murphy and his partners Monica and August Perez opened after years of planning in April 2010. The bistro, or neighborhood restaurant, located at 1066 Killian Hill Road in Lilburn, offers its patrons great food at reasonable prices as well as an extensive selection of purchasable imported wine and beer. Murphy, who is the executive chef and managing partner, studied culinary cuisine in France and has previous restaurant experience in New York, Boston and Miami. I recently sat down with Matthew to talk about the restaurant.

Patch: How did you get your start in the restaurant business?

Matthew: Initially the concept was for a restaurant in South Florida. I was working in Miami Beach but realized for the idea to work we had to relocate. Six years ago my partners and I moved to the area because of its reputation for having good schools and being a safe community. From there we started work on opening Three Blind Mice.

Patch: What is the best aspect of being an owner of a restaurant.

Matthew: It's a big change for me. For 17 years I've worked for other people. I've worked many jobs as an executive chef and had all sorts of titles and managers and spent many hours in the kitchen. Now being an owner I get to see the fruits of my labor easier and I have the ability to change things when I want. We change menus about every two months, not seasonally, we do take a seasonal approach because the vegetables and ingredients change throughout the year.

Patch: What is the most challenging aspect of owning the restaurant?

Matthew: We are not far from Atlanta proper but we are worlds apart with people's mentalities. There's jokes about Lilburn being OTP (outside the perimeter). They have this picture of Gwinnett as a bunch of sprawling farmlands. I feel that their depiction is really off base. Also the restaurant industry as a whole. We have 46 distributors that specialize in different aspects of our business so there is a bunch of work to go into each of those relationships.

Patch: What is unique about Three Blind Mice?

Matthew: We are a wine bar and restaurant first and foremost but the cool thing about our location is that if you find some things you like we can sell them to you as well. We have an extensive selection of 350 wines and 150 craft and imported beers, many of them you won't find in the stores around Atlanta. We offer a diverse selection that comes from the 20 years of experience I have in restaurants. We also prepare all of our food in house including our pastries and desserts. We buy ingredients fresh instead of having them shipped frozen. We're hoping to expand our operation and once we have more room we're looking into producing our own bread.

Patch: What makes the Lilburn community special?

Matthew: Well it's an area that has one of the best school districts in the state and it's a good area to raise your family. I'd like to see more independent businesses here instead of the big box stores. I want to go back to the mom and pop stores which I feel Lilburn has. We have a lot of unique character and the owners really care about what they are doing.

Three Blind Mice is open Tuesday (it's closed July 5 in observance of Independence Day, by the way) through Saturday from 9 a.m. until 11 a.m. for breakfast, 11 a.m. until 3 p.m. for lunch and 5 p.m. until 10 p.m. for dinner. Sunday brunch runs from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. and dinner is served from 5 p.m. until 9 p.m. Wine tastings occur each week on Wednesdays from 7 p.m. until 9 p.m. and beer tastings each week on Sundays from 6 p.m. until 8 p.m. Catering is also available.