After years of helping shape some of St. Augustine’s most memorable dining experiences, Chef Matt Brown is returning to the part of the restaurant business he loves most: standing behind the line, cooking over fire and creating food that surprises people. His new venture, The Nomad Table, is a traveling restaurant concept built around pop-up dinners, private events and collaborations with chefs, venues, musicians and artists throughout Northeast Florida.
Brown describes The Nomad Table’s culinary style as New American cooking using modern Mediterranean techniques. The broad definition is intentional. At past restaurants, the name and established identity of each concept created natural boundaries. New American cooking gives him room to draw from all of those experiences without being confined to any one region.
“When you say ‘New American,’ that basically means you can just do whatever you want,” he says.
That freedom was on display during The Nomad Table’s first dinners, where Brown paired individual courses with music. Songs provide a creative starting point for the tasting menus, helping him translate rhythm, emotion and lyrics into flavors, textures and presentation. The concept grew from an idea Brown had carried for years: creating a dessert paired with an original piece of music. Each element on the plate would correspond with a different instrument, with diners listening through earbuds as the dish unfolded.
Now, that multi-sensory approach is becoming one of The Nomad Table’s signatures. He keeps a running list of songs on his phone and uses them to generate ideas for new courses. He imagines future events in which guests can watch dishes being assembled on a large projection screen while musicians perform the corresponding compositions live.
“It’s a pretty fun way to create tasting menus,” he says.
The concept is being made possible, in part, by the incredible collaborative environment he has developed throughout St. Augustine’s close-knit culinary community. Local chefs routinely lend one another ingredients, equipment, refrigeration space and emergency assistance. The atmosphere differed sharply from the more competitive restaurant culture he had experienced elsewhere.
“At some point, we all kind of figured out rising tides lift all boats in the harbor,” he says.
Now, those fellow chefs, restaurant owners and venue operators are opening their kitchens and lending their spaces so Brown can begin hosting dinners on the fly to give his concept room to grow without borders.
While The Nomad Table is a new name, Brown’s influence is already woven throughout St. Augustine’s restaurant landscape. Originally from Thomasville, Georgia, Brown grew up around horses, cattle and gardens. That rural upbringing continues to inform the way he approaches ingredients, live-fire cooking and hospitality, even as his career has taken him through fine dining, seafood, catering and Spanish-inspired cuisine.
At Collage Restaurant, Brown developed his skills in an intimate fine-dining environment where the kitchen’s size allowed him to remain closely involved with every plate. He worked either the grill or the middle expo position, giving him the opportunity to see and touch nearly every dish before it reached the dining room. Under his leadership, Collage received repeated national recognition from platforms including OpenTable, Yelp and Tripadvisor, even being ranked seventh in the nation on an OpenTable list published by Food & Wine—a placement alongside some of the country’s most celebrated dining rooms.
During that time he also served as the executive chef of Blackfly The Restaurant, an entirely different dining experience where the food ranges from seafood, steaks to sushi and even pizza that came with a pleathora of learning experiences during it’s growth.
Cooking is a lifelong education,” he says. “The deeper you go, the more you realize how much there is still to learn.”
Later he helped create the fire-focused dinners and Spanish influences that became central to one of St. Augustine’s most renowned restaurants, Asado Life. He and Urban Asado founder, Nick Carrera collaborated early-on to build Asado Life through pop-up dining experiences. The concept grew into a high-volume restaurant and catering operation that has received widespread recognition, most notably a recommendation in the 2026 Michelin Guide under Matt and Nick’s direction.
Brown describes working side-by-side with other culinary creatives as a bond. “When Nick and I got on the grills together, we were brothers,” Brown says.
In this new era, Matt wants to spend less time managing a kitchen and more time making great food—and crafting something that belongs completely to him. The Nomad Table’s concept, gives him the freedom to shape the idea on his own terms, develop recurring experiences close to home and collaborate with chefs and venue owners from Gainesville to North Jacksonville while maintaining and creating a proof of concept for something more permanent.
“We are going truly nomad,” Brown says.
The Nomad Table’s on-going collaborations include upcoming events at Crème de la Cocoa and Abstract Filipino Kitchen. He is also exploring opportunities to use local spaces for live-fire dinners, tasting events and private experiences.
At The Venue in Hastings, The Nomad Table is working with the St. Augustine Orchestra to create The Gilded Table, a candlelight dinner series that alternates between courses and live musical performances. Brown plans to pair the food with the music, creating a conversation between the kitchen and the musicians throughout the evening.
He is also developing a 1920s-themed murder mystery dinner series with Sherrie Provence at Catalyst Theatre, a new professional theatre production company in St. Augustine. The experience will combine period-inspired food, dramatic black, white and gold styling, and playful culinary effects designed to complement the mystery unfolding around the guests.
The Nomad Table is designed to appear, create an experience and move on, leaving diners with a meal they could not have encountered anywhere else. To experience one for yourself, visit thenomadkitchenco.com
Images by Jeff Card Photography.
