Founder of popular M'tucci's Restaurants dies at 77

Ryan Boetel, Albuquerque Journal, N.M.
·2 min read

Feb. 20—Jeff Spiegel, the founder of M'tucci's Restaurants in Albuquerque who for more than two decades ran restaurants in New York City with his wife, died on Tuesday after living six years with leukemia.

He was 77.

Spiegel was just as popular for the way he treated his employees as he was for the food served at his restaurants.

At the start of the year, the restaurant group started offering medical, dental, vision, shot-term disability, critical illness, accident and legal identity theft insurance to its employees. The workers pick which coverage they want and the company pays 60% of the costs.

Last year, M'tucci's launched a tutoring program for its employees' children.

"Jeff was truly a very special person. You could go your whole lifetime without meeting a man as great as him. For many of us, he was a father figure, a mentor, a leader, a role model and an inspiration," John Haas, the president of M'tucci's Restaurants, said in a statement. "Jeff was so passionate about the people around him and the values he believed in. He truly wanted nothing more than people to achieve their best and highest level of ability."

Spiegel in 1982 was working as a health care consultant in New York City when he decided to change careers. He opened a restaurant in the Big Apple, where Spiegel and his wife, Katie Gardner, were living at the time. They originally opened Margaritas, a Mexican restaurant, on the Upper East Side.

The couple ultimately spent 23 years operating 11 restaurants in Manhattan before they moved back to Albuquerque, Spiegel's hometown.

M'tucci's has proved popular and continues to expand. There are currently four locations in the Albuquerque area.

Spiegel opened M'tucci's Italian 10 years ago. That was followed by the opening of M'tucci's Moderno, M'tucci's Twenty-Five and then M-tucci's Bar Roma.

The same restaurant group also operates Teddy Roe's, a speakeasy.

"Jeff's legacy lives on through all of us (his family, his company, and his friends) who will forever cherish the memories he left with us," Haas said.