Ryan Ray
The 101 Restaurant and The Edison, both owned by Adam Corey, quickly became well-known staples of Adams Street culture. On any given night during Session, you’ll be sure to run into a cluster of high-profile politicos – or at least their staff.
“Great conversation happens over food,” says Adam Corey, who owns the well-known restaurants near the hub of Tallahassee’s government district.
Now Corey and partner Nick Matthews have yet another venture they hope will make an even bigger splash downtown: Unconventional Strategies, a new lobbying shop where the two have hung out a shingle.
“I guess I’m a glutton for punishment, or at least work,” joked Corey, now helping to grow two fledgling enterprises at once. “I was just looking for that opportunity to blaze my own trail and create my own team.”
“There aren’t that many restaurants in Tallahassee, and that affords me the opportunity to meet all kinds of people who come into town for business or politics,” said Corey, who says he’s looking forward to working on projects outside of Florida as well with the firm.
The story of Unconventional Strategies’ beginning, however, were quintessentially small-world Florida.
Corey and Matthews were neighbors in a small townhouse community consisting of mostly Florida State University alums living in Fort Lauderdale. They connected about six years ago through a mutual acquaintance, Palm Beach County state attorney Dave Aronberg, while Matthews was working on his 2010 campaign for attorney general.
The two became friendly, and began to regularly catch up on politics and Adams Street business while in South Florida.
“What I love about Nick is he is such a go-getter. He has a work ethic unmatched by people his age,” adding that when he would talk about issues with Matthews, “He was either well-versed or if he wasn’t, he was the next day. I admired his keen interest and observation and willingness to learn.”
“We had political conversations for years, and maintained a relationship and casually … over the summer the conversation got more serious, the timing was right. We both had a really good understanding of what our strengths and weaknesses were, and what our roles would be,” Matthews said.
“Once we agreed on those things, things moved pretty fast. We established Unconventional Strategies, we signed some agreements on how we would operate, and the rest is history. I thought to myself there’s nobody better, honestly, that I would rather work for.”
Corey, who graduated from Florida State University in 2001, worked for Seminole Boosters working on major gifts fundraising. From there, he worked for International Oil Trading Co. under the tutelage of billionaire defense contractor Harry Sargeant. When Corey left IOTC, he took the company along as a client at Gunster Yoakley & Stewart where he worked as a lobbyist for several years.
“I had a great time with Gunster, and got to work with a lot of brilliant, outstanding attorneys,” Corey said. “But eventually – I had a bunch of extracurricular activities outside of the firm that were fun and interesting. What I do and the way I do it, I felt like I was better off on my own.”
In his own words, Matthews had “probably about as traditional and institutional a background in politics as you can get.”
Before venturing into campaign work, Matthews earned a master’s degree in political science, and eventually became an aide for state Sen. Eleanor Sobel. From there he joined the Intergovernmental Affairs Office of Broward County as a lobbyist.
“At some point, I got the urge to put that to practice myself and see how fast I could move and write my own rules,” Matthews said.
“There’s not always a way to advance your career where you are, so you have to look up a little bit and create your own opportunities,” he said. “I’ve always believed that there was an opportunity to do things the right way, to be an honest broker and to build strong relationships with people, because I’ve seen people do it.”
It was also through Tallahassee’s small but mighty social scene that Matthews and Corey met the man Corey would come to call their “secret weapon” and hire as their first lobbyist: Cody Schwarz. Corey and Schwarz met when the latter would visit 101 as a patron.
Then at the Department of Management Services, Schwarz had worked as a lobbyist at Colodny Fass alongside veteran lobbyist Fred Karlinsky, who also crossed the street to join rival firm Greenberg Traurig in 2014.
“We had had conversations about there he was at Gunster, and where he wanted to be and where I was at the old firm, and that relationship developed along those lines over time,” said Schwartz of his time with Corey. “He was a friend first, but somebody that I looked up to as well.”
“So when that opportunity came about, we’d been talking it over for the last couple of months, and I just felt the timing was right,” said Schwarz, adding he also thinks highly of Matthews.
“It helps when the timing is right, and when you’ve got a partner you’ve known for a long time you can trust and you know precisely what the other’s priorities and strengths are,” Matthews said. “When those things come together, it’s an opportunity you don’t pass up.”
