Table Six Restaurant brings big-city feel and taste to Menominee

Meet Vincent Baron. He wants to redefine your understanding of what Italian food is meant to be.

Canned sauce? Not in his kitchen. Boxed macaroni? This isn't an Olive Garden, folks.

Those types of ingredients won't do for Baron, who did a portion of his training at a Mario Batali-owned restaurant in New York City after graduating from the Institute of Culinary Education.

But a kitchen herb garden? Check. From-scratch recipes? Without a doubt.

This, friends, is Italian food from start to finish and for every tantalizing bite.

Table Six Restaurant in Menominee is everything you hope you would find in an Italian-focused eatery and everything you wouldn't expect to find in a town that boasts approximately 9,100 residents. White table cloth adorns each table, as does a seasonal menu and a wine list that guides even the most novice palate in the right direction. And the food? Recipes that are cooked right in Italy can be found being served here.

Take, for example, the bacon-wrapped pears served with goat cheese.

"At first I don't think anyone was sure about that one," laughs Baron, 27, as he takes time away from his kitchen to sit in the front window of his establishment just prior to opening the doors for dinner. "Once people started to try it, though, they really liked it. It's definitely going to be back on the menu this fall."

One thing that stands out about the restaurant is the feeling of a big-city experience when you walk through the door. The decor is great, sure, but it's the building itself that gets your attention. The former Elks Lodge--which once was decorated with drywall and layers of carpeting and tile on top of a now-revealed hardwood floor--was completely restored by the Barons. The brick that sat beneath the tired white wall is now exposed, giving the feeling of a restaurant very reminiscent to those you would typically encounter in places like Milwaukee or Chicago.

It's a building that was never meant to house the Italian restaurant. In fact, the Barons only came across it after having a much smaller venue fall through due to it being a historical location and the renovation costs being much higher than a startup business could afford.

"This place didn't look like this when we first walked in," says Wendy, Vincent's wife and partner in the business. They are busy raising daughters Zaida, age 10, and Sophia, 1, when they aren't at the restaurant. "We did a lot of work, and we're really happy with the way it turned out."

And they should be. Table Six has a feeling of elegance when you enter, and that feeling continues from the service to the well-designed lunch and dinner menus to the wine selection. The food? Well, that's beyond elegant. Every dish is hand made by Baron and his staff, which the chef whittled down from over a dozen to just four of the best in the area.

"They're all outstanding chefs," says Baron. "I know I can walk out of here right now, right at dinner, to handle something and they'd be able to take care of the kitchen and every single order."

And when it comes to ordering, don't be shy. Baron is the kind of chef who revels in the chance to live up to a challenge. That's why he has two offerings on his menu that a diner is hard pressed to find anywhere else in the Upper Peninsula: a chef's tasting menu and a chef's table. The former is a four-course meal created specifically for you by Baron and the latter is a six- to eight-course meal served right in the kitchen where you can see an artist at work.

"So far, we've only had one chef's table," says Baron. "I would love to do more though."

And you never know what you might end up with when you ask Baron to prepare anything he'd like--perhaps it will be a lobster macaroni and cheese that just melts in your mouth, or maybe something as equally succulent.

No matter what you order, or ask the chef to prepare for you, one thing is for certain: it's going to be wonderful.

On a scale of one through five, when all is said and done and your evening is coming to an end, you'll likely find yourself rating Baron and his restaurant nothing less than a six.

Sam Eggleston is the managing editor of Upper Peninsula Second Wave and a full-time freelance writer. He was born and raised in the U.P. His favorite thing about dining at Table Six? Beyond that lobster macaroni and cheese, it had to be the incredible wait staff. Eggleston can be reached via email.