The economics of squeezing a fine dining restaurant into a small space may work in a town that stays up later than 9 p.m. But in Vero Beach, turning tables more than twice a night is just about impossible, unless you want to bump the early birds to mid-afternoon.
Or open first thing in the morning. That’s exactly what Martha and Denny Lake intend to do when they return to the island to open their popular sandwich shop, The Red Onion, in the space currently occupied by Michael’s Table. That fine dining restaurant is headed for a new, larger location on the island, according to owner Michael Lander, though he won’t divulge just where just yet (he swears it isn’t Maison Martinique, but rumor has it it’ll be in South Beach, conveniently close to Lander’s home.)
Lander is the former executive chef of The Moorings from 2000 to 2012. He opened his restaurant a year and a half ago, switching posts with Ben Tench, who owned Tangos II in the same location and took over Lander’s job at the Moorings.
“We’re not trying to be weird with not giving an exact address; we want to make sure everything is signed, sealed and delivered before we do,” said Lydia Lander, Michael’s wife, in a note accompanying an emailed announcement to patrons announcing that Saturday night was the last for Michael’s Table in its Park Place location across from Humiston Park.
The larger location would have enough seats to enable Lander to get a liquor license for a full bar. Michael’s Table only served beer and wine.
When Lander first came to town, he applied for a job at Grand Harbor, where the club manager at the time was Denny Lake; he held the post 12 years before moving on briefly to Sea Oaks; his wife Martha was marketing manager of Grand Harbor.
It was Lake who passed Lander’s name along to The Moorings. Now, Lander returned the favor – the Lakes were the first people he called when he knew he was going to vacate the space.
Beachside fans of The Red Onion have been clamoring for the couple to reopen on the beach, where the eatery opened in 2003 and closed in 2013. The two maintained their mainland location across from Indian Rive Medical Center after losing their lease at their second location across from the Jaycee Beach boardwalk.
”Our island customers have been wonderful about driving over the bridge, but we never stop hearing ‘We wish you were still on the beach’,” says Martha Lake, former marketing manager at Grand Harbor.
For the first time, the beachside location will serve breakfast as well as lunch and dinner. Expected to open by the end of summer, the new Red Onion will offer grilled croissant sandwiches including a Monte Cristo with a side of syrup, and a grilled eggs, spinach, feta, tomato and onion croissant. “But if someone wants eggs on a plate, we’ll do it,” she says.
At dinner, the Red Onion will keep the same menu as for lunch, which includes grilled asparagus and parmesan sandwiches, lobster rolls, and scallop salad.
The Lakes, originally from New Jersey, were living in Georgia when they decided to move to Vero, where Martha’s parents lived, in 1991.
Lander was raised in Atlanta; he apprenticed with the Buckhead Life restaurant group and helped open Buckhead Diner. He is busy putting the final touches on Garage Pizza, a new wood-fired pizza place in a renovated 1960s gas station downtown.
Lander has been a leader of the farm-to-table movement in Vero and is serving as a consultant to Garage Pizza. “That’s going to open first,” he says. “That’s what we’re focused on now.”