Martha opened Martha’s Leelanau Table in 2008, with the help of Judy and Bruce Balas, her son Matt, and her friend Mike McFarlane. Her focus is on the local food that grows in abundance in Leelanau County and local wines that are here as well.

Martha has worked at many places in the area as a server. Including The Cove, Sugar Loaf, Hattie’s, Windows, The Inn at the Homestead and The Key to the County.

She was a food service director at Leland public school for 20 years and a manager at Stone House Bread when the bakery was in Leland. Serving people and being centered around food is what interested her the most. The comradery of the restaurant business in Leelanau County is what made Martha want to have open a restaurant of her own. She worked very hard to get a liquor license and thanks to many of friends, she was granted a resort license but not until September 18th, 2008. We opened on July 3rd of 2008 and the rest is history.