Matthew Branton, owner of North Country Kitchen and Bar in Suttons Bay, has been operating the establishment for the past year since closing on the purchase from Karen Boone in March 2023.
Since opening last June, Branton moved to Leelanau County to run his newest business venture and has been getting acclimated to working in the restaurant industry.
“It’s been a lot of fun. A restaurant is very difficult and complicated — very different from what I’ve done before, but I’m really enjoying it and I hope everyone else is enjoying it,” Branton said. “I love living up here and I really like the people — it reminds me a lot of where I grew up.”
Branton was born and raised in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, a resort community he describes as being very similar in many ways to Leelanau County. While everyone talks about the town of Jackson, Branton said Teton County in Wyoming is much like Leelanau in that the entire county works together to make it a great place to live, visit, and work.
“Everybody (in Teton) gets really busy and the whole thing kind of revolves around all these people that come to visit, but then there’s this really solid community that’s built underneath it all,” he said. “That kind of solid community is huge and I really like it. It (Leelanau) feels like home to me.”
Leading up to the purchase of North Country Kitchen and Bar, Branton said he was looking for a place to settle after being in the television industry for over a decade. The jobs and projects he previously worked on had him traveling for most of the year, so the change in pace in an area near the Great Lakes was one he happily welcomed. When he found out that North Country Kitchen in the charming town of Suttons Bay was for sale a year ago, Branton jumped on the opportunity to acquire the beloved business.
“It’s probably way more busy, but I love not having to travel,” he said. “I think the thing that was so nice about this place (North Country Kitchen) is that you could feel how personal it was to Barry and to Karen. I’m trying to bring some of that myself because I think a lot of what people like about a restaurant is the vibe and the kind of relationship they have with the place as much as the food. I just want the food to reflect that level of care.”
Branton’s journey to Leelanau is a long one, as his career took him all over the country and overseas. His family is originally from southern states like Louisiana and Arkansas, and he would eventually find himself moving to New Orleans to attend Tulane University, where he majored in economics. In college, Branton started working at live music venues like Tipitina’s and New Orleans’ House of Blues, which later led him to finding work in the television business.
When the focus became working on television sets, Branton was based out of Los Angeles and would be constantly on the road traveling. Although he worked his way up from the bottom and was having reasonable success within the industry, Branton said the moment he realized he wanted to change careers came to him during the middle of a job at the Los Angeles Museum of Art. Half way through the day of working on set for a reality show there, Branton said the crew wanted to save money by shooting B-roll for a different show focused on cupcakes. The sudden change of projects also made Branton think twice about the kind of work he wanted to be doing.
“I was so crestfallen by the fact that I was sitting in this modern art museum and all I was working on was what a cupcake looked like, it really kind of broke my brain and I decided to quit the business right then,” he said. “So this is me trying to come settle down and build a little more life for myself.”
Branton left LA in 2017 and worked freelance for another two to three years before shifting to putting his energy into investments. These days, when people ask him about the career transition, Branton said he likes to talk about how similar the industries actually are, noting how both jobs ultimately involve entertaining but serving different audiences.
“It’s kind of a team oriented fluid environment, and the kitchen people are crafts people, so it feels kind of familiar. I still have a lot to learn, but it’s not so different that I feel like I don’t know what I’m looking at,” he said.
Southern inspired menu items like jambalaya, gumbo, fried green tomatoes, and the chicken and grits are nods to the kinds of food Branton and his family grew up loving. This summer, he said there will be dishes added like a Cajun white fish ceviche, as well as a southern brunch offered daily rather than just on the weekends. Along with the brunches, customers can also expect to see early bird specials back with reduced prices and old menu favorites like grilled cheese and lobster bisque.
“My family is from the south and I think the food is really good… There’s not a lot of it up here, so I try to do some of that and see little ways we can integrate it with that kind of classic Northern Michigan fare,” he said. “That’s really what we’re working on, how can we push these two things together and make them fit.”
