Table 105, a new steak and seafood restaurant, offers fresh and delicious dining options created from sustainably resourced, quality ingredients. Their décor features huge slices of native Black Cherry Timber playing tribute to their location in Kane, Pennsylvania, the Black Cherry Timber Capital of the World.

A tree seems to grow through a banquet table as it stretches to the ceiling helping to give this restaurant an authentic sense of place as it is located at the edge of the Allegheny National Forest in northwestern, Pennsylvania.

Owner Rikiya Tanaka, has a passion for food, and the gift of hospitality.

Table 105 Owner, Rikiya Tanaka
Table 105 Owner, Rikiya Tanaka

His vision for Table 105, is to bring a new style of restaurant into the area. A place where those who delight in great food, can enjoy a fine meal, with a glass of wine, while relaxing with family or friends. Young professionals, couples and families, now have a local restaurant which understands the style of cooking where the emphasis is on fresh. Walk into the restaurant and you immediately are submersed in a relaxing atmosphere of fine food, prepared with care, with a goal of delighting the one’s palate.

Riki has left nothing to chance. He pays attention to the minutest detail. “Our goal is to have the freshest seafood, the most flavorful steaks, and a specialty bacon which will sear its flavor into your food memory.”

His starting point for all his entrees is fresh ingredients. “In my professional kitchen, the walk-in cooler is much bigger than the freezer, because the focus is on fresh,” explains Riki. “I have the freshest seafood in the county. If you enjoy fresh fish, this is the restaurant for you.” Riki expands on his seafood, “I know where the seafood served in my restaurant is caught, the name of the fishing boat, and the captain’s name. Our seafood is air-shipped from the coast, and our salmon is scaled, sliced, and prepared to individual order in-house.”

Talking about his choice of bacon, selected for the restaurant, brings a smile to his face. This is a man who knows his bacon. He has sourced a delicious cold smoked applewood bacon. This is a specialty bacon with very little fat but big, big flavor.

Chef Coby Butler

Of course, one of the most important ingredients in a successful restaurant is the Chef. Chef Coby Butler has multi-layered culinary skills, developed over many years of experience. This includes time spent studying culinary arts at Drexel University, and Johnson & Wales University– Charlotte. He describes himself as a chef/farmer/adventurer with a journey of learning about cooking and growing food, from charcuterie to juice cleanses and lettuce to trees.

As a child, his mother and the other female relatives would chase him out of the kitchen. It is his Uncle Joe Brunelli, a chief in New York, who first inspired Cody’s passion for the culinary field. It all started with a plate of Uncle Joe Brunelli’s spaghetti and meatballs. Intrigued by food preparation at a young age, Cody started watching cooking shows. While watching Iron Chief, he would be writing down hints and watching the techniques. From this interest, he pursed his passion to become a chef.

When you review his experience, it is like uncovering the many subtle layers of melded flavors necessary to produce a fine gumbo. As an intern, at Blue Hill at Stone Barns, Cody learned about sauces, foams and gelles, then as an Entremettier at The Lacroix at the Rittenhouse Hotel in Philadelphia, he worked with a range of different molecular gastronomy ingredients, helping to create dishes for chefs table menus.

Moving to Chicago, he worked on the grill and as a butcher at Taxim, where he developed new dishes and specials, fabricating with chicken, lamb, rabbit and octopus. At Aldino’s and Aldinos Market, he perfected pizza dough, bread doughs, and making fresh pasta. Also, in Chicago, Cody was the Chef at the Boiler Room Logan Square, and later the AM Sous Chef at Table Donkey and Stick where he fabricated with cow, hog, lamb, duck quail and rabbit.
Off to Hawaii, to learn about juices and nut milks, flavored and brewed kombucha, elixirs and wellness shots. Next stop was working at Tai Shan Farms, North Country Farms Kauai, and Anuene Farms Hawai’I to learn about beekeeping and organic farming. Then on to the position of line cook, at The Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C. Metro Area, at King Bird Restaurant.

Table 105’s Menu

Fish Tacos at Table 105
Fish Tacos

Easy, concise headings – From the Start, From the Garden, From the Farmer, From the Fisherman, From the Saucier, South of the Border Tacos and Pizzas make it easy to focus your eyes where your appetite leads.

I was intrigued with the menu listing- Peanut Butter Burger with Applewood Smoked Bacon, Cheddar, Fried onions, Peanut butter honey spread; a ½-pound burger with fries, house chips on a butter brioche roll. How could I not order something with the restaurant’s specialty bacon? So, I ordered, and I’m still trying to describe the unique savory flavor you get with each bite of burger. The burger is served up with a heavy-duty knife pinning the burger to the plate. Taste served with style-simply delightful, all at the extremely reasonable price of $13.

Other entries we enjoyed at our exploration dining at Table 105 include the Hummus-cut vegetables with fire roasted red pepper hummus with caramelized onion, French onion soup and the Baja or fish taco. Let’s start with the hummus-delicious, fresh and tasty. French onion soup had exceptional depth of flavor with mounds of provolone cheese. The Baja taco was blackened Mahi Mahi, avocado, black bean corn pico and Tequila Lime Creama-memorably delicious.

Restaurant Facts

The restaurant opened June 23, 2018. The casually upscale bar seats 28, with the full restaurant able to seat 118. In the center of the dining area a custom table, handcrafted of eastern pine, is rooted to the floor, as a tree trunk, reaches upward to the ceiling. The table was crafted locally in Eldred, Pennsylvania. As a center focal point, behind the bar, an artisan crafted a wooden tile application. They are similar in appearance to subway tile, but at Table 105, this display is crafted from a variety of Pennsylvania hardwoods.  As the chef trains the staff, expanded dishes will be added to the menu-but not before they reach perfection.

Plan Your Trip…

Table 105 is located at 105 North Fraley Street (Rt. 6) Kane, PA 16735. You can phone ahead for take- out, or to have your food ready when you arrive. Seating times are Sunday – Thursday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. The bar is open daily till 2 a.m., except on Sunday’s when the bar closes at midnight. A menu for Table 105 is posted on Facebook.

Linda Devlin moved to the Allegheny National Forest, Bradford, Pennsylvania over 30 years ago, and fell in love with the beauty of the forest. Devlin works as the Exec. Director of the Allegheny National Forest Visitor Bureau, where she can share her passion for the forest daily with visitors from around the world.