Chives Restaurant, Green Bay's Finest - Kitchen Table Review

My wife and I recently had dinner at Chives Restaurant - one of Green Bay's finest.  We leveraged a gift certificate that my team had given me for Christmas, and took advantage of Chives' "kitchen table" experience. 

And what an experience it was.  

Basically chef sets you up in a corner of the kitchen (next to his cook books as you can see in the picture) and then proceeds to feed you course after course of small bites. 

For this evening, we were presented with the following: 

• An oyster trio, featuring one raw, one baked with a smoked cheese base, and one fried with a pepper sauce. 
• A plate of poached asparagus in a light lemon sauce and fresh goat cheese. 
• Freshly caught whitefish (from the chef himself!) that were poached perfectly
• An incredibly well prepared seared scallop course with parsnip puree
• A grilled chipotle beef tenderloin with an accompany of French fried blue onion
• Bananas Foster, with homemade cinnamon ice cream 

The dishes were creative yet delicious, complex yet tasty, casual yet formal, all at the same time.  The dinner could not have been any better.  And for someone like me that has never been in a professional kitchen in the middle of service (beyond what I've viewed on Hell's Kitchen), it was as much a learning experience as it was gastronomic nirvana. 

Hat's off to owner/chef J.R. and the rest of the crew.  Our chef's table experience at Chives could not have been any better.  It has our highest endorsement.