Appleton chef named James Beard semifinalist

Matthew Day

Staff

February 23, 2026

APPLETON – Chef Adam Marty said the two restaurants he and his wife, Lindsay, own in Appleton – ellinor and Marvol – have seating capacities of 35 and 14, respectively, reflecting his career-long focus on quality over quantity.

Those efforts have attracted a sizable spotlight, as he was recently named a semifinalist for the 2026 James Beard Awards. 

Marty – along with 20 other chefs selected from across Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin – is a semifinalist in the Best Chef: Midwest category. 

According to jamesbeard.org, the James Beard Awards – widely considered “the Oscars of the food world” – were established in 1990 to recognize “the nation’s top restaurant and bar professionals… who collectively embody the breadth of American culinary excellence.” 

Marty – who found himself astonished by the nomination – said it’s “really great to be recognized nationally.”  

“[It’s] awesome for me and the [Appleton] area,” he said. “It’s so great to have someone in that category [from Wisconsin] who isn’t in Milwaukee and Madison. It’s just super cool, and [I’m] super grateful for everyone who got me here.” 

Cooking up a career 

Growing up on the west side of Minneapolis, Marty said though “I liked cooking,” he never thought it was something he’d do for a living.

Originally starting college as a marketing major, Marty said he ultimately left just shy of graduating and found work with a catering company.  

At that time, in his early 20s, he said he “literally knew nothing about working in a professional kitchen.” 

However, when the company’s sous chef was let go, Marty said he found himself working alongside the owner – spending the next two years “learning everything.”

“I never went to traditional culinary school,” he said, “but I’ve learned from the right people at the right times.” 

After the catering experience, Marty said his real-world education continued at an area country club, before moving to Appleton in 2012, where he spent nearly three years at Zuppas Café and Catering learning from Peter Kuenzi.

He then further honed his skill in Green Bay, working at Three Three Five with Chris Mangless, which he said was filled with “so much creativity, so much hard work…, but it was really like a bullet train to get me to where I needed to be, culinarily.” 

Marty said his nontraditional educational course took him to Thornberry Creek at Oneida, where he spent about three years as both chef and food and beverage director. 

“I take that as more of my ‘post-grad business education,’ where I was doing more of pricing, invoicing, hiring, firing – more of the management side,” he said. “[I was] still creating menus, but I learned a lot working with vendors and working with people and dealing more directly with employee needs than as much of the culinary side.” 

Sharpening his skills at other restaurants, Marty said, helped set the stage for his own entrepreneurial journey.

“As a chef, I think it’s always a dream to open a restaurant,” he said. “I think you always want your own thing, if you’re really passionate about it.” 

Establishing ellinor 

During a Sunday drive with his family in fall 2021, Marty said passed 1016 E. Pacific St., a rare commercial property in a residential area.

He said he’d never seen the triangular building before, but it fondly reminded him of a similarly embedded restaurant he’d known in Minneapolis, “where you walk in, the kitchen’s right there and it’s not super big – it’s friendly and cozy and warm.” 

Seemingly stumbling across “the perfect spot” for his would-be restaurant, Marty said he asked a realtor friend to check into the property and its availability – learning it had previously served as a photography studio. 

Just like that, Marty said he was able to secure a lease and begin to build out the space, advancing his “hyper-speed education” in small business ownership.

Due to the building’s limited space, he said a full-sized kitchen was out of the question.

So, Marty said he opted for a wood-fired oven – a choice that maximized functionality and supported his plan to feature pizzas on the menu.

By June 2022, he said ellinor – a portmanteau of the names of his and Lindsay’s children, Ellis and Nora – was open and serving “contemporary, upscale,” New American cuisine. 

Who ‘wood’ have thought? 

Though located outside of Appleton’s bustling downtown, and with just a three-person staff “grinding it out” for the first year and a half, Marty said ellinor eventually caught on. 

In a region where “the supper club is very much king,” he said it took a little time for the restaurant to find its audience. 

“We definitely strive to push the boundaries of what can be successful in this area,” he said. 

Though opening another local option for a 24-ounce prime rib with a salad bar might have been the safer route, Marty said customers have come to appreciate ellinor’s more elegant approach. 

“We get fresh oysters two or three times a week,” he said. “[On our menu], we can put raw fish, Alaskan halibut, black cod, ocean trout and all of these amazing ingredients people don’t see [often].” 

Marty said it’s heartening to see visitors start with pizza on their first visit, then return to try unique starters like roasted cauliflower (made with marcona almonds, dates, bacon, chili, mint, leeks and lemon olive oil) and eventually, work their way through the rest of the menu. 

“It’s [been a process of] changing people’s minds to say, ‘Yeah, I’m going to come in with my wife or my significant other, or my sister or my girlfriends, we’re going to get four starters to share, and we’re going to get a main [dish], we’re going to share it and we’re going to get dessert,’” he said. “It’s not tapas style, but it’s very much ‘try as much as you can, because in three months, it’s going to be gone.’” 

The “hyper-seasonal” menu, Marty said, changes five times a year, influenced and inspired by available ingredients, primarily sourced from Kendall Vosters at nearby Fox Cities Farm. 

He said Vosters also supplies the wood for ellinor’s oven, which cooks “95%” of what’s served. 

“The wood aspect does add a unique flavor to everything you’re eating, whether you know it or not,” he said. “I feel like it adds just a little bit of nuance.” 

With constant tending, cast-iron pans and, by now, a second-nature knowledge of its “different zones” of heat, Marty said the wood-fired oven “really is an amazing piece of equipment.” 

“Right next to the fire could be 900 degrees,” he said, “but on the front, right side, away from the fire, maybe it’s sitting at 400, so we can cook something a little bit more delicate, like duck breast, halibut or other kinds of fish and lighter poultries.” 

Among ellinor’s non-heated fare, Marty said, is an array of made-from-scratch desserts, including homespun ice cream. 

“It’s really [about] putting the energy into making the dessert, because it shouldn’t be an afterthought,” he said of ellinor’s emphasis. “It should be as important as anything else you’re going to order.” 

Changes to ellinor’s rotating, “ultra-creative” menu, Marty said, are highly anticipated by regular customers. 

Though an atypical restaurant – down to its hand towels in the restrooms – is never a shoo-in to succeed, Marty said it’s been “absolutely wonderful” to see Appleton embrace his vision. 

A Marvol to behold 

With his love for culinary creation, the support of “amazing staff and servers” and the ability to source peak-flavor ingredients locally, Marty said he was eventually able to add another Appleton venture: Marvol. 

Located at 126 E. Pacific St., he said this second restaurant is “super intimate.”

“Usable space is probably 500 square feet – it’s pretty much a closet,” he said. “But it’s fun there, because we push the boundaries even more than we do at ellinor. [For example], we can do hamachi crudo and oysters with caviar if we want.” 

Bucking the QR code trend, Marty said Marvol’s menu is hand-written in a journal. 

The restaurant’s name, he said, is a blend of the first three letters of his last name and Lindsay’s maiden name, Volinkaty.

Marty said Marvol focuses on rarified small-plate cuisine and cocktails, which are provided by a staff consisting of simply one bartender, one server and one cook. 

“Last month, we did beef tartare with fresh black truffles,” he said. “We can do a lot more fun and adventurous and exciting things [there].” 

Savoring, sharing the surprise nomination 

Having spent his career in the culinary world, Marty said he became aware of the James Beard Awards perhaps 15 years ago. 

Though it’s never been his goal to earn a nomination, he said he has always respected the awards for recognizing the demands chefs face.

Owning intimate restaurants in a city with a population outside of Wisconsin’s top-five largest, Marty said he was all the more shocked to learn he’d been nominated for a James Beard Award.

“The lady I get my honeycomb and raw honey from – who is actually three or four blocks from ellinor – messaged me and said, ‘Wow, congratulations, that’s amazing,’” he said. “And I responded with, ‘Thank you, but for what?’ I had no idea.” 

When he received the official email, Marty said he “just kind of stared at it for 30 seconds, almost speechless… [it was] such a surprise” – particularly regarding the Best Chef: Midwest category. 

“It’s not my M.O. to be [like] ‘look at me, I’m the best’ kind of thing,” he said. “It’s 100% never just me – it’s the team – so it’s weird to get named like that. I’d almost rather just have the restaurant named, but it is still really cool.” 

Though he has “no real concrete evidence” as to how he got on the James Beard Awards panel’s radar, Marty said he suspects it’s because he and his staff “cook with heart and soul, and how I want to eat – how I want to dine.” 

“What makes me feel important when I walk into a restaurant, whether it’s the hand towels in the bathroom or the resetting of the silverware, or how I’m greeted when I walk in the door, or how the chefs prepare things, how things come out – that’s how I designed the restaurants,” he said. 

Taking inspiration from his previous employers, Marty said he believes in “keeping it simple, but elevated,” while balancing creativity with sincerity. 

Since the nomination news broke, he said he’s received a chorus of heartfelt congratulations. 

“That’s been wild – definitely been a whirlwind…,” he said. “Seeing them communicate to you that they’re proud of you or they’re happy you got it – all those things make life what I think it should be… It’s relationships, and seeing that I’ve created those relationships with customers and friends and family.” 

James Beard Award finalists will be announced March 31, and Marty said if he’s among those named, he would attend the ceremony in Chicago June 15. 

Other than those potential plans, he said the nomination – an honor which may have already raised the profile of his restaurants – will affect neither his processes nor passion. 

“If anything, it just makes me confident that what we’re doing, how we’re doing it, the staff we have and the menus we create are great,” he said. 

Though he “would be so blessed and honored” to be named a James Beard Award finalist, Marty said it’s “business as usual” at his restaurants. 

From him, to Lindsay “on the back end” and to all staff throughout, he said the purpose of all the creativity and effort is to ensure guests are “blown away” – whether it’s their first or 100th visit (as one ellinor customer recently celebrated), or whether they’re trying his version of a classic dish or something entirely new. 

“What’s kept me going is seeing people super happy and coming back,” he said. “Seeing familiar faces so excited about this and that, and just being creative alongside it, has just been great.” 

For more, visit ellinor-appleton.com, or find ellinor and Marvol on social media.