Table 6 Just Gets Better With Age Under Chef Aniedra Nichols

Table 6 is old enough to vote; the eighteen-year-old restaurant at 609 Corona Street has been holding court in the same cozy spot off East Sixth Avenue since 2004. That's so long ago that the exact opening date is buried under the weight of the entire internet and doesn't pop up on a Google search. It's the same year that Yelp and Facebook launched. Table 6 has survived four different presidential administrations, the rise of social media and a global pandemic — and it's still going strong under its current chef, Aniedra Nichols.

Nichols is no newb in the kitchen. Her pedigree in Denver's restaurants stretches back to 2007 at Elway's, where she was executive chef until 2016. Since then, she's had stints at RiNo favorite Fish N Beer, Tammen's Fish Market in the Denver Central Market and as a caterer. "I needed a break," she says of leaving restaurant kitchens for that catering gig in 2018. But in September 2020, she quietly re-entered the restaurant world by joining the team at Table 6.

"There wasn’t a lot of catering going on, for sure," Nichols says of 2020, in what may be one of the great understatements of the decade. She'd known Table 6 owner Aaron Forman for about fifteen years, and while dining there one night, she discovered that the restaurant was currently without a chef. "I sat down and had a chat with Aaron," she recalls. "It sort of slowly worked."
By that, she means Table 6's slog through late 2020's COVID capacity restrictions. The restaurant came through those operational challenges gracefully, if not painlessly, and now Nichols is happy to be focusing on the regular work of running a kitchen instead of endless 180s and course corrections. "I focus a lot on as local as possible," she says of her cooking style, citing Altius Farms, River Bear American Meats and Mountain Man Micro Farms as suppliers. "[It's] very seasonal and really just creating various styles of cuisine: Mexican, Mediterranean, Asian. It's all over the place, which I do enjoy."

That's evident on Table 6's current menu, which runs the gamut from samosa tater tots to carne asada to Thai-inspired grilled eggplant. Nichols's favorite menu item at the moment is the grilled Romano beans (extra-long Italian green beans from the same family as the French haricots verts) served with a heavy-on-the-dill green goddess dressing and capers — though a close second and third are the fried green tomatoes and the Palisade peach salad with pickled shallots and roasted-strawberry vinaigrette.

Table 6 continues to be one of those Denver restaurants that flies under the radar but hangs in year after year. It's exactly the type of neighborhood spot — "so cute, so mom-and-pop, not stuffy," says Nichols — that seemed to be in the greatest danger of closing its doors for good post-COVID. "I know Forman has never been huge on promoting [it]," she acknowledges. But its lack of splashy headlines doesn't mean a lack of satisfied customers. "A lot of us oldie chefs just love coming here," she continues, citing word of mouth as a reason Table 6 continues to be successful. "And people enjoy the changes they get as the menus change." (Nichols creates four to six menus per year.)
Another change coming is the arrival of a full bar — finally. The eatery has served just wine and beer since its opening day, and customers have consistently requested cocktails over the years. Nichols can even hear those requests from the intimate, 61-seat dining room while she's working the line, and notes that many of the restaurant's younger customers in particular are eager for spirits with their supper. The rollout, scheduled for early September, includes a handful of batched cocktails as well as seating at the new bar.

Nichols's next goal for Table 6's kitchen is staff development in what is admittedly a very difficult labor market. "That's your duty," she says of educating her line cooks, "to teach and have them take over the reins." She regularly encourages staff to take on development of new vegetarian and gluten-free menu items, adding, "We have been so fortunate to have a couple of staples here. One of the guys was the dishwasher, and he’s now moved onto the line, and he’s doing an amazing job. But it was rough for a minute. We lost one of our really good line cooks. ... She was gone for six weeks [before her position was filled], and it was the longest six weeks of my life."

Table 6 is located at 609 Corona Street and is open from 5 to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Reservations are recommended. For more information, visit table6denver.com.