Myles Christian Anton

Trattoria Stella

In 1987, at age 16, Myles Anton began washing dishes at Mama Loccrichio’s , a classic family Italian restaurant located near his childhood home in Detroit, Michigan. After a few months, he moved from the cleaning side of the kitchen to the culinary side. While in culinary school he worked his way up to Sous Chef at the Townsend Hotel in Birmingham, Michigan under Chef Louai Sharkas. That experience led to multiple sous chef gigs at various restaurants in the Detroit area. In 1999 Anton opened D’Amato’s in Ann Arbor, a 170 seat Italian restaurant as the Executive Chef. In 2002, he headed east to open Bunker’s Wharf restaurant in Downeast Maine near Acadia National Lakeshore. The restaurant was located in a working lobster fishing harbor.

In 2004 Anton moved back to northern Michigan to open Trattoria Stella . At Stella he has been able to expand his vision of what food can be. He runs a locally based menu that changes daily. Local farmers show up at his door all summer with their goods. This kind of menu requires a lot of thinking on the fly. It is one of his greatest assets as a chef. The Farm to Table approach of purchasing is top priority in his kitchen. Anton works with more than 45 individual farms in this region. His food is aggressive, bold, bright, and fresh. Anton keeps his dishes simple, and let the quality of the products do the talking the Italian way.

Anton has received regional and national attention. Twice he was a recipient of a “Forty Under Forty” award which recognizes the most influential people in the Traverse City region. He has been a James Beard nominee for “Best Chef Great Lakes Region” five times. In addition, he has been highlighted in multiple local and national publications including Detroit News , Detroit Free Press , Chicago Tribune , New York Times , Rachel Ray , Cooking Ligh t, Hour Detroit Magazine, and Livability.com.

Anton also participates in multiple charitable events raising money for March of Dimes, Children’s Leukemia Research (Crush Birmingham), and other area nonprofits.

At home, Anton spends time swimming and biking with his two daughters, Annika and Maggie, and playing a lot of ball with his dog Benny.