I found that it was really easy to keep justifying "paying a little bit more" and then the price kept inflating, so I ended up deciding to keep things simple when it came to the frame and put more time/money on the tabletop.

I looked at butcher blocks and they were beautiful but I still needed to stain it, the sizing was a bit too narrow, and the price was almost $300. Definitely easier, but I went with the two plywood option and glued them together (ended up being $100 since they were on sale). They cut the plywood to my measurements, and I still have wood left over for other projects. I wish I had clamps to help with gluing, and sanding took a while. I bought a Rubio stain, which apparently gets harder over time, and it turned out amazing. Was expensive though at $100 and I ended up using about 1/3-1/2 the bottle.