It would work for omni-directional lighting. Do you have other fixtures that will cast light down on the work area? If not then you may want to consider open bottom glass pendants.

Those will look awesome. I say go for it... I used 2 foyer pendant lights for my island about the same size and it looks nice. I do have a very high ceiling over the island - 17 foot vaulted ceiling. Several people use foyer sized pendants for the island. Love that dining light fixture!

Some of the things hollysprings mentioned may be code, depending on where you live. It was required for us to run electrical through the cabinet. The code even specified that we needed an outlet on the floor next to the cabinet - but luckily the inspector didn't notice that we didn't bother. We did need an outlet on the cabinet side wall. We thought we would need 15" overhang for our counter, but we did it at 12.5" and it works great. If this was your main eating area and you wanted it to feel like regular table seating, you might want 15" but we sit there a about 5-6 hours per week and it's fine. Our counter with overhang is quartz. Depending on whether you are using 2cm or 3cm, you may need support -- which any good GC can do, you add 3/8" steel bars under the countertop. At either 12" or 15", there is no need for corbels or other more intrusive support.

When we first moved in to this house, we, too, had a small kitchen. So we purchased some Metro shelving and a Boos Block and put them together. The butcher block just rests on a cut up thin sanding pad placed on the top of each leg. But it's so heavy that it doesn't move around. From GardenWeb Photos Shelving like this is now available at the big box stores. Just be sure you get the heavy-duty variety if you are going to load it up. If you want shelving in something other than chrome (ours is a sort of graphite color), you can order it online, or go to a restaurant supply store. You could also put casters on the legs if you needed a mobile cart -- again, get the heavy duty ones. For ours, the shelving is 24" x 36"; the butcher block top is 30" x 36". But many other sizes are available. As you can see from the pix, this now backs up to small granite topped cabinet. But for 12 years, it was our only island. We love being able to prep/chop from any side.