Dining at The Willows Inn on Lummi Island

We've been wanting to visit The Willows Inn since Blaine Wetzel took over as head chef three years ago. The Willows has been serving farm-to-table meals to guests for over 100 years. In 2010, Chef Blaine returned to his home state (he hails from Olympia, WA) after a couple years cheffing abroad (most auspiciously at Noma, the critically acclaimed restaurant in Copenhagen) and chose The Willows as his new home kitchen. And thank God for all of us living in the PNW that he did. I have never had a more beautifully prepared meal anywhere in the world, and I got to experience this in my own backyard! And Blaine is just one of several chefs that creates the magic in this idyllic haven. BTW, our room was actually called The Haven, and it is an accurate moniker.
Arriving at Lummi Island is where the fun begins. We took the 5 up to Bellingham and then cut across to the Lummi Island ferry which comes every twenty minutes all day and takes about six minutes to cross. Fortunately, we had nothing but gorgeous weather the whole three days we were gallivanting from island to island. The Willows Inn sits on the northwest corner of the island and afforded us a glorious sunset. Upon arrival, we were greeted by Vanessa who offered us some fresh hot cider ("Now, just so you know, it does have a little brandy and Cointreau in it." "We'll take doubles, thank you.").
After checking in, we got settled and shared a nice hot bath in our spacious tub with some bath salts provided by the local spa. We walked down to the beach and listened to the surf and walked across the rocks and took silly pictures and then got ready for dinner. It was time to get down to business.
Before dinner, there is a little bar in the main house, right between the living room and the kitchen, called Taft's. Our original plan was to NOT drink before dinner so we wouldn't get drunk and forget what we ate. But dinner wasn't until 6:30, and it was only 5:45, so...
Tommy refrained by just ordering a glass of blanc-to-blanc. I had to try the Reefnetter, and I'm so glad I did. It was bourbon and benedictine mixed with a simple syrup they make by infusing toasted birch branches from their birch tree! It was ridiculously good. They also brought us two delicious oysters which were served on this cool wooden box atop ice cold beach rocks. This was a style we would see repeated a few times. The young ladies tending bar were about as sweet as could be and both were actual Lummi Island natives. Tommy asked if they attended school on the island, to which one of them replied "Only through 6th grade." "Then what?", we asked. "Oh, then we just dropped out." She quickly laughed and explained that they attended high school in Ferndale and had to catch the 7:20 am ferry every morning and then take a bus to school.
At 6:30 pm, the kitchen staff began seating. It's a nice intimate space, maybe ten tables. From the moment you are seated, you are never left unattended. If we got up to use the restroom, there was someone there folding our napkin. For us, that's probably not so great since we are moderation-challenged. The half-bottle of Viognier we were served, for example, was gone in about twenty minutes, and they had to bring us more. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
With dinner, you have your choice of wine pairings or juice pairings. Our plan was for Tommy to get the wine and me to get the juice, but that didn't work out. We both ended up doing the wine pairings because they just looked too interesting. The juice pairings looked interesting too, if I was twelve or allergic to alcohol.
To start, they served us an Eaglemount semi-sweet hard apple cider from Port Townsend, WA. It was a lovely palate cleanser and complemented the first few dishes very well. And here is where the snacks begin. Samish Bay mussels, crispy crepe with salmon roe, crispy halibut skin and, my favorite, crispy kale leaves with black truffle and rye! I wanted to raid the kitchen and find where they stash the kale and truffles.
As dinner officially began, they served us a 2011 Maurice Cellars Viognier from Walla Walla, WA. It was a perfect choice to accompany the next few courses which included tiny new potatoes in buttermilk and whey, venison tartare with wild sorrel and rye (the venison may have brought tears to my eyes because-A. It was amazing melt-in-your-mouth heavenly goodness and B. We may have seen the deer grazing while driving to the inn), grilled shiitake and yellowfoot chanterelles, weathervane scallops with parsley and dill, and grilled sunchokes with sweet onion sauce.
Each of these dishes are presented beautifully. The chefs have mastered the art of pairing incredible flavors and doing it in the most creative fashion. Throughout the meal, each of them comes out to serve each table at some point and chat with the guests. They were all charming and interesting and told us about how they each have their own projects they work on throughout the week. One of them is a hunter, one specializes in foraging (that's right), etc. They are all culinary artists, and the dishes they create are results of numerous attempts and fails.
For the next few courses, we switched to a Pike Brewing Space Needle Golden IPA which is freakin' brilliant! With it, we enjoyed smoked sockeye salmon and black cod (their smoker is right outside the inn and you can smell them grilling and smoking for hours leading up to dinner), hearth bread with pan drippings and butter (again, I'm crying and shaking the table; and this time in a wooden box atop red hot beach rocks), caraflex cabbage roasted with lemon balm, wild seaweeds braised with Dungeness crab and brown butter, and quite possibly the best ever dry aged duck with dried beets and lingonberries.
At some point in there, we switched over to a 2011 Cameron Arley's Leap pinot noir from Dundee. Yay, Dundee! It was excellent, but we were definitely slowing down by that point.
Finally, we were poured a 2010 Brian Carter 'Opulento' dessert wine, very red and very sweet, from Yakima Valley. It was like drinking candy from heaven. With it, we were served the loveliest quince granita (from their quince tree right out front) with a yogurt mousse, a dish of chestnut and hazelnut creams and little salty caramel flax bites.
Throughout the whole meal, we never once felt rushed, we never felt too attended. The staff were very warm and all great conversationalists, ready to answer any and all questions and also genuinely interested in hearing about us (and you all know how we love talking about us). Each course was presented like a fine piece of music that demanded total attention and focus. And I'm sure it reads like we were inundated with food, but the portions were actually all quite small and manageable.
When the bill comes, we think "we can pay this bill OR adopt a child from Nigeria." But, ultimately, we pay it because what we paid for was an amazing experience-food as art. This was a celebration of good food and the bounty with which we are blessed. And, for these two foodies from Portland (by way of Orange County and Tucson), it was a celebration we will remember and savor for the rest of our lives.