LUMMI ISLAND — The best meal of our lives began with a puff of smoke.
My wife and I had just taken our seats in the dining room at the Willows Inn on this island west of Bellingham. The dinner we’d eagerly anticipated since January, when The New York Times declared Willows one of 10 restaura
nts in the world worth a plane ride, was about to begin.
A server placed a small wooden box on our table and walked away. When the lid was lifted, out wafted a cloud of magically, deliciously fragrant smoke. Caught off-guard, we could only giggle in surprise.
And then we tasted the box
‘s edible contents: small cubes of smoked salmon resting on a bed of the wood chips that produced the smoke. Eyes-rolling-back-in-the-head delicious, the troll-caught fish melted in our mouths. There was no giggling this time, only swooning.
* * *
Established in 1910, the Willows Inn has been a Northwest Best Places guidebook mainstay for years. But it leaped to new gastronomic heights in February. That’s when the kitchen reopened under the direction of 25-year-old wunderkind chef Blaine Wetzel.
Wetzel, who grew up in Olympia, came to Lummi Island in August 2010 from Copenhagen. There, he worked in the kitchen of a restaurant called Noma that, for the past two years, has been named the world’s best restaurant in the annual S. Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants poll of chefs, restaurant owners and restaurant critics.
Noma is renowned for chef Rene Redzepi’s highly distinctive and innovative Nordic cuisine, and fanatical insistence on ingredients from Europe’s northern latitudes.
“Noma is not about olive oil, foie gras, sun-dried tomatoes and black olives,” the restaurant’s website declares.
Wetzel’s arrival at Willows Inn was serendipitous, owner Riley Starks says. Seeking to return to the Northwest and in the area for an interview at another restaurant, Wetzel happened to see Starks’ help wanted ad on Craigslist.
“It was meant to happen. I don’t know that there’s any other way to describe it,” said Starks, who bought the place 10 years ago.
“It’s pretty much a Cinderella story.”
At Willows, Wetzel found a place to create food in the Noma style. The dishes, the way they’re presented and the all-hands-on-deck service are all Noma trademarks, wrote Frank Bruni of The New York Times in a June 10 piece.
Vegetables, greens, herbs and flowers are grown at the inn’s nearby Nettles Farm, or foraged by Wetzel and his kitchen brigade from the forests, fields and roadsides of Lummi Island. Eggs come from the farm as well. All fish and shellfish are caught or harvested locally, some of it by Starks, who also fishes commercially in Lummi Island’s unique reef net fishery, “considered one of the most sustainable fishing methods in the world,” the Willows menu told us.
It all goes into a five-course fixed-price menu of dishes that range from delicious to transcendentally delicious. For foodies, the Willows is a dream destination, a privileged dining experience.
* * *
Dinner begins with a series of five small “snacks,” as the kitchen calls them. They’re not listed on the menu, and they’re delivered in fairly rapid succession, accompanied by frequent pours of Italian sparkling wine.
The magic box of smoke was followed by a basket of delicate radishes and greens garnished with edible “dirt” made of toasted hazelnuts and malt. I clumsily spilled the dirt on our butcher paper-covered table, but collecting and eating the tasty bits was so fun and satisfying that I suspect the spillage was part of the program. A miniature flower pot contained a dip made of yogurt and a variety of herbs that was so tasty we cleaned the cute little pot with spoons after our veggies were eaten.
Then came a couple of exquisitely composed small bites using ingredients as disparate as sauerkraut, geoduck and a potato chip — a house-made chip, of course. By the third snack, we’d entered a kind of dining rapture, an eater’s fugue. We’d never eaten anything so utterly enthralling.
The entire crew, including the kitchen staff, gets involved in serving the snacks and the five main courses that follow. Servers briefly explain each dish’s origins and preparation. Wetzel himself delivered one of our snacks, a pair of Penn Cove oysters nestled on a bed of tapioca in the shell.
With the arrival of a basket of house-made bread warmed by hot stones, with a saucer of butter churned on the island, it was time for the main courses.
* * *
You don’t have to book a room at the Willows Inn to dine there, but it certainly helps. Dinner-only reservations can be made only two weeks in advance, and the place was rapidly approaching full booking for the summer and early fall.
We spent the night in a rustic little cottage just up the hill from the main buildings, a private spot with French doors opening to a deck and a view of Rosario Strait ($225 a night). There are eight other rooms on the main grounds, as well as additional lodging at Nettles Farm and a nearby waterfront home.
Room rates include breakfast in the dining room at 9 a.m. We were served a sausage and green onion strata (a layered dish of eggs and bread), an almond Danish, fresh greens and fruit, two strips of bacon, and our choice of orange or apple juice.
Nettles Farm is open to visitors, but getting there requires a tedious uphill slog of a walk through a subdivision-style neighborhood that looks like it was dropped in from Camano Island. Lummi’s roads are perfectly walkable, for the most part. There are no shoulders, but there’s hardly any car traffic, either. Be sure to return the locals’ friendly waves.
The island also is well-suited to cycling. Willows rents bikes with electric-motor assists for the uphill parts, $35 for four hours. You’ll see almost all of the island’s sights on a seven-mile loop of mostly level paved road.
On the inn grounds, you can play a game of bocce, soak in a hot tub or get a massage. Or you could simply relax with a cocktail on the covered patio off the lobby as you take in the view of Rosario Strait, Mount Constitution on Orcas Island and, farther west, Sucia Island and its dozens of yachts swinging on their anchors. A cocktail social on the patio precedes every dinner service.
You can grab a bite of lunch, outdoors on a patio if weather permits, at the Taproot Cafe on the building’s ground floor. Feeling peckish in midafternoon, we enjoyed a couple of small salads made of greens from the Nettles Farm.
Just down the road from Willows, you’ll find a short path leading to a nice semi-sandy beach that’s ideal for afternoon walks.
* * *
In the Willows dining room, large windows take in the westerly water view. Attire is just-back-from-the-beach casual. One man wore bicycle shorts. An open passageway gave some diners a view of Wetzel and his five-person team working in the newly renovated kitchen.
The atmosphere can be traced to Noma as well. Starks says the fine dining trend in Europe is fantastic food without the rigidly formal service so valued by Michelin Guide inspectors. Perhaps that’s why Noma has two, not three, Michelin stars.
The first main course was a dish of asparagus in a vivid green broth with a memorable farm-and-forest combination of mild fresh cheese and bracing pine needles. Next up was troll-caught skate wing with cabbage and a foamy mussel sauce.
Following that was a dish of peas with mint and whey, tasting as fresh as a summer breeze. The last entree was a fillet of king salmon, the skin caramelized and sweet, with watercress and a smear of celery root puree.
Accompanying each course was a matching wine selected by the sommelier, who also was one of our servers. We noted how one of the wines, a Walla Walla semillon, came alive when paired with its companion dish, the skate wing. The wine pairings are optional, and the place also offers a selection of juices for folks who don’t drink wine.
The last course, dessert, was strawberry sorbet alongside a chamomile and lavender in something like a meringue. It was a generous serving, and we made it last as long as we could. The magnificent meal clocked in at 2 hours and 45 minutes.
Dinner cost $85 per person when we visited; it’s $105 now. That’s because Wetzel “pulls out all the stops for ingredients,” Starks said. By way of comparison, dinner at Noma costs $206 a head.
The wine pairing was $65 per person, and cocktails (made with top-shelf liquor), coffee and sparkling mineral water all added to an intimidating final bill, unless you manage a hedge fund.
But this is a dining experience that would otherwise require hopping a plane to New York or Europe. So start saving up now.
Mark Carlson: 425-339-3457; carlson@heraldnet.com.
Getting to Lummi Island
From I-5, take Exit 260 north of Bellingham, drive 3.7 miles west on Slater Road, turn left on Haxton Way and continue south another 6.5 miles through the Lummi Indian Reservation to the ferry dock at Gooseberry Point. A 20-car ferry operated by Whatcom County connects Lummi Island with the mainland.
The ferry sails to Lummi roughly every 20 to 30 minutes on weekdays and hourly on weekends. Round-trip fare for a car, driver and passenger is $20. Be sure to bring cash; credit cards are not accepted. The 0.8-mile trip across Hale Pass takes only about 5 minutes.
For several weeks every year, the ferry is taken out of service for inspection and maintenance. During that time, a passenger-only boat serves the island, and there’s secure parking at the Gooseberry Point dock. For schedules and the latest ferry news, enter Lummi Island Ferry into a search engine.
About the island
String bean-shaped Lummi Island covers about 9 square miles, with most of its 816 year-round residents living on the northern half. The population swells to several thousand in the summer.
The island’s rugged southern half is dominated by Lummi Peak. A trail leads to the 1,600-foot summit.
Lummi’s 18 miles of roads are well-suited to biking and walking. Car traffic is light to nearly non-existent, and grades are gentle on the northern half of the island.
In addition to the Willows Inn restaurant and Taproot Cafe, you can dine at the Beach Store Cafe near the ferry terminal. Groceries are available at the Islander store nearby.
If you want to spend the night on Lummi, the Willows Inn is your only choice. There are no campsites or parks.
More information: www.lummi-island.com
About Willows Inn
To get to the inn, turn right on Nugent Road at the ferry terminal and proceed north. Nugent Road turns into West Shore Road as you round the island’s northern tip. Willows Inn will be on the left, about 2½ miles from the ferry dock.
The inn offers eight rooms and a cabin on the main grounds, a cabin and a yurt at Nettles Farm, and a beachfront house about a half-mile from the inn that accommodates up to 10 people. Nightly rates range from $165 for the yurt to $625 for the beach house. Most rooms and cabins go for $200-$325 a night. Accommodations can be reserved online at www.willows-inn.com.
The Willows Inn dining room serves a single seating at 7 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. From Sept. 6 through April 30, the seating is at 6:30 p.m. Thursday through Sunday. In both cases, a cocktail social hour in the inn lobby begins at 4 p.m. The five-course prix fixe tasting menu costs $105 per person. Wine to match each course costs $65 per person. Folks who don’t drink wine can choose juices selected to match each course for $40.
Breakfast is served in the dining room from 9 to 9:30 a.m. for inn guests only, as part of their accommodations.
If you don’t want to spend the night at the inn, you can still make dining room reservations, but only two weeks in advance.
Other dining options: The Taproot Cafe serves dinner until 9 p.m. Mondays and Tuesdays. It opens at 11 a.m. for sandwiches, salads and other lunch fare. Also, the inn serves Rosario Strait spot prawns on the deck on Monday and Tuesday evenings from June 1 to Aug. 31.
More information: 888-294-2620, www.willows-inn.com.
Mark Carlson
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