This Month at The Willows Inn
Summer, come ahead. We’re ready. Bicycles, lined up. Walking and hiking trails, mapped out. Water fun, all set (kayaks, outer island interludes, and more—just ask).
You there, come ahead. June’s bursting out all over.
First and foremost, we swung into June with all our kitchens full-swing, including the main dining room an additional night, Wednesdays, at the Willows Inn on Lummi Island. That’s five nights a week, continuing through peak season, for the dining experience named last month as No. 3 on the list of Top 10 Food Lover’s Hotels by food-media powerhouse Bon Appetit.
You might want to dial up our Reservations page or our phone now. Openings are morphing into closings fast.
To cover the saturation of guests, summer visitors from our Whatcom County neighborhoods, and our loveable and beloved island regulars, we’ve taken the Beach Store Café into a seven-day schedule with a new, summery menu. It’s also open for breakfast every morning. (As a guest with the Willows Inn you will enjoy your breakfast there as part of your room package).
Author Series with Steven Raichlen
With a different, titillating twist on our food norm, Steven Raichlen joins the Willows Inn and Village Books of Bellingham in inviting you to a barbecue, Tuesday-Wednesday June 18-19. He researched worldwide and wrote The Barbecue! Bible.
This guy’s exciting. He pioneered the live-fire cookbook genre with How to Grill, and The Barbecue! Bible covers 200,000 miles and four years of discovery and has 5 million copies in circulation. You get a copy when you register for either a one-night or two night package (and a copy of his new novel, Island Apart, a love story woven around food).
You can find Steven on a couple of popular PBS programs, Primal Grill and Barbecue University. You’ll find him– as the saying goes – up close and personal by joining the group for this special event in our continuing Authors Series.
How up close? You’ll work in teams, right alongside Steven, preparing the giant barbecue meal as he offers insights and tips for you to take back to your grill. Boasting rights included. It doesn’t get any more personal than that.
Loganita Farm
With our Loganita Farm flush with greens, reds, edible flowers, and the berries on their way this month, we welcome you to visit our culinary gardener extraordinaire, Mary von Krusenstiern, on a tour of the farm. Drawing on her specialized education and professional experiences in New England and Alaska, Mary has taken our one-third of an acre from dirt to bounty, seemingly lickety-split.
Her first planting took place April 1. These days, already she’s hauling two and three truck beds full of planned plants to the Beach Store Café, and to the main dining room. By planned, we refer to her frequent consultations with Chef Blaine Wetzel about what to grow specifically for your plate. Seriously. Not making this up.
That redefines fresh.
Can’t you just taste it?
The Willows Inn on Lummi Island
has opened its doors to guests for 103 years. And, in many ways, time has stood still in The Willows’ world, where American eagles soar, days melt passively, and barred owls punctuate silent nights.
While for decades a hidden gem, last year at the start of its second entury The Willows Inn arose in a long string of international media attention for its rare dining experience, led by a young, new shining star in the chef galaxy, Blaine Wetzel.
From the moment you arrive, you’ll find each of us on The Willows Inn team committed to providing an intimate, comfortable, and extraordinary experience of island charm, in addition to a uniquely sublime, prix fixe dinner.
