Blog Postings
Follow Me Foodie – Lummi Island – The Willows Inn (Top 10 Best Island Restaurants) – Part 1
I’m no athlete, but I am competitive; and if I had to play the Hunger Games, I would do it here. Welcome to Lummi Island. There it was. That was it. Lummi Island. I’m not first to discover this hidden gem and for many food enthusiasts, chefs, and industry folk it needs no introduction, but for many it still remains unknown. I guess it could be considered an “industry secret”, but this island is on the culinary rise and it hasn’t even hit its prime or peak. It is a good thing too. I’m no psychic but it has a promising future...
read moreLittle Miss Locavore – Day 2 of Easter Weekend on Lummi Island: The Willows Inn
Tastiness Factor: 10/10 Atmosphere: 5/5 Service: 5/5 Locavore Approved? YES, YES, YES!!! (The very epitome of local, seasonal, sustainable cuisine) Lummi Island, just off the coast of Washington, with a population of 900, has garnered a lot of attention lately. Prior to a year or two ago, no one had ever really heard of this pretty little island, inhabited by a mix of locals and mainlanders with summer homes. It is all because of Blaine Wetzel, a chef who, at the ripe old age of 26, won the 2012 Food and Wine Best New Chef Award, and more...
read moresound+bites – I said YES to many things at Willows Inn
Sometimes you enjoy a tremendous meal and it goes down in your head and on your tastebuds as one of the most memorable experiences of your life. We had such an experience this weekend that was a little more special than just the food… more about that later… I bought Nick a new pair of skis this past Christmas and he got me a Willows Inn reservation. We had both been dying to eat at this raved-about restaurant and Nick knows that I prefer experiences over material presents.We started with a couple of old fashioned cocktails...
read moreOoh, my Favorite! – Fish, Forage, and Farm at The Willows Inn
Last fall Andrew was invited up to Lummi Island for a little getaway at The Willows Inn. I’ve written about my love affair with the island and the restaurant before, so I was desperate to find a way to cleverly blackmail work my way into the trip. The Fish, Forage, Farm event is a hands-on excurision driven by guest participation, with each of the activities and the menus all focusing back to the island, restaurant, staff, history. So two nights of great food, happy company, and quiet island life was sure to be nothing short of epic, even in...
read moreChuckEats – Perfect Meal 2012
The smoke, the wild, the vegetable, the historical, and the aged – many themes championed here have finally reached a critical mass in 2012. Some are already official trends for 2013. It would be easy to dismiss them as simply stylish but a few chefs have been walking down these paths for some time. And I was fortunate enough to eat their stunning dishes this year. It was a domestic year with zero passport stamps. An island enchanted me for two days. There, I discovered a new chef and found new perspectives on old favorites. In New...
read moreGourmet Pigs: Willows Inn (Lummi Island, WA): An Unforgettable Experience
My favorite meal in 2012? Easy. Willows Inn at Lummi Island is a small inn on a small island in Washington, with a restaurant helmed by Chef Blaine Wetzel, a young native of the area who had worked at Noma (you know, the world’s best restaurant). When they talk about local ingredients, they really mean it. It isn’t just produce from the state, but really local. Chef Wetzel forages around the island. A lot of the fish used are caught in the waters around the island, just five minutes from the restaurant. Willows Inn is a 2-hour...
read moreChuckEats – Willows Inn First Harvest Dinner
To get away – seclusion, slow time, and the freedom to work. To explore the land and work within its bounty. To be inspired by the physical connection to food and walk amongst it – on the farm, into the green. Down to the beach: currants on the slant, stonecrop along the shore, and sea lettuce beneath the waves. Spot prawns swim just beyond. Five chefs ride the ferry into a new land of possibility.1 Sean Brock saw a realm of smoke. John Shields catalouged the environment and found plants in full blushing bloom. Dotting the bay, fishing...
read more50 Shades of Delicious: Yummy Lummi: Chef Blaine Wetzel Boy Genius
What were you doing with your life at age 26? We recently met one of the most impressive young chefs who has created the most incredible dining experience at a small inn on little known Lummi Island (it rhymes with yummy), WA. Lummi (to see map click here) is a very serene, quiet island almost untouched by tourists that visit the more famous San Juan islands. That under the radar status is quickly changing thanks to the boy wonder chef (aka Chef Blaine Wetzel). Blaine has taken up the Executive Chef helm at the Willows Inn. The New...
read moreNo Umbrella – A Meal to Write Home About
Disneyland. Hawaii. The Olympics. The Grand Canyon. Salmon with Mustard Greens. I’m not sure when it happened, but slowly and surely my reasons to venture out of my comfy Seattle bubble started to need different qualifications. No longer was I only after sunny beaches and scream-inducing rides, I wanted more. I wanted a meal to write home about. One of the best parts of these new adventures I long for is that many are just a stone’s throw away from the city.Including my most recent voyage to Willows Inn – technically a freeway and a...
read moreGlobal Writes – The Lure of Lummi Island
There’s a hilly piece of heaven that sits among a chain of islands at the most northeasterly section of the San Juan archipelago, an unspoiled spot just a short ferry ride from the mainland and a brief distance’s drive from Bellingham, Washington. It’s the bucolic portrait of the Northwest, dotted with rising mountains, winding trails, and secluded beaches known only to locals, who number around 800 or so. The place is Lummi Island (pronounced “lummy”), an unexpected location for an emerging world-class restaurant like The Willows...
read moreChuckEats – Willows Inn (Lummi Island, WA) – Island as Plate
To get away – seclusion, slow time, and the freedom to explore. To live with the land, honor its history, and work within its bounty. To be inspired by the physical connection to food and walk amongst it – on the farm, into the brush. Down to the beach: berries on the slope, stonecrop along the shore, and sea lettuce in the water. Spot prawns swim just beyond. A land of possibility. To take the ideas of noma and practice them on a nine-mile island, most of it uninhabited – welcome to Willows Inn.1 Blaine Wetzel is the...
read moreCulinary Concierge – Willows Inn – Meal of a Lifetime
Food memories are very important to me. I can remember great tasting dishes, where I was eating, who I was with, what I was celebrating. Yes, my culinary journey has been filled with many fabulous food memories & tastes. Recently I had the best meal of my life. It was crafted & created by Chef Blaine Wetzel, atWillows Inn on Lummi Island, Washington State, in the San Juan Islands. I first read about Willows Inn in an article entitled “10 Restaurants Worth a Plane Ride“, written by Frank Bruni in the New York Times. It has...
read moreMisadventures with Andi – A meal at The Willows Inn Lummi Island (Part 2)
Ballet. Discipline. Harmony. Home.These were the words that kept popping into my head as I spent an evening in the presence of epicurean mastery at The Willows Inn on Lummi Island in the San Juan Islands. I wrote about the first part of our meal,the procession of snacks, a few days ago, and prior to moving into the first of our 5-courses, Mr. Misadventures (by permission of the chef) stepped into the tiny kitchen to take some shots of the team in action.In the Willows Inn kitchen: Mastered organization ensures a smooth cadence to the...
read moreMisadventures with Andi – A meal at The Willows Inn Lummi Island (Part 1) The Snacks
After traveling by plane, car and ferry to get to the Willows Inn on Lummi Island, I was anxious to begin the meal I had been thinking about eating for four months (see the background post here). I will be posting about my weekend on the island and my stay at the Inn, but I just need to get this post out of my brain. I have been back from Lummi a week and it is still on my mind, and likely will be for some time.Chef Blaine Wetzel orchestrates an amazing culinary experience following a farm-to-table philosophy. Farm-to-table is not...
read moreOoh, my Favorite! – The Willows Inn Restaurant – Lummi Island
We had the meal of a lifetime at The Willows Inn on Lummi Island. One year earlier, venturing into Stumptown Coffee’s Seattle roastery, frazzled, trying to get coffee set for the restaurant that was days away from opening, I met the guy that would tell me about this hidden gem, and eventually, one year later take me away for the meal of a lifetime. So yeah, it was an anniversary of sorts…the restaurant had just turned 1, I had three days off, and it was the “the first day we met” kind of celebration. Really it was completely...
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