Our trip began with a two-hour car ride north from Seattle. To the west, we passed the Olympic Mountains, their peaks scribbly against the horizon, and the network of sister waterways (including Puget Sound) that comprise the Salish Sea. The Cascade Range stood...

Last year, Willows Inn chef Blaine Wetzel masterminded this crazy caper—a large-scale Freaky Friday wherein 37 chefs across the world swapped kitchens for a night. Now 40 chefs from Brazil to Russia to Japan are taking part in this year’s iteration, which will include...

When you feel compelled to leave the city and immerse yourself in nature, when you seek to sit in quiet amazement at the wondrous foraged and farm-raised foods our Pacific Coast region provides, and to be waited on with warmth by a knowing staff but without the...

Tucked away on the secluded island of Lummi in the San Juan Islands, The Willows Inn on Lummi Island is a romantic and tranquil retreat. Luxurious accommodation, exceptional cuisine and warm hospitality make this charming inn a veritable treat. Comfortable...

2 The Willows Inn Blaine Wetzel, a native of Olympia, Washington, has come a long way. After spending a year and a half in the Noma kitchen, he decided it was time to go back home to Washington and open a restaurant of his own. He checked out a bunch of locations and...

Making a name for yourself as a young, brilliant chef is never easy. Doing it from a tiny and remote island in the far northwest of the country is nearly impossible. And yet, when Blaine Wetzel looked for a way to move back to his home region after spending time in...

The Willow’s Inn, Lummi Island, Washington At this Inn and James Beard Award-winning restaurant, one could say the entire island is its pantry: chefs forage for seaweed on the shore below the main house, pluck wild berries off the property’s bushes, and fish the Puget...

Looking to expand your local dining options at highly remarked restaurants? We’ve asked AAA Inspector 39 to share some favorite foodie recommendations and memorable experience throughout the inspection process. Q: What is the most unique, yet appetizing meal...

The World’s 50 Best Restaurants is heading to New York in June – the first time in its 14-year history that the awards ceremony will be held outside London. And where better to celebrate the Oscars of the restaurant world than NYC, home to such a vibrant and...

LUMMI ISLAND, Wash. – To hold a bottle of wine and tell its story through the eyes of someone who crushed grapes, cleaned barrels and walked vineyards is satisfying and gratifying. That is the lesson taken by Phaedra Brucato, wine director for the Willows Inn, a...

AT HIS OLD CHASER FARM on Vashon Island, Matt Dillon reaches over a wire fence to scratch one of his pigs on the head. “If I fell down in there, he’d eat me,” Dillon says affectionately. Renee Erickson bangs her little Boston Whaler into the back of a sailboat while...

Glossy, gorgeous cookbooks like “Sea and Smoke” are often called “aspirational,” which can be a backhanded compliment — you might aspire to make the beautiful food on the heavy-paper-stock pages, but it’ll sit on the coffee table until it’s supplanted by the next tome...

Chef Blaine Wetzel of the Willows Inn on Lummi Island unleashes his debut cookbook. “I won’t say the timing of the release is necessarily an important point for me, but the scope of the project was,” says acclaimed chef Blaine Wetzel when asked why...

1. COMING SOON FROM BLAINE WETZEL: “Sea and Smoke: Flavors from the Untamed Pacific Northwest,” the cookbook from Willows Inn chef Blaine Wetzel, with writer Joe Ray, is coming out October 27. Charity Burggraaf’s photos of Lummi Island and Wetzel’s food are almost...

Sure, the first things that come to mind when you think “island escape” are white sands and palm trees. Maybe a coconut with a straw in it. But for those willing to look beyond the tropics, there are plenty of worthy island getaways around the world that...

Tarik heads north to the Salish Sea near the Canadian border to experience two interpretations of farm-to-table cuisine on the remote San Juan Islands: one prepared by a fourth-generation island resident, and the other by James Beard Award-winning chef Blaine Wetzel....