The Willows Inn on Lummi Island

We are spending a few days at the north western edge of the US on Lummi Island in the San Juans. While this may seem to be an incongruous place for a world renowned chef to open a restaurant, this is where Blaine Wetzel, late of Noma, chose for his first head chef assignment.

I sometimes say that Doreen and I are "bad foodies" as we can't ever seem to get all the pieces in place to make a big splash of a report on a new place. We usually forget to take pictures of some of the courses, and get wrapped up too much in eating, rather than in thinking about eating. So last night, our first dinner at The Willows, I didn't even take the camera. We wanted to concentrate on the food. We didn't take notes, either, other than writing down the six (yes that is right six!) amuse bouche courses before we started on the menu.

This is going to be a long post, and as I am not breaking it up with photos, I wanted to start with this:



Nice! I especially like the porcinis that wild harvested on Mt St Helens.

We had cocktails on the deck before dinner. (While totally unnecessary, it was nice.) I had a glass of Sauv Blanc, Doreen had a cocktail called Saint. Gin, Grapefruit Juice, and Elderberry Essence. Little did we know how much we would be drinking once we sat down.

When we got to our table, around 7:10 or so, we were greeted with a nice glass of prosecco, poured by a young lady from Paraguay. (When was the last time you met anyone from Paraguay?). Light and very effervescent for a prosecco, it was a very nice accompaniment to the homemade bread (offered in a basket filled with hot rocks to keep the bread warm) a local butter. We could have eaten that all night. Oh wait, I think we did.

Chef Wertzel himself brought out the first treat - house smoked salmon. We could see the smoker from our seats. It was presented in a closed, beautifully crafted box with heated, still smoking cedar chips. You open the box, and two bites of salmon are waiting for you. Wonderful.

Next up was a bite of smoked black cod, caught in Puget sound. They were gently smoked, and had little pieces of shallots on them.

All along, if we ran low on prosecco, there was more poured.

Then we had fresh local greens (don't ask me what) served with a dipping sauce of some sort. All of this was eaten with your fingers. The greens had malted barely sprinkled on top.

Then we had toast with MORE greens on top of them. Just a bite, very fresh.

After that we had local oysters served with house made sauerkraut. The sou chef delivered that. As I make my own kraut, I asked him about his. He said that they found some funny cabbage (I can't recall the name, but will find out and post later) that produced a large amount of brine without much salt. It was delicious.

Finally, before we started our meal, we had crab pickled in sauerkraut juice.

Whew. Now we were ready to eat.

Here is the menu:

From Willows Inn July 15th

(you can see my notes for the amuse bouches on top)

But you can't be expected to eat a meal like that without wine. Here is the wine list:



So where do I begin? Oh, let's say the wine.

The first glass was a Columbia Valley viognier. I almost always like viogniers because they have such an oleaginous feel to them. This was served with the aforementioned Mt Saint Helens foraged Porcinis, along with a fresh cheese that was almost like cream and some woodruff, a local green. Porcinis are so rich it almost like eating small steaks. The wine interacted beautifully with the mushrooms, cheese, and greens to create quite the finish.

Next up was a Semillon also from the Columbia Valley. It was lighter than the Viognier, and fresher. It was perfect with the spotted prawns that are kept alive at the inn. You could not have more perfect prawns. Also in the dish were pickled kohlrabi. A nice crunch to go with the prawns.

After that, we had a Walla Walla valley Sangiovese. I never think about US produced Sangiveses, but this was great. It made me think we were in Tuscany. The course was grilled onions with rhubarb and thyme. I love almost any grilled vegetables, and these were delicious.

For the main course we had a Willamette Valley Pinot Noir and King Salmon with celery, turnips, and mustard sauce. Each bite was delicious. Doreen, especially, loves root vegetables, and I think that the turnip is her favorite.

Finally (!) we had a nice Moscato d'Asti from Italy for our dessert course, which was Wildflowers and Verbena ice cream. While pleasantly full, we did not have a problem finishing this off.

We then walked back to our beach house, about 3/4 a mile away from the restaurant.

A wonderful evening.