We always enjoy seeing ourselves through the eyes of others, both in the written word and through the plethora of photographs that you guests shoot and post during your stay and your dinner. A widely-read food and travel writer, under the nom de plume Global...

Looking for a great escape in the Pacific Northwest? Just north of Seattle, and south of Vancouver, Canada, you’ll find one of the San Juan Island’s best kept secrets. Tranquil Lummi Island has only 800 residents and is home to The Willows Inn, a perfect getaway...

Is there a happier summer soundtrack than the splash of cannonballs accompanied by the reckless hoot of youth? My friend and I arrived at the ferry slip on a warm summer afternoon to the sight of children hurling themselves off the headworks into the cool waters of...

The late, great Diana Vreeland once said: “A little bad taste is like a nice splash of paprika. We all need a splash of bad taste––it’s hearty, it’s healthy, it’s physical. I think we could use more of it. No taste is what I’m against.” I couldn’t agree more. There is...

I literally sat in front of my computer and scrolled through every single dish I ate this year. When I was finished, I did it again. And then again. Eight years ago, I surveyed all of the dishes I had eaten that year and compiled a list of my favorites, more for my...

The kitchen is closed until March at The Willows Inn on Lummi Island. The chefs have gone nomadic. (The Inn remains open, and Chef Jason who has been with us eight years will continue outstanding menus at our two small cafes, The Beach Store and The Taproot.) Each...

With 2013 closing, the kitchen remains in peak form prepping for Topical Thursdays – a special wine dinner, and New Year’s Eve. All intermingled with the four weekends of year-end holiday season dining. Starting Wednesday, Jan. 1, we close the dining room (but not the...

The first thing I notice upon arriving are the smells: the salt ocean air, fresh cut grass, a whiff of wood smoke. The ferry ride from the mainland takes only about ten minutes, but Lummi Island - the home of the Willows Inn - seems almost a world to itself. Lummi,...

It was a sliver of the perfectly balanced sweet/salty, smoked reef-net salmon, simply presented on a cedar slab — I was a goner. Every nibble was unconsciously accompanied by a soulful ‘mmmm.’ I knew then that no matter how hard I tried to search out its equal, I...

“Heavenly shades of night are falling, it's twilight time...” Which means bed-time for the lush garden at Loganita Farm, with wake-up call set for March. But the garden is a light sleeper, awakening often throughout the twilight of 2013 to keep you freshly served. The...

With the first day of October came the last day of a Lummi Island centuries-old tradition: the reef-net salmon fishery. The last three of the boats and gear were pulled onto shore for idling until Summer ’14. But the salmon never stop running in our kitchen. The two...

Most gastronomic bucket lists reserve the top spot for what is generally considered the world’s #1 restaurant, Noma, in Copenhagen. But quietly nipping at its heels is the remote Willows Inn on Lummi (rhymes with yummy) Island in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. Not...

If there’s ever a contest for the “poster child” for a YOLO (You Only Live Once) meal, the Willows Inn, located on Lummi (rhymes with yummy) Island in the Pacific Northwest would certainly get my vote. Food pundits from N.Y. Times, Bon Appétit, Food & Wine, and...

After fellow foodie friends posted about their experience to this amazing restaurant just an hour and half away from Vancouver (plus a short ferry ride), I knew I had to dine there some time. In fact, it was featured in 2011 by New York Times as “10 Restaurants Worth...

In April, D gifted me with something I’d been dreaming of experiencing for a long time: dinner at the Willows Inn on Lummi Island. Many things have been written about Chef Blaine Wetzel’s arrival from Copenhagen’s noma and subsequent influence on the small inn perched...

Dinner at Willows Inn, Lummi Island on September 1, 2013

Two and a half hours north of Seattle, on a small island, resides a bed and breakfast that serves up Michelin star quality food where the ingredients are all locally sourced. It sounds like the beginning of some mysterious story, a combination of the remoteness of...