Big Red and I like to get away once a month for new adventures. This time we headed to Lummi Island, home of the famed Willows Inn. 
I started coming here about three years ago and was blown away by the location (remote, yet easily accessible from Seattle) and by the yummy and reasonable prix fixe, five-course dinner. Then a new chef, Blaine Wetzel, came to town along with all the hype from his previous restaurant, Noma. Then the press came to town (In 2011, The New York Times called the Willows Inn one of 10 restaurants worth a plane ride. Food & Wine voted Chef Blaine one of America’s best new chefs in 2012). Then I couldn’t get a reservation.
So after many months of me hyping it up to Big Red while trying to score a table, off we went. Dinner started promptly at 7pm, but before the five courses came a series of “snacks.” The first was a shriveled, round, brown thing which turned out to be a baked sunflower root. It was presented in a little box that had smoke coming out of it. Big Red’s eyebrows arched cynically.
The snacks continued. After the third round (potato chip with black cod) my man started saying, “I’m getting it!” By snack #5 (kale toast with black truffle and rye) we started talking about having a standing monthly reservation. After snack #8 (sockeye salmon which had been smoked for eight hours and lightly brushed with butter and brown sugar) we were ready to buy land on Lummi. And so it continued. Until the bill came. At which point we decided that, really, this was a special occasion place not to be visited (i.e. paid for) more than a few times a year.
But here is what you need to know: It was worth every last red cent. The food was that amazing and oh so memorable. And the wine pairing was perfect. And Chef Blaine popped over to visit and actually did a fist pump when we told him we loved the dinner. So save up your money and go there . . . you won’t regret it.
Here’s what we ate – and drank.
For snacks:
Baked sunflower root
Crispy crepe with steelhead roe
Potato chip with black cod
Shigoku oyster with sorrel
Kale toast with black truffle and rye
Nettles farm basket
Grilled shitake
Bread with pan drippings
Halibut skin with clams
Grilled oyster with tequila and sage
Flax bites
For dinner
Aged venison leg tartare with wild celery
Spot prawns with kohlrabi and seaweed
Nettles Farm peas with mint and whey
Jeremy’s king salmon with mustard greens and sees
First strawberries with chamomile and lavender
Wine Pairings
2007 Boedecker Cellers “Athena” Pinot Noir
2010 Claude Lafond Reuilly Pinot Gris
2011 Efeste “Feral” Sauvignon Blanc
2011 Adelsheim Pinot Noir Rose
2010 Innocent Bystander Pink Moscato