2014 U.S. TOP 100 RESTAURANTS
4
WILLOWS INN, THE
RESTAURANT ADDRESS
2579 West Shore Drive
Lummi Island, WA
360-758-2620
www.willows-inn.com
RESTAURANT STAFF
Chef/Owner: Blaine Wetzel
Chef de Cuisine:
Pastry Chef: Nick Green
Sommelier: Raquel Fenn
GM: John Gibb
OAD HISTORY
Ranked 25 in 2013.
RESTAURANT REVIEW
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 decided that an inn on a small island off the coast of Bellingham was the ideal spot. Not content with having his own kitchen, he identified a fertile plot of land on the island where he planted a garden to supply the restaurant with produce. Two years later we are seeing reviews like these: “brilliant restaurant, producing the type of magic that can be created only when a well-trained, creative chef finds the perfect spot from which to source the freshest and finest of ingredients”; “several of the vegetable dishes will stay with me forever”; and “his hot-smoked, Lummi Island reef net caught salmon might be the best thing I ate in 2012.”
Lummi Island hot smoked king salmon
Photo Courtesy of: Handsome Eats