Will We Ever Love the Seahawks Like We Used To? PREVIEW. 'Ht 96l.!,OOOd

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1 Will We Ever Love the Seahawks Like We Used To? FALL ARTS PREVIEW 'Ht 96l.!,OOOd

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3 _ijf w Willows Inn works its magic on oysters halibut: and mixed berries.

4 - -= FRIDAY HARBOR ORCAS...--, LOPEZ\.. ANACORTES COUPEVILLE,-- PORT / TOWNSEND C BAINBRIDGE ISLAND BREMERTON / -,, CLINTON - MUKILTEO _::,... SEATTLE,' FAUNTLEROY VASHON Could this be the reason ferry lines are so insane lately? A host of cool new, or newly revamped.restaurants have cropped up at the other end of some of the state's major (and very minor) ferry routes. Most of these places are small, their food runs the gamut from singular fine dining to the comforts of pasta-or just a tower of pristine shellfish that's best with a beer. Each one serves food that reflects these scenic environs, but when dinner plans involve boarding a marine vessel, the magtc!jegins long before the meal. At Willows Inn, the scenery is almost as memorable as the food.

5 lllllllll-lllllllll-lllllllll-lllllllll-lllllllll-lllllllll ton's distant pockets and expresses those immediate surroundings in the form of ambitious food furthers a movement that began with a Craigslist ad. Or, more specifically, with a 24-yearold kid from Olympia on a plane back from Copenhagen in 2010, headed to a nine-square-mile island he'd never before heard of, and a new job at a century-old inn he accepted sight unseen. Blaine Wetzel spent three years at the famed restaurant Noma in Copenhagen before taktng this leap.i - effort to be closer to where he grew up. But for"tih ambiti&ei# chef steeped in that rigorously locavore ethos, there aren't many better places to land than this lush isle a five-minute ferry from Bellingham, just a slender strait away from the San Juans. On day one, Wetzel was the only person working in the antiquated kitchen at Willows Inn. He couldn'j: eve_p write menus; The Case of the Vanishing Vessel Every September, the tiny WHATCOM CHJIF ferry goes into drydock for three weeks of maintenance; its substitute vessel is pedestrian service only-no vehicles. This year's tentative drydock dates are September SEPTEMBER 2018 SEATTLEMET.COM 43

6 Anyone staying at Willows Inn can take a free tour of Loganita Farm; they're offered Thursday through Sunday at 10am. loganita.com Willows Inn chef Blaine Wetzel purees nasturtium petals into a sauce, served atop Italian heirloom squash. dinner was dependent on whatever island farmers and fishermen still in their orange foul-weather gear happened to drop off at the backdoor in the course of the day. "It wasn't even a restaurant," he remembers. "It was just dinner for whoever was staying at this bed and breakfast." Eight years later, Wetzel possesses a staff of 40, two James Beard awards, and the respect of an international fine dining community. A renovated Willows Inn added more rooms (and you can bet the kitchen got an upgrade). His $225 menus unfold in around two dozen tiny courses, built on intensive labor, yet amplifying the essence of all his incredible ingredients. But if you sit on the porch in the afternoon to gaze out at the Strait of Juan de Puca-where U.S. waters eventually turn Canadian-you're still likely to see cooks crossing the road in front of the inn with a bucket of seaweed or climbing a plum tree to pluck some blossoms. Others tend the smokehouse responsible for one of the most memorable bites of a start-to-finish spectacular meal: Salmon, smoked for upwards of seven hours at very low temperature, which allows the meat to flake, but still retain a creamy, almost sashimi-like texture. As Willows evolved to embrace its new destination status, it added its own Loganita Farm, run entirely by women, including four full-time farmers. They work with Wetzel to grow uncommon heirloom seeds and make daily deliveries, like the immense harvest required for Wetzel's version of a tostada-mustard leaves in a light tempura made with sauerkraut brine, each layer spread with a cream made from oysters and a different combination of herbs and flowers. Subsequent bites yield distinct combinations of flavors. Chefs like Nick Coffey of Lopez Island's Ursa Minor (see page 47) credit Wetzel for proving that world-class food ambitions can thrive in far-flung places. And while Willows Inn has surely paved the way for others to express their own edible vision of Washington's farthest reaches, there's still no place like it. willows-inn.com AA cc:/\tt1 c:mi=trnm c:i::oti=mr!=r J01R