Beach Store Cafe. Lummi Island. Washington US

Let's call this the other restaurant on Lummi island. There are only two. The Beach Store and Willows Inn. While the weekend getaway tourist and gourmands head to Willows Inn the locals head for the Beach Store a local dive tavern bar and restaurant. The place is wooden western cowboy homey. When we walked in a couple of the locals were in the corner guitar and mandolin in hand belting out a Fleetwood Mac tune. Nice ambiance and nice pub style food.

Onion Rings



The deep fried onion rings were gloriously greasy and that’s a good thing at least going down. The crispy batter was outstanding and the onions held up. I gorged. Problem is, four hrs later while out jogging and enjoying the island at mile 4 (km 6), I thought I was going to vomit.  I could taste the onion rings once again and that's not a good thing. Suddenly nauseous I was cursing eating onion rings earlier in the day while at the same time in some perverse sensibility I wondered if  this was perhaps an endorsement of the quality of the rings in the first place. Perhaps I was delusional but in retrospect the rings were fabulous and I finished the run clean shirt and sneakers.



Deep Fried Oysters



The fried oysters were fresh. It's corny when you say they taste like the sea but they do and thats a good thing.

Willows Inn. Lummi Island Washington. The best meal ever.

The Inn

Easily my best meal of 2011.

Kate, my wife, called it “the best meal ever”.

New York Times dubbed the it as one of the 10 restaurants worth a plane ride.

Simply Outstanding. Truly the best in farm to table dining.

All beach plants, wild herbs and fresh spring shoots were foraged on Lummi Island. The Asparagus, kohlrabi, peas, radishes, watercress, turnips, herbs and flowers were harvested from our own Nettles Farm, a five minute walk from the Inn.



Table Flower Arrangement



The Chef Blaine Wetzel, only 24 years old mind boggling in itself, apprenticed at Noma in Copenhagen—the best restaurant in the world, according to this year’s prestigious S. Pellegrino awards.

All this only an hour and a half from Vancouver, go, run don’t walk, go now!

Our Meal



Smoked King Salmon



Smoked King Salmon, troll caught locally by Jeremy Brown, and delivered straight to our kitchen from his boat, last night.

Based on a pacific northwest bent box, the salmon chunks are delivered with smoking cedar embers, perfuming the salmon and the air. The fish was smooth velvety on the inside with a smoky slightly leathery skin. Just give me 4 pounds of this stuff a bottle of Pinot and hide me under the stairs.



Black cod on potato with sauerkraut



Decedent creamy black cod set against the acidity of the sauerkraut and the crunch of potato chips.



Salad and Dip

Fun and Fresh. The "dirt" is toasted seasoned and flavoured rye bread crumbles.



Herb Toast with Brown Butter Emulsion



They need to jar the butter and sell it online. I'll take a tub.

Oysters Sorel and Tapioca Pearls



Loved the presentation, river rock frozen like a winter pond and two beautiful delicate oysters frozen in the wilderness.

The oysters are harvested from Penn Cove.

Razor Clams, frozen horseradish, pea shoots, potatoes

The horseradish melts in your mouth and the creamy clams are soft and cool and good.

Quinault tribal members harvested the razor clams.

Nettles farm asperagus with fresh cheese and pine

There was a tasty asparagus broth that brought everything together including and surprisingly the slightly resiny pine.

Wine Pairing: 2009 Dog Point Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc ~ Marlborough

Local spot prawns with pickled kohlrabi

A work of art. The spot prawns are caught locally and and kept alive in the seafood tank just outside the kitchen.

Wine pairing: 2009 L'Ecole Estate 'Luminesce' Semillion Sauvignon Blanc ~ Walla Walla Valley.

Nettles farm peas with mint and whey

The chef likes broths and once again the pea mint broth kept everything together. The whey was interesting and a jelly like globby goodness.

Wine pairing: 2010 Tonado Torrontes, Chardonney ~ Mendoza.

Slow roasted lamb shoulder with morels and salmonberries

Another work of art. I think I ran past the lamb farm just down the road.

Paired with: 2007 Chehalen Steller Vinyard Pinot Noir ~ Williamette Valley

King salmon

This was Kate's veggie substitution salmon course from our fisherman friend Jeremy. I don’t know what chef Blaine did to this chunk of fish but it was outstandingly moist and salmony flavour cubed. I can't believe it myself but I think I preferred the Salmon to my lamb.

Lummi Island wildflowers with lemon verbina

For desert, a bit of molecular gastronomy, frozen wildflowers popping and melting in your mouth.

A pretty darn good meal. A nice relaxing weekend away. Nice.