Ate at The Willows again last night

[Jenise]

OH. MY. GOD. Here's what we were served:

Charred kale crisp w/ black truffle emulsion and rye bread crumbs
Crisp roll of cured/dried salmon roe stuffed with scallion and chive cream
Smoked black cod cheeks wrapped in red chard leaf
Fresh Shigotu oysters
Roasted sunchokes with creamed onion puree for dipping
Cones of crispy fried halibut skin stuffed with raw little neck clams
Small wood box with smoked mussel
Grilled shitake with sea salt
Fresh scallop with maitake broth
Grilled spot shrimp with soured cream
Salt-roasted rutabaga with grated horseradish in razor clam broth
Venison tartare with rye crisps and sour wild lettuces
Wood-fired sourdough bread with roast chicken drippings
Smoked sockeye salmon
Pears cooked in embers with green hazelnuts and quince
Grilled caraflex cabbage seasoned with dried/grated smelt
Grass fed lamb sirloin with vintage apples
Goat's milk cheese with liquefied grasses
Delicata squash and pine-flavored cream
Buckwheat tea

I think that's everything. An absolutely brilliant, masterful barage of late fall and wild ingredients grown or foraged on an island in the San Juans, food that just pours out of the kitchen in a well-timed sequence of abundance and hospitality (even the Chefs personally serve you). We took with us a Gaston Chiquet Tradition Brut, 2011 Alzinger Smaragd gruner veltliner, an amazing Chenin whose name is not at my fingertips but it's not imported to the U.S., a 2013 Lapierre Morgon, and 2001 Karl Lawrence Cabernet. We just guessed at what might work since one does not know what you will be served in advance, but one of the wine pairings that just blew us away because it was so unexpected was the Lapierre (what a great vintage 2013 is) with the rutabaga--the marriage of sweet & earth in both just took our breath away.

I am still on Cloud Nine just thinking about it. The meal was so superb I can almost barely believe I got to have it.

Oh, and they sent us home with gift loaves of bread.

Sounds amazing!

Do you stay at the Inn?

The fact that you are overwhelmed tells me all I need to know about the meal.

[Jenise]

Jim, we weren't required to, and I live just 20 minutes from the ferry landing. We were with another couple, he a wine distributor who places a lot of wine there, and our ability to get a table (the dining room seats a max of just 32) was due to that professional connection. Which may also have been why the subject of overnighting never came up. But my luck has definitely changed! After dinner, when all the other guests had left, I ended up in the kitchen with Chef-owner Blaine who apparently recognized me from our early October visit as did several of his staff. He asked why I hadn't been sooner and I stated matter of factly that we'd called numerous times but just hadn't been able to hit it right to get a reservation. He seemed surprised to hear that and pulled a card out of a drawer, pointing out that it had his private cell phone number on it. Next time I want to dine there, shouldn't have a problem.

But yes, the food is as amazing and exciting as it is different from anything else I've experienced anywhere (this is truly the NOMA of the U.S.--in fact Blaine was a sous at NOMA), as is the whole one-of-a-kind ambience of spending an evening there. There's a warm hospitality in the service that's as humble as it is attentive and which both looks and feels unlike anything I've ever encountered before. It's not no-frills dining, it's just a whole different and completely unpretentious, more natural set of frills vs. what we're accustomed to. As befits the food.

And you don't have to eat bugs.

I wanna do that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Jenise]

I wanna do that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You should! Get on I-5, drive about 900 miles, exit at Slater, left at Haxton, drive onto the boat, drive off the boat, turn right, go about 4 miles. Easy peasy. Consider it an expedition!

Sounds like it scores on all domains. Have not read about it before now but have taken note. So glad to see it delivers meaningfully. Sad to say it is easy to be skeptical of the hyped destinations.
What a delight !

[Jenise]

Sounds like it scores on all domains. Have not read about it before now but have taken note. So glad to see it delivers meaningfully. Sad to say it is easy to be skeptical of the hyped destinations.
What a delight !

It was/is. Best meal of my life.

Steve Plotnicki, the record industry exec turned restaurant guide entrepreneur--he flies the world in a private jet just to eat and drink fine wine, and he has produced a guide called Opinionated About Dining, or OAD, which is a global Zagat guide for people like or at least wanting to be like him, and who I only know because he used to post on WLDG about wine--rates this restaurant 4th in the entire U.S. Which doesn't mean any one else would agree with him, but it is no small feat to impress Steve and his ilk THAT much. And such is its reputation among a certain set that a few months ago a Russian oligarch with a London address and a 300 ft yacht that looks like a submarine showed up here in said vessel just to eat here. But it's not foofoo. This isn't a fancy area. I've been struggling for days to find a way to describe the food and the philosophy, and I guess the best I can come up with is "elaborately simple and organic".

The story, if I didn't tell it before: down-on-his-luck restaurant owner on a small island where he was the only restaurant gets an ultimatum from his wife--turn this into a success of I'm outahere, can't take it anymore. They'd never been able to keep a chef, and the island has a small population. It had been a struggle. So of all things, he advertises for a new chef on Craig's List, and of all things, his ad is seen by a sous chef at NOMA who was born and raised in Olympia and who had a dream of bringing NOMA's principles to Puget Sound. Riley hired him, the food blew everyone away, almost overnight it was on the NY Times Ten Things to do Before You Die list. Blaine acquired partners and now owns the restaurant, Riley stayed on the island and is raising Bresse chickens for the restaurant farm, and his wife left anyway. Or something like that.

The "wife left anyway cracked me up." Women. Yet, good came of it.

This is on now my bucket list. No more, though. I need to be scratching off, not adding on.

[Jenise]

The "wife left anyway cracked me up." Women. Yet, good came of it.

This is on now my bucket list. No more, though. I need to be scratching off, not adding on.

Re the wife, I'm fairly certain that by the time you make a threat like that you've got one foot out the door anyway. Not that, cough cough, I've ever said such a thing.

As for the bucket list, yes. And drop in for a visit when you're so close by.

[Jenise]

One more post-mortem: last night we had a small dinner party and I mentioned going to the Willows again. Another couple spoke up that they, too, had been, and hated it. "It's all those dinky little foods, one bite or two at the most. I kept waiting for the main course and it never came!"

So there you are: it isn't for everybody.