Island Dining

On our nearby islands, the sea, the meadows and the forests are all so clearly within reach.It's no surprise, then that at our favorite island restaurants, elements of all three come into vivid relief.

The most dedicated island chefs serve oysters and spot prawns pulled out of nearby bays, mushrooms from local wooded groves, and herbs plucked from their own gardens. Here we've assembled a few of our favorites: dine at any of these offshore restaurants, and you can feast on the harmonies of island life.

Locally grown foods gather at the Inn at Ship Bay

There is an atmosphere of calm and relaxation on the generous waterfront grounds of the Ship Bay Inn, where a steady breeze from the East Sound tousles the wide green lawns and blows gently across the terrace as you enjoy your dinner or just an appetizer and a cool glass of wine. At the turn of the century, however, the site was more industrious; it contained a sizable commercial orchard, and several dozen of the apple, pear and plum trees still stand, edible reminders of the bygone century. Geddes Martin, the inn’s co-owner and chef, uses them both as ingredients and inspiration for his locally-harvested cuisine. What he can’t grow in his greenhouse, his extensive garden, or orchard, he gathers from local farmers, fishermen, and ranchers, many located on Orcas and neighboring Lopez Island. The former chef at Rosario resort, Geddes’ cuisine is clean, bright and bursting with vegetal color. Although the menu in the simple but elegant restaurant changes frequently, an early summer trip to the Inn’s dining room might include offerings like Baby Carrot Salad with Goats Milk Cheese and Citrus Dressing; Alaskan Weathervane Scallops with Lemon Risotto, Spring Greens And Lemon Aioli, followed by Plum and Mascarpone Galette for dessert. There’s a wonderful immediacy to the food, so choose a wine from the Inn’s smart list of left-coast wines and make a toast to orchards past…and present.

The Dining Room at the Inn at Ship Bay
Orcas Island; 326 Olga Road, Eastsound; 877.276.7296; innatshipbay.com. Dinner Tues.–Sat. from 5:30; entrées $20–26; rooms $165–295, includes breakfast.

Getting there: The Inn at Ship Bay is located on Olga Road; just a short drive past the town center of Eastsound. To get to the island, take the Orcas ferry from Anacortes or fly: Kenmore Air (kenmoreair.com) and San Juan Airlines (sanjuanairlines.com) both offer flights to Orcas. For detailed directions, call the Inn or visit its Web site.

At the Inn at Langley, island foods take center stage

Dine at the Inn at Langley’s dining room, particularly at its 10-seat chef’s table, and you’ll find yourself in surprisingly close quarters with chef Matt Costello in his open kitchen. A peek over the low work counter reveals his mise en place arranged prettily in porcelain dishes and gleaming pans warming over the fire. Accented by still life arrangements of seasonal fruits and vegetables, the elegantly lit dining room is an extension of his kitchen.

The permeable border reflects a certain transparency that Costello wants to convey to his diners. Costello, who also does some community organizing to get Whidbey farmers and chefs working more closely together, starts each leisurely meal off with a little talk in tribute to the nearby growers and gatherers who provide him with his impeccable ingredients—Penn Cove mussels, natch, but also eggs from a local girl’s 4-H project, or berries from one of the island’s several farmer’s markets. His menu changes with the market, but at an early summer dinner, you might peek over as he (and perhaps another cook or two) garnishes gnocchi with a farm-fresh squash blossoms, slices island-raised lamb, or scoops marzipan/Muscat sorbet to accompany an apricot semifreddo with green almonds. Costello’s six- or seven-course tasting menus are unabashedly rich but restrained in portion size, so nothing seems overwhelming. Naturally, there is a Northwest focus in the wines, with no shortage of big-deal vintages from cult wineries like Leonetti and Quilceda Creek.

The Inn at Langley Whidbey Island
400 First Street, Langley; 360.221.3033; innatlangley.com. Six-course menu $80, not including taxes, gratuity or beverages. Rooms $265–495, includes breakfast.

Getting there: The Inn at Langley in the town center of Langley, about a 10 minute drive from the Mukilteo-Whidbey Island ferry landing. Allow two hours (or more in rush hour traffic) to get there from Seattle. For detailed directions, call the Inn or visit its Web site.

Local, inventive cuisine is mastered in Sooke, B.C.

The somewhat cloying lobby of Sooke Harbour House on Vancouver Island—with its touristy gift shop holding everything from carved tree trunks to teapots—doesn’t point to a cutting edge culinary adventure. The landslide of First Nations—and colonial-inspired decor continues into the dining room, but the skills of chef Edward Tuson are well-known, so even a cynical city mouse like myself averts her narrowing eyes (is that a crab-shell collection n the wall?). Fortunately, the décor goes unnoticed once the plates start arriving—no, make that the wine. The inn is renowned for its 5,500-bottle wine cellar and thoughtful, creative wine pairings often highlighting B.C. wines. To accompany my smoked salmon terrine with cilantro puree and tamari-marinated kale, Robert, my talented sommelier/waiter, selected a B.C. Blue Mountain Winery Gamay Noir, which was so earthy and rich that it sparked a discussion about horse stables with the impossibly Euro couple sitting nearby.

The restaurant is open only for dinner, and each night chef Tuson creates a four-course or seven-course set menu, with selections inspired by the surrounding fields, gardens, temperate rainforest and waters of south Vancouver Island; there is also a vegetarian/vegan option available. The inn’s own organic gardens produce the flowers, herbs and native plants used in many dishes. Tuson employs an architectural hand to his creations: a shitake mushroom cabbage roll balanced vertically in a sea of Detroit Supreme beet soup with leek oil, and a luscious trap-caught sablefish stacked with bright purple cabbage and carrots on minted yogurt hearkened Mondrian’s compositions. Glowing in a food euphoria, I skipped dessert, but Robert sent me home with homemade biscotti and an odd but fun little garnish of blueberry gelatin cubes.

Sooke Harbour House
1528 Whiffen Spit Road, Sooke, B.C.; 250.642.3421;sookeharbourhouse.com. Four-course menu $74.95; seven-course menu $99.95 CND, not including taxes, gratuity or beverages. Rooms $305–$540 USD, includes breakfast.

Getting there: Take the Washington State ferry from Anacortes to Swartz Bay, B.C. Drive about one hour, following the signs to Sooke, via Hwy 17 to McKenzie Avenue to Hwy 1 north to Hwy 14 west to Whiffen Spit Road. Or, fly Kenmore Air (about $185–205, kenmoreair.com) to Victoria, rent a car and drive to Sooke.

Vashon’s Ferrara Ristorante focuses on local flavors with Italian flair

Vashon Island’s tiny town center is an unlikely home for an upscale Italian restaurant with a serious Italian wine list. But chef Tyler Palagi feels the island location is exactly the right place—to not only create incredibly fresh, innovative food, but to support local farms. All owner Matthew Bergman–a busy, jet-setting attorney–wanted was a great little Italian place to eat when he was home. "

"We met in the middle," says Palagi, and it seems they both got what they wanted. Indeed, when you walk into Ferrara the black and white tile floors, dark wood booths and huge and colorful Italian posters covering the walls give off an Italian vibe. But one look at the menu, and you know this place is all Vashon—well mostly—Vashon.

"I met almost all of the farmers I now buy produce from last summer at the Vashon Farmer’s Collective,” he says. The hedgehog mushrooms and nettles in the delicate house-made fettucini I tasted, for instance, come from local foragers. Not to mention 10 types of potatoes, heirloom tomatoes, raw milk for house-made ricotta and wild fennel—all from farmers who knock on his back door with their bounty. Palagi tosses his net a bit wider for meats and fish. “No one delivers out here, so I work with Seattle Fish in West Seattle (where he lives) and bring in all of my other supplies myself.”

You can try many of the different tastes Palagi’s gathered on the “cichetti” (Italian-style tapas) menu, including heads of roasted garlic, spicy-sweet goat-cheese-stuffed peppadew peppers and luxurious house-cured meats. And with its creative cocktails and killer wine list—flights of rare Screaming Eagle Napa Valley wines, a selection of Robert Parker 100-point winners and inexpensive Northwest and Italian glass pours—Ferrara is gathering a following of locals and visitors that venture here for unexpected pleasures, and to taste a successful blend of city, farm and island life.

Ferrara Ristorante
Vashon Island; 17526 Vashon Highway SW; 206.463.4455; ferraraonvashon.com. Dinner Tues.-Sun.; entrees $16–$28.

Getting there: Take the Washington State ferry from Fauntleroy/West Seattle to Vashon Island. Drive on Vashon Highway SW about 5 miles to Vashon. Ferrara is on your left on the corner of Vashon Highway SW and SW Bank Road.

(Photo by Thomas Barwick)