Mollie, Harrison House & Tucker House San Juan Island Bed & Breakfast

Mollie our yellow lab hosted the editor of City Dog Magazine. Here is one of our favorite photos. She waits patiently for guests to come in a play with her.

News from San Juan Island's Bed and Breakfast - Tucker House

As the town is preparing for its Centennial next year, the Town of Friday Harbor is busy researching and inventorying all the old houses. Last week, I received a copy of the wedding picture of Clarence and Marie Tucker dated December 23, 1900. I am excited to track down the originals that are known to still be on the Island. I also received a close up photo of the Tucker House. I presume it was taken shortly after it was built - 1898. The photo shows a white pickett fence that circled the entire block. Looking up the hill, what is now the upper Tucker House is nothing but an empty field and across the property, where the Harrison House currently stands is also baron. The only other house shown in the photo which is still standing is the private residence on the corner of Harrison and Wabass. It is always interesting to learn more about these great old houses.....if these walls could only talk.

Coho Restaurant Opens in Friday Harbor, San Juan Island

Coho Restaurant opened this week in downtown Friday Harbor. The kitchen team was busy making fresh sauces, rolling out homemade pasta, kneading bread, and creating desserts for the restaurant's first patrons. It was opening night! We all felt the same trepidations as an actor before the curtain rises. Each of us had butterflies and the adrenalin was soaring. We dimmed the lights, lit the candles, started the music, and waited for our first guests. All the months of planning and preparation were behind us. The ballet began to unfold. We greeted guests and relaxed into our roles. The first dish emerged from the kitchen. It was an amuse-bouche - a tiny bite-sized morsel that means "mouth amuser". It is our way of thanking our guests for dining with us. We wanted it to stimulate the taste buds while perusing the menu. The amuse was presented on a small square plate nested on a second diagonal square plate - a bed of wilted leaks, a floret of marscapone cheese, and some fresh herbs were the perfect resting place for a hazelnut encrusted twice baked goat cheese souffle. There were a few drops of chili oil for a splash of color. We all took a moment to enjoy the beauty of the kitchen's first creation. Then more guests arrived and the energy in the restaurant and the pace in the kitchen began to speed up. There were a few hot moments when we all missed a step or two. We gracefully fell back into our choreographed roles without our patron's knowledge. The local ingredients took on the starring roles - simple greens, freshly shucked oysters, local tenderloin - simply prepared and beautifully presented. Coho is open Friday -Sunday (April, 18-20) and Wednesday - Sunday the week of the 23rd.

Coho Restaurant - Friday Harbor's Hottest New Restaurant

A million and one last minute details, or so it seems, are underway for Coho Restaurant's open April 11th, 2008. It has been quite a week. Murphy struck a few times on April 1st - a bad April Fool's job for sure....plumbing problems - ovens dying....We perservered and kept on saying the show will go on.

Dave is putting the finishing touches on the wine list as I type. We are proud of our first wine list and look forward to growing it as new releases become available. It was quite an education and act of will power to cull and hone the list from the thousands of wines available to a manageable restaurant list. We believe the list reflects the diversity of tastes and winemakers and will be a great complement to the menu. We just got word that salmon will be available for our open so our signature Whole Seed Encrusted Salmon with mirin sauce can be featured for our opening night. We have been speaking with our farming partners this afternoon and the last bite of winter has delayed the harvest of some vegetables. Nevertheless, there will be sorrel, pea tendrils, and some brocoli for open. We are all brimming with excitement, anticipation, and fear and looking forward to sharing the fruits of our labor with our guests and the San Juan Island community this coming Friday.

New Restaurant Friday Harbor - Coho San Juan Island

Dave and I will be expanding the culinary offerings of the Inns with a restaurant opening up in early April called Coho. It is 2 blocks from the Inn at 120 Nichols Street. We will feature local and regional ingredients from the Pacific Northwest with a bit of an international twist. Our wine list will cull the best wines from Oregon, California, Washington and British Columbia as well as the great wines of Europe, South America, South Africa, and Australia. We are really excited to provide our guests with an evening dining option so convenient to the Inns. Here is our cool new logo. Check out the Coho website starting early April to keep track of our seasonal offerings.

Spring Is Here Update - Lodging San Juan Islands, Washington

The Island is lovely this time of year. The grass is that bright spring green, the cherry trees have just popped their buds, and the tulips and daffodils are just beginning to open. Our first cut of the lawn is this weekend. This is a sign that we need to hurry up and finish our winter projects so we can play out in the gardens and begin to welcome all the guests that come to the Islands for spring break. We have just a few loose ends to finish up. We just completed a new bathroom renovation and outdoor deck for the Log Cabin Cottage. Our appliance delivery is Friday and then we can finish up our two kitchen projects. We have already started the seeds in the greenhouse for herbs, flowers, and vegetables for the Inn. Our guests this weekend are out on the water kayaking, bicycling to the vineyards, and hiking down at American Camp. Check our our spring specials and consider a trip to the Islands.

Tucker House Projects - San Juan Islands, WA

This week we started what seemed like a simple project - retiling the main Tucker House kitchen. Well it snowballed into a much larger kitchen renovation. We were designing on the fly. We kept asking each other what if? So we moved the vent. What if? We dry walled over a door that we no longer use. What if? We moved the range to another wall. What if? We took out the florescent lights and rewired for new lights. What if? We got rid of the wall paper . What if? We took out the byfold closet doors between the parlor which is now my office. We will finish the dry wall this week and will paint the walls a wonderful red called strawberry fields on Friday. The finished product is going to be so much more utilitarian for guests. We use the living room for receptions and formal dinners and the new kitchen is going to provide a much better flow. Here is a picture of the tiling in action.