Embattled, award-winning Willows Inn restaurant on Lummi Island closes

After years of battling wage theft and sexual harassment accusations, the nationally acclaimed Willows Inn on Lummi Island has closed. Bellingham nonprofit Lighthouse Mission Ministries is taking over the property after receiving it as a donation.

In a statement released Monday evening, the Christian social service agency confirmed Willows Inn owners Tim and Marcia McEvoy have donated the restaurant space and the adjoining eight-room inn to the organization. The gift, valued at $2 million, is “a game-changer for the community,” said Lighthouse Mission Ministries president and CEO Hans Erchinger-Davis.

The nonprofit, which aims to end homelessness in Whatcom County, “will evaluate the best use and value of the two parcels,” per the statement.

Under chef Blaine Wetzel, The Willows Inn has consistently been recognized as one of the best restaurants in the country, with restaurant critics from all over North America booking flights to Seattle, driving two hours north and taking the ferry ride to Lummi Island for dinner. In 2011, The New York Times declared Willows Inn one of “10 restaurants worth a plane ride.”

But in recent years, management has settled lawsuits relating to allegations of underpaying staff, and has been accused by some staff members of sexual harassment and racism.

Willows Inn owner McEvoy did not return calls, and co-owner and chef Wetzel declined to comment. The restaurant has routinely closed from December to April in past years, but this year the last dinner service was before Thanksgiving.

Monday’s surprise announcement ends what has been one of the most storied restaurants to debut in Washington state in recent memory.

The restaurant had operated as a bed-and-breakfast for decades before reopening in 2010 with a 24-year-old Wetzel at the helm as chef and co-owner. Wetzel was fresh off a two-year stint at legendary Copenhagen restaurant Noma and immediately gained attention for crafting menus that felt like “a treasure map of Lummi Island,” with ingredients found solely on the island’s 9 square miles.

Here’s what Lighthouse Mission plans to do with the Willows Inn restaurant

In 2014, Wetzel tied for the James Beard Rising Star Chef Award, given to chefs under 30. In 2015, he won the James Beard Award for Best Chef Northwest and published a cookbook/memoir titled “Sea and Smoke” with author Joe Ray. The Willows Inn was regularly lauded in “Best of” lists from around the world.

In 2017, the headlines began to shift.

First, the U.S. Department of Labor fined the restaurant $149,624 for an illegal stage program wherein the restaurant required entry-level kitchen employees to work for free. Also in 2017, a class-action lawsuit was filed by former employees who alleged the restaurant had withheld tips and overtime pay, which resulted in a $600,000 settlement. The restaurant denied any wrongdoing.

In April 2021, The New York Times published a story that accused Wetzel and his management staff of a litany of toxic workplace behaviors that included sexual harassment and racism – and also reported that many of the restaurant’s ingredients, purportedly sourced exclusively from Lummi Island, instead came from grocery chains. Wetzel again denied most of the allegations, admitting only that some of the ingredients used in the restaurant were sourced off-island.

Most recently, Wetzel and co-owner McEvoy settled another wage theft class-action lawsuit for $1.37 million. The settlement, which was considered an amendment to the earlier class action filed in 2017 and covered nonsupervisory employees who worked at the restaurant from July 2014 to December 2017, was brought against the restaurant by former nonsupervisory employees who worked at the restaurant from June 2018 to February 2022. The employees alleged they had been paid automatic service charges, did not get meal and rest breaks and had not been paid for all hours worked.

The most recent settlement was finalized in July. The restaurant was also facing three additional civil cases in state and federal courts, all brought by former employees, but as of November, the “three cases have been resolved to the mutual satisfaction of all sides,” said Toby Marshall, lawyer for the three former employees.

Lighthouse Mission Ministries said in the statement that it’s too early to know if a potential new owner would want to operate the restaurant and hotel or do something different. But Erchinger-Davis clarified that while formal plans have yet to be finalized, “It’s very unlikely the property will become a homeless shelter.”

Lighthouse Mission is in the midst of a $25 million campaign to redevelop its property in Bellingham’s Old Town that will include the construction of a new facility there.

“We still need more help to fund construction that will save and transform lives of many who currently are homeless in our community,” Erchinger-Davis said in the statement, “so proceeds from this generous donation by Tim and Marcia McEvoy would go a long way in helping us reach our goal.”

Wetzel did not return calls to address the rumors that he plans to run another farm-to-table restaurant. But according to an interview Wetzel’s wife, Daniela Soto-Innes, gave to the Puerto Vallarta Daily News last month, the couple will open a restaurant in Nayarit, north of Puerto Vallarta, in 2023.

“It’s a project that’s coming up in the middle of next year, so we’re going to be here more often. We’re going to bring the entire family from the Island (Lummi) to Nayarit and embody our roots again. We’re going to learn more about this land,” Soto-Innes said.