Tickets go on sale Monday AM for those interested.
Having recently been to the Willows Inn for a “regular” meal, I can say it is an exceptional experience. This years dinner has the chefs from Saison and Atera joining in, as well as a couple other former NOMA Danes.
Typing this from the deck outside the Low Tide room Will let you know how tonight’s dinner is; we’re really looking forward to it. Breakfast was interesting, but not overly exciting.
It is a big splurge to eat at Willows at all, but in this case you have 5 highly renowned chefs cooking for you, at least two from Michelin 2+ star restaurants. There are few culinary experiences that would match that IMO.
But it’s not for everyone.
BTW, I wouldn’t recommend eating at Willows without staying there, just based on location. I wouldn’t want to drive after unless you have someone that didn’t have the wine, and Uber is not going to come get you on the island.
Initial thoughts (I’ll post pics tomorrow if I get up at a reasonable hours) -
$700 out the door for dinner. $165/dinner, $65/wine pairing, couple of cocktails at $14/drink, $112 tip.
Go early for the cocktails. They’re not legendary, by any means (i.e. Canon or Zig Zag), but they’re solid, and you get a free starter round from the kitchen. For us, it was two local oysters, lamb prosciutto and some crappy rhubarb.
Dinner service lasted a full three hours. Crazy part is that we went through it pretty quickly.
Wine pairings weren’t to die for, but it was similar to the Herbfarm, in the sense that it’s more or less bottomless. The saison was probably my favorite, which was a surprise.
There’s a bread course, served with a side of butter and a side of chicken drippings. Don’t get me wrong, the smoked mussels were fantastic, as was the lamb, but holy G-d almighty, the chicken drippings were off the chain good.
You can crash the kitchen after dinner and talk to the staff. Interesting to see how they expedite (we spoke to Trevor in the back). Server we had for breakfast and again at dinner was Kelsie. Really cool woman, born on the island. Recommended some places to buy local meat from
What Scott said re: staying here. We’re at the Low Tide (i.e. Beach House) side and it was a .5 mile walk back to the room. It’s dark as hell, and I can’t imagine taking a ferry at this hour? That said, my cell had a flashlight and we had a fun walk back
Am i not able to get a meal + wine pairing at just about any/every michelin 3* place in the world for that price?
holy smokers… i can fly to chicago, eat at Alinea, and fly home for about the same price!
but i get the remote island appeal. We do wanna go out to the islands and chill one of these days…
Wine pairing is where they come up short. We ordered a white and a red from the list and that was adequate. BYOB with a good sized group would be ideal.
Hah! Dinner was for two Yes, still pretty steep and not something we personally will do regularly. Posted a thread with pics from dinner and a list of the pairings. The wine/beer/cider was o.k. and designed to hit a $65 price point, while offering free refills.
FWIW, I’d rather eat at the FH dinner (perhaps even any dinner at Willows Inn) than at Alinea.
(And there are (shockingly and unfortunately) several Michelin 3* places that push or exceed $500 without any wine. Arpege, Guy Savoy, etc. in Paris; Masa and Urasawa aren’t far off in the USA; and there are a number of places in Japan that are up in that stratosphere or higher.)
Will let you know how tonight’s dinner is; we’re really looking forward to it. Breakfast was interesting, but not overly exciting.
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