Lummi Island can often feel like a place of contradictions. It’s almost exactly one mile away from the mainland, but that mile is by ferry. It has a higher population density than the rest of Whatcom County, by almost 50%, but it’s still only 1,000 people. The median home cost is a cool million and a half — but there are functionally no jobs on the island.
Today’s (seeming) contradiction? The Beach Store: built in 1901, named after then-postmaster John Ward Beach. It started as a general store and post office and quickly became a social hub for island residents. Over the past 123 years, the store has seen changes including a telegraph installation, gas pumps, a handful of closures, renovations, fixes and — most recently — a gorgeous kitchen and restaurant conversion. All this is squeezed into a Register of Historical Buildings shell.
The Beach Store Cafe boasts a Wood Stone pizza oven, open kitchen, hardwood floors and a truly spectacular view of Mount Baker over the strait from the front patio. It’s one of the prettiest restaurants I’ve been to, and not just on account of the view.
The menu is eclectic: There’s a Greek flair to a few dishes, alongside diner staples and salmon-heavy twists on classic dishes. We ordered a Donair Pizza, seafood chowder, fish and chips, and my favorite baseline, a cheeseburger.
The portions are generous, and the plating is unpretentious. The seafood chowder ($13) was wholesome and tasty, served with warm French bread. Salmon and clams come together to keep up some textural intrigue. Cream-based soups often come across as overly creamy and under-ly salted, but this broth’s salt levels hit the nail on the head. It’s a very solid chowder and one that no chowder lover will feel disappointed in.
The fish and chips ($21), made with salmon, are a local twist on the usual whitefish fish and chips I typically see. Salmon is a bit delicate for the deep-frying process, and our pieces came out just on the wrong side of well-cooked. Dunked in tartar sauce or taken with a forkful of the excellent coleslaw, the additional moisture lends a more pleasant experience.
The chips were awesome — again, salted excellently, and I will acknowledge that a single instance of dry fish does not a pattern make. The batter was delicious, and I have no doubt that it could be truly incredible.
The cheeseburger — legal name, The Beach Store Burger — features 6 ounces of smashed grass-fed beef, American cheese, grilled onions, pickles, lettuce, “cafe sauce” and a toasted bun.” Frequent readers may recall my burger showdown; this burger ticks all the boxes to be a knockout contender for one of the better burgers in the county. At $19, it’s slightly more expensive than other table service options I’ve come across, but the burger is massive and the fries, again, are salted perfectly. With a cold lager, this one is worth cleaning your plate for.
And finally, a true wildcard addition to the menu: the Donair Pizza ($19). Exactly what the mental path taken to arrive on a donair kebab, Detroit-style deep dish pizza is unclear to me, and altogether unimportant. It’s outrageously good, and handily takes the spot of best pizza I’ve ever eaten, in my life, no contest.
With the thick, crispy edge of a solid Detroit-style pizza, this pie eschews the typical pizza toppings for gyro meat, garlic, halved cherry tomatoes, shallots and a sweet and savory donair sauce. I didn’t know what to expect as I took that first bite, but the layers of spice, sweetness, crunchy crust and tender tomatoes combined to produce a revelatory experience. A surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one.
It’s worth noting the Beach Store Cafe has the honor of being the lone table service restaurant in Lummi Island, following The Willows Inn’s closure in 2022. The destination restaurant did so in a storm of bad press, much surrounding the business practices of Chef Blaine Wetzel. I never had an opportunity to try it, but reviews were consistently raving, drawing in food travelers from around the United States. There was even chatter that a Michelin Star was in The Willows’ future, making it the hypothetical sole star holder in the entire state of Washington.
The 2023 movie “The Menu” is based almost entirely on the Willows Inn — not really a compliment, when you think about it. The departure of the Willows Inn, for better or worse, gutted the island’s tourism. But I bring up The Willows Inn as a contrast, not as a comparison.
“The Menu” is a relatively scathing look at the lengths that fine dining and its consumers will go. The Beach Store Cafe, however, is anything but pretentious. The menu was clearly put together by an enthusiastic team, eager to share flavors that they love — whether it fits a theme or not. That’s a beautiful thing, in a beautiful restaurant, in a beautiful locale.
Mark Saleeb is a frequent enjoyer of food. Find him at instagram.com/eats.often.
