I mentioned to a friend that I’d recently visited the San Juan Islands. She wondered if they were in the South Pacific. Another couple thought I’d been camping out in the Caribbean.
We need a geography lesson.
The San Juan Islands are just off the coast of Seattle: a group of small picturesque islands full of natural treasures with vistas of both Washington and Vancouver. I stopped on a Sunday for lunch in Seattle at Earth & Ocean restaurant in the W hotel downtown. Food & Wine magazine has just named the chef of that restaurant, Johnathan Sundstrom, one of the Ten Best New Chefs in America. But I shall cover his food in another column.
After that lunch, I took an hour-long flight to Orcas Island via seaplane, my destination being the historical Rosario Resort, which cuddles against Cascade Bay.
Rosario began as the sumptuous estate of Seattle shipbuilder Robert Moran. The original mansion,the focal point of the resort,houses restaurants, lounges, the spa, pool and check-in desk in a portion of the space, while the remainder of the building is preserved as a museum. It’s the gathering spot.
There are immense charms to be found here. The mansion was built with the finest materials throughout and the architecture alone is impressive. Moran’s pride was his music room, which houses the largest pipe organ (still working just fine) ever built in a private residence. It’s a 26-rank Aeolian with 1,972 pipes that take up two levels on one end of the massive room. In this same room is the original eight-paneled Louis Comfort Tiffany stained glass lighting fixture and an exquisite stained-glass clerestory window.
The mansion once boasted 19 bedrooms and a few of them remain, comprising part of the museum. Lodging is now in mulit-unit buildings gracefully set apart from each other on the vast property. Rooms are very nicely appointed with ultra large baths, cushy beds, fireplaces and views of the bay and beyond. A shuttle bus keeps you connected to the main building, the dock, tennis courts, the casual country store and other amenities.
This is a place where quiet beauty, rippling waves against the shore and breezes rustling through the trees can soothe the spirit. Add a massage or two at Rosario Resort’s classy spa and a revised view of the world is ensured. Take a sightseeing boat to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and marvel at the beautiful orca whales. It’s been said that this is the best place in the world to see orcas in the wild. Since wildlife abounds, you might also spot sea lions, porpoises, unique wild birds and other species of whales. At Friday Harbor on neighboring San Juan Island, there’s a whale museum. Many artists call Orcas Island home, so during your stay at Rosario, you will want to tour the little lanes and narrow roads on the island that lead to these surprises. There’s a large ferry, serving all the islands and the mainland, and I took that back to Seattle to catch my plane home.
Dining at Rosario is a real treat. The Orcas Dining Room is the more casual, the Compass Room the more formal and it’s down-home fun in the Moran Lounge with easy-going food and live music on the weekends. All dining rooms have views of the bay. I stayed several days, giving me the chance to try many different dishes. You’ll forgive the pun, but this kitchen crew certainly has all its ducks in a row. I never expected food to look this beautiful on a plate, to taste this good in an island dining room. The resort seems to have access to as much fresh produce as mainland chefs.
At my first meal, I had salad of heirloom beets and fresh chevre cheese with organic greens. They marinate and smoke fresh salmon, then sear it for mind-boggling taste, especially with a dollop of cr & #269;me fra & #238;che. Others in the dining room joined me in swooning over arguably the tastiest piece of beef to come out of a kitchen. The grass-fed beef tenderloin was roasted with stonefruit relish and I have yet to figure out how they coaxed so much goodness out of it. Subsequent meals included the combo of seared and roasted duck breast with warm vegetable salad sprinkled with a superb dried apricot vinaigrette, Kamilche Sea Farms mussels with citrus butter, flatbread spread with goat cheese, caramelized onions, asparagus and candied walnuts and weathervane scallops with lemon dressing.
There were many other impressive dishes. They even have a cheese selection, which always touches the French in me.
Black tea cr & #269;me br & #369;l & #233;e, nectarine galette, mascarpone cheese sorbet and lemon tart with fresh strawberries topping it were but a few of my desserts.
The wine list is as impressive as the food. Interspersed with French, California, Spanish, Australian and New Zealand labels are plenty of the world class wines,especially Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris,from Oregon and Washington.
Of course, they do a big wedding and special-occasion banquet business. What an atmosphere to make an event memorable. This is so convenient for a getaway. The resort’s general manager, Samuel Schorr, is a delightful guy, just the kind of person we appreciators of good living like to swap stories with. Be sure to meet him when you take advantage of Rosario’s charms. It’s but a short jet flight and a shorter seaplane flight or a short jet flight and a one-hour ferry ride to get to Rosario. You can see pictures of all that I’ve mentioned on the Web site: www.rosarioresort.com/gallery.html. For information, call (360) 376-2222.
