Blaine, Wash.,’s newly renovated Semiahmoo Resort is surrounded by the best of Pacific Northwestern ambience on every side—from the shores of Drayton Harbor and Semiahmoo Bay, to a towering Mt. Baker and views of city lights from nearby White Rock, BC. Inside the modern, cannery-inspired dining room of the new Pierside Kitchen (opened to the public in May 2014), culinary director Eric Truglas and his team transform the region’s bounty into “sustainable and responsible” plates.
While Pierside Kitchen’s bayside location does lend the restaurant to a menu featuring fresh seafood from its own backyard, the staff serves up a well-rounded selection of seasonal cuisine. Chef Truglas remains inspired by his childhood in Paris, France, where he remembers shopping at the market and picking fresh foods from his family’s garden each day. At Pierside Kitchen, Truglas incorporates herbs, spices, and a few select fruits and vegetables from the resort’s private garden and nearby farmers markets into locally inspired dishes, honoring the “alliance between chefs and farmers,” he says. Mark Seymour, co-owner of Drayton Harbor Oyster Company, delivers fresh Pacific oysters to the restaurant’s dock twice each week. The oysters’ flavors are unique to the bay, reminiscent of fresh cucumber and greens.
Pierside’s show kitchen boasts a wood-fired oven, which chefs Andrew Cross and Martin Woods use to cook dishes such as the Cedar Plank Neah Bay Salmon to caramelized perfection. The Tenderloin Carpaccio, made with beef from Double R Ranch, is served with shaved Parmesan and fresh summer legumes from Cloud Mountain Farm. For the meal’s end, pastry chef Kristie George offers desserts as pleasing to the palate as they are aesthetic, including the extra-creamy Chèvre Cheesecake served with house-made blueberry balsamic gelato.
In collaboration with Roy Breiman, culinary director of Coastal Hotel Group, Chef Truglas works closely with mixologist D.J. Riemer at adjacent Packers Oyster Bar to ensure cohesion between the food menu and cocktail, wine and beer selection. Riemer, who translated his love for Tom Waits into a Waits-inspired cocktail menu, enjoys creating unique flavor profiles that highlight the spirits themselves using handmade infusions, simple syrups and foams.
Packers’ most popular summer cocktail, “Hoist That Rag,” features a mere four ingredients, but sells more than its Cosmopolitans and Lemon Drops combined, Riemer says. The beverage features basil vodka blended with lemon, cucumber juice and rosemary simple syrup, reminiscent of (spiked) cool, citrusy spa water. By fall 2014, Riemer says he plans to release an updated cocktail menu, this time featuring the names of X-Men characters. The “Cyclops” is a spicy and sweet blend of Bermudan rum, clove and citrus-laden Barbadian liqueur and bitters, topped with twisted lemon rind and a vanilla-bourbon-soaked cherry (part of a batch Riemer makes at his Bellingham home). Riemer also keeps a home garden, where he grows ingredients he hasn’t picked up from the Bellingham Farmers Market or Pierside’s garden.
Like Chef Truglas, Riemer aims to use local ingredients as often as possible, including BelleWood gin and Mount Baker Distillery moonshine and vodka – and Washington wines comprise 75 percent of the wine list.
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