Writer Yvette Cardozo explored Bellingham, Washington, a city on the rise. What she found was delicious! Get to know where to find authentic food and wine experiences in Bellingham. 

Tomato and Cajun shrimp bruschetta plus tasting at Twin Sisters Brewing Co. It’s located in a reconstructed ware house on the edge of a Bellingham, WA, industrial district. The menu includes their signature hamburgers and locally brewed beer ranging from unique (Strawberry Zwickelbier made with real strawberries) to their Bellingham Green IPA.

We rolled up to Cosmos Bistro on one of Bellingham’s main streets, slid our van into a parking spot just feet from the cafe and went in for an amazing breakfast. Last time I tried to do that in downtown Seattle, well, I didn’t because you can’t find a place to park. I worried that this northwest Washington city, just south of the Canadian border, might be a ghost town – failing, bereft of people. But, no. Quite the opposite.

Bellingham, 90 miles north of Seattle, 20 miles south of Canada, is blossoming. As in renovated historic hotels, gourmet cafes and restaurants, crowded farmers markets, new parks, and booming wineries blossoming. And enough people to feel populated but not overrun.

We’re here in Bellingham, Washington, now what?

Where to start an outing in Bellingham? How about a beer garden? Bellingham has something like 16 breweries, most of which opened just in the last five years. And Twin Sisters is a great example. It sits in a reconstructed warehouse that was brought down from Alaska, perched on the edge of an industrial district, but also on the fringe of a local neighborhood. So of course, it’s become a neighborhood fave hangout.

And there’s more than beer. But if you’re going to do food, and you like meat, do not miss their pulled pork sliders (they served nearly 17,000 of them last year) or the Parmesan truffle fries basket. And yes, there IS vegetarian and vegan fare.

Um, yes, the beer. When I was there, they had 18 on tap including some quite creative choices. The Strawberry Zwickebier is made with real strawberries. The beer is run through strawberry pulp. You can taste the fruit and, well, it’s really good. Then, there’s Stouting Thomas, a medley of seven malts aged in an oak barrel. There was a bit of sweetness, which I love, and a hint of chocolate.

Twin Sisters Brewing Company, located in a reconstructed warehouse on the edge of a Bellingham, WA industrial district. Food including their signature hamburgers and locally brewed beer ranging from unique (Strawberry Zwickelbier made with real strawberries) to their Bellingham Green IPA.

Food and Wine in Downtown Bellingham

Now on to downtown. The city has about 90,000 people. Again, not so many that you can’t still find a place to street park. It has an energetic vibe from a bunch of new projects.

The site of an old pulp mill has been turned into Waypoint Park. They left the acid ball (nah, I don’t know what that was used for either). But it now sits covered in glass beads that glow in the sun and pick up neon colors under light at night. Nextdoor, the Granary Building is being turned into an indoor craft/farmer’s market.

Once an “acid ball,” a remnant of a local pulp mill, this 32 foot diameter ball is now called the Waypoint Sculpture and is coated in the same kind of glass beads that make traffic lines glow at night. Designed by Mutuus Studios, the Waypoint Sculpture sparkles in sunlight, but should you shine a light on it at night, it glows. It now sits in the newly developed Waypoint Park with its newly developed beach and access to Watcom Creek off Bellingham Bay.

The Hotel Leopold, now modernized to “Hotel Leo,” was Bellingham’s “Grand Hotel” when it went up in 1929 and continued as downtown’s anchor hotel until it was turned into senior living units in 1985. Now, again, it’s being repurposed, this time as upscale condos and hotel rooms. It is a massive undertaking and in keeping with its place on the National Register of Historic Places, it will keep its pre- art deco feel (original lobby terrazzo floors and tiles in the apartments plus a gorgeous chandelier in the lobby), while still including modern amenities.

The guides for Good Time Girls Tours dress as 1920s flappers and, with a sense of humor, detail Bellingham’s bawdy early days. Like Seattle, the city had its share of “houses.” Of course, the top madam had one of the first telephones in town. And downtown’s main street had 30 saloons in a 20 block stretch. So in keeping, one tour called Sin and Gin wanders the city’s former red light district and ends with a gin tasting. Really nice, but I’d also love to come back for the October tour of haunted hot spots and what they bill as “horrific true crimes” of downtown.

Good Time Girls is a company that takes people on historical walking tours of Bellingham, WA. The guides dress in 1920s flapper era clothing and have a great sense of humor.

The Food of Bellingham

“For foodies in-the-know, Bellingham has become a hot spot,” one local said. It’s because there’s a concentration of restaurants using hyper local ingredients, she explained, and a resurgence in the area of young farmers (more about THAT later).

“Hyper local?” It refers to food from this town, Bellingham, and surrounding countryside. Bellingham’s Four Points by Sheraton hotel has an attached restaurant, B-Town Kitchen & Raw Bar. My group didn’t do the raw bar but we did experience the restaurant’s in-house catered custom menu.

We feasted on six courses, each paired with wine. We started with a crab, granita appetizer on tofu, moved through a berry salad to the scallop ceviche citrus gel/pear salad, on to seared duck breast, rack of lamb and this dessert thing that featured a gourmet version of (I swear) Cracker Jacks in cream and chocolate. Each course looked like something from a cooking show’s gourmet-plate challenge. Each was delicious. I truly needed a second stomach.

Rack of lamb served at Wine Maker Dinner at B-Town Kitchen & Raw Bar in Four Points by Sheraton Hotel, part of a six course meal paired with wine. Custom menus like this can be created by the hotel and restaurant.

The next morning, we hit Cosmos Bistro. This is your classic small city “old-timey” themed cafe. Lots of candles, kind of an almost art deco feel. And of course, the owner is named Cinnamon Berg.

I’d call this comfort food with a flair. We dug into their pork adobo benedict, pulled pork simmered in soy/vinegar atop an English Muffin and with a spicy hollandaise. For “dessert” we had some of the best French toast I’ve ever forked into – thick Texas toast with layers of cinnamon and brown sugar topped with whipped cream. Oh, sigh.

Pork adobo benedict, pork shoulder simmered in soy and vinegar served atop English muffin at Cosmos Bistro, a downtown cafe serving comfort food with flair.

Another good food option: Bellingham’s Farmer’s Markets. There are two – the main one every Saturday in April through Christmas at Depot Market Square downtown, and a Wednesday market at Barkley Village Green. In winter, the downtown one is open the third Saturdays of January, February and March. We’re talking four dozen farmers, nearly 60 craft stands and 40+ food vendors. And part of this is sheltered from rain (this IS the Northwest) under what was once the Skagit River Bridge.

My friend and I wandered the stands of huge purple daikon radishes, boxes of glistening tomatoes, freshly baked bread in creative flavors (lemon cranberry, among others). And enough assorted prepared food choices to keep anyone busy. Filipino, Greek, Indian, Chinese. Coffee, chocolate, cookies, shave ice. And, being in the times we are, a well-stocked CBD rack. And this doesn’t begin to describe the assortment of crafts. I can’t believe after that breakfast at Cosmos we were still nibbling.

Bellingham Farmers Market, open in downtown Bellingham on Saturdays, April to October, features four dozen farmers, nearly 60 craft stands and 40+ food vendors.

At some point on this trip, I visited North Bellingham Golf Course’s 9 Restaurant to try a whiskey pairing. Wine pairings are common and these days with the resurgence of craft hard liquors, whiskey pairings are becoming “a thing.” The restaurant holds only a few of these a year so it’s important to contact them to find out when. There are also beer tasting dinners.

Our lunch started with beer battered Portobello mushroom fries paired with a whiskey that had been aged in beer and wine barrels. Smooth with just a taste of “something extra.” The main meal was Executive Chef Nick Moss’s dry rub house smoked pork ribs, which, yes of course, had meat that fell off the bone. It was paired with a time honored Old Fashioned. The fresh fruit parfait came with a Kentucky bourbon infused with basil and, interestingly, meshed perfectly with the sweetness.

Interesting side point: whisky spelled without an “e” is reserved solely for the drink made in Scotland. Everything else, including that made in the US, is whiskey.

Dry rubbed applewood smoked pork ribs served with an Old Fashioned, baked beans and pasta salad. At 9 Restaurant at North Bellingham Golf Course.

When not experiencing food and wine in Bellingham…

The weekend wasn’t ALL eating, of course. We stopped by Cloud Mountain Farm, a fascinatingly unique nonprofit. Their aim is twofold – research varieties of fruit and vegetables that will actually flourish in the northwest’s cool, damp climate and to encourage budding young farmers.

I belong to a community garden and learned early on that where our plants grow, there is really not enough sun for, say, large tomatoes or corn. I’ve become somewhat obsessed with Sungold cherry tomatoes. Terry Maczuga agreed with me about Sungolds and added Sweet Millions to the choices for cherry tomatoes in spots with less than full sun. Also black currants (a rust resistant variety) which she said can put up with only four to six hours of sun a day. And of course salad greens. The farm has a catalog with workshop events plus fruit and ornamental plant starts for sale.

Cheryl Thornton, market development coordinator, added that when they started planting apples, farmers in eastern Washington laughed. But today, their 50 varieties of test apples are thriving. They’re now deep into trials to find a good wine grape. Pinot noir varieties so far are doing best.

Another side tidbit – the Bellingham area is the nation’s largest producer of raspberries. Something like 65 percent of all red raspberries grown in the US.

And there’s also Cloud Mountain’s young farmers’ program. It’s an old story that nobody wants to give loans to a business without a track record but how do you get started without help. Cloud Mountain leases acreage and machinery to budding farmers for five years, giving them that experience plus a chance to see if farming really is for them.

This Bellingham visit, admittedly, was a whirlwind trip to sample things. But I don’t live that far away and plan to come back. There are a few breads I want to buy at that farmer’s market. And some extraordinary ice cream called “ultra premium” by Acme from Bellingham that some Seattle TV chaps drooled over.

Aerial view of Bellingham, WA.

BONUS: BELLINGHAM NW WINE FESTIVAL

As the general temperatures in the northwest have increased, so have local wineries. People who used to laugh at the idea of a Washington wine, saying vineyards couldn’t possibly survive the winters there, today agree the state has many award winners, especially from the hotter, drier east side of the Cascade Mountains. And now even on the west side of the mountains, wineries are have arrived in big numbers. The state had 200 wineries in 1990. Today, there are 970.

And with this in mind, Bellingham has its own wine festival. Going on its fifth year, the Bellingham NW Wine Festival, last year featured 55 northwest wineries pouring 150 wines, along with two distilleries and a brewery. The 2020 festival will be in early August at the Four Points by Sheraton hotel.

— Story and photos by Yvette Cardozo

Hungry for more? For another jaunt in Washington State, visit Whidbey Island Distillery through this podcast. Read about Yvette’s time on a ranch in Tucson, and her tips for scuba diving in Barbados!

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