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  Our restaurant and pub--both wood-paneled and faced with beautiful century-old Art Deco stained-glass windows salvaged from a church in England--are located on the ground floor of the historic Shelburne Inn, in the quaint Victorian seaside village of Seaview, on Washington State's picturesque Long Beach Peninsula. The Shelburne, a full-service, 15-room country hotel first built as a small boarding-house in 1896, has been owned and operated since 1977 by Innkeepers David Campiche and Laurie Anderson, under whose loving care it has earned numerous national and regional hospitality awards.
We purchased the restaurant in 1981, and moved to the coast--with our two young daughters--from the Seattle area, where Tony had managed several of its finest and best-known restaurants, such as Jonah & The Whale and Rosellini's Other Place. Our goal was to pursue a long-time dream of establishing a small, top-quality restaurant in an unhurried rural setting where we could take full advantage of fresh regional products, just as we had observed throughout the European countryside in earlier travels. In so doing, we hoped to attract a national food-loving audience to the beautiful southwest Washington coast. Judging by the numerous articles and reviews written about The Shoalwater over the past 28 years by the regional, national and even international press, as well as the enthusiastic comments from a wide range of home addresses in our guest book, we seem to have achieved our original goal.
 We are fortunate to be surrounded by three major bodies of water--the Pacific Ocean to the west, the Columbia River to the south and Willapa Bay to the east. As a result, our menus--which change with the seasons as well as with the culinary whims of our chefs--rely heavily on the great abundance of foods from the area, from all types of fresh seafood (salmon, sturgeon, halibut, oysters, crab, clams) to a great variety of wild mushrooms, berries, edible grasses, etc. These native products are supplemented with regional meats, vegetables, herbs and edible flowers (home-grown whenever possible). Chef Lynne Pelletier procurea and handlea products with great care, applying a variety of cooking techniques which are designed primarily to bring out the distinctive character of the main ingredients while adding sometimes unexpected--but complementary--flavor twists. Our style of cooking can probably best--if loosely--be described as "Pacific Northwest Regional."
 We were both directly involved in the daily operation of the Shoalwater and continue this tradition at the Bridgewater Bistro. Ann makes or oversees the daily production of all the breads and desserts, and co-ordinates all special events (from the off-season Northwest Winemaker's Dinner series to the many requests for wedding parties, business retreat meals, etc.). Tony manages the front-of-the-house operations, as well as the restaurant's ever-expanding wine list (currently numbering 500+ selections).
Over the years, we have developed many distinctive condiments (most utilizing local products) for use on our menus. Our two cookbooks, The Shoalwater's Finest Dinners -- Cooking for Wine (based on the winemaker's dinner series) and our Shoalwater Recipe Collection, are now out of print.
We hope to see you soon at one of our tables. Until then, feast with your eyes!
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