In January of 2008, Cameo Heights Mansion was born and with it The Vine was created as our dinner restaurant for guests of the B&B. It began with simple good food prepared and served by us, Deanne and Alan Fielding, the owners, exclusively to the guests of Cameo Heights Mansion. It was a steep learning curve for us as we entered the hospitality and restaurant business suddenly after a lifetime of farming. But we had a heart and passion for warm hospitality and good food. Requests to come and enjoy dinner, without staying at the inn, soon followed. Initially, we were not permitted and licensed as a public restaurant.

Eventually, zoning hurdles were overcome and necessary permits were secured and “The Vine” opened as a public restaurant in the spring of 2010. We realized at the outset, that this new step would require a dedicated chef so we hired a well-known and respected local chef in Penny Addison as our head chef. Our business quickly grew as we established seasonal menus of dishes that created lots of happy return customers. Her style of cuisine might best be described as “homestyle dining at its very best.”

But Penny is a lot like Alan: after a few years, she grew weary of doing the same thing every day. She needed a break — Hawaii was calling her name. So after four years or so, she suddenly announced she was leaving.

Then along came COVID 19. Like many establishments, we voluntarily shut our doors — for about 45 days. Luckily for us, the hotel industry was considered an essential business by Washington state and, when opened, was authorized to feed our guests, provided we followed the safety protocols. After taking advantage of the time we were down to make necessary adjustments in our sanitization and cleaning protocols to assure the safety and wellbeing of our customers during the COVID pandemic, and receiving the blessing of our county health department, we determined the time was right to reopen. You can imagine our disappointment when a very cautious Nathan, concerned that it was still too premature to reopen, was led to make the decision to leave our employ in the spring of 2020.

This time we hired an expensive national recruitment agency to help locate our new chef. We wanted the best money could hire. So it is that with some of the best chefs possible as our guides, we have slowly evolved and secured our place in the competitive world of fine dining. As a result of our commitment to excellence in all aspects of hospitality, combined with the good fortune of hiring extraordinarily talented chefs, The Vine Fine Dining continues to grow in recognition, accolades, and acclaim.

On the horizon, we have business plans to someday soon separate the restaurant physically from the Bed and Breakfast as a dedicated and completely independent public restaurant both for our lodging guests and for the general public.

Our goal is to grow our capacity to serve more customers and enhance our food services and offerings with the installation of new and better equipment. However, though we expect to continue growing, we are determined to maintain the same level of intimate fine dining that has set us apart from the crowd.