Popular Orcas Island restaurant Christina's sold to Maureen Mullen

Last month, 28 years after opening a rustic waterfront restaurant on Orcas Island, Christina Orchid sold her eponymous aerie, Christina's, a room with a stunning view known for its chef-owner's passionate use of local ingredients.

A new chef-owner, Maureen Mullen, late of Seattle, has stepped up to the plate bearing a résumé that includes stops at the Coastal Kitchen, Dahlia Lounge and Lola, and gigs at Seattle catering companies including Mangetout, Gourmondo, Herban Feast and City Catering. Today she owns a restaurant that — for now, at least — trumpets the name of one of the Northwest's pioneers of locavoracious cookery. Heading to Orcas this summer? You might want to make reservations at Christina's in advance (360-376-4904 or www.christinas.net).

Christina and her husband and business partner, Bruce, have plenty to do without a restaurant to run (more on that in a minute). And for Mullen, who's in the process of updating the restaurant's interior décor and, eventually, its menu, the busy summer season will soon move into high gear. Hopefully, she and her staff, who served my family and me dinner last week, will do the same.

It's been 20 years since I moved to Seattle, and three days after my arrival, I hit the road and took the ferry to beautiful Orcas Island, eating at Christina's for the first time. I love the sense of timelessness I've felt on each visit since — and there have been many — so I'm not quite certain I'll take to the more "contemporary" look that Mullen says she has planned for it.

Those of you who own a copy of "Christina's Cookbook: Recipes and Stories from a Northwest Island Kitchen" (Sasquatch Books, $29.95) can read about the restaurant's initial transformation from a single mother's three-bedroom apartment to her award-winning destination-restaurant, in the introduction:

"We pulled off the woodwork and planed it to remove the paint. I scraped the linoleum off the floors; clear, vertical-grain fir lay underneath, cheap flooring when the place was built as a combination machine shop, filling station, and boat ways in the early 1930s. We changed a doorway so it led into one of the front bedrooms instead of the living room. The bedroom became an entry and we removed the closet that separated that room from the bedroom next to it; that room became the bar."

For the first summer in way too long, Christina and Bruce are taking it easy. Sort of. They're far from retiring from the vibrant food scene on Orcas. Last week, Christina hosted yet another of her "Cooking in the Barn" series: classes held in the stunning, TV-cooking-show-worthy barn and special-events space. It's built adjacent to their royally rustic home on Christina's family's 40-acre farm in West Sound. Christina's mother, Emily Reid, lives just up the road and tends a vibrant garden and a flock of chickens, gathering fresh eggs each day.

Those cooking classes, taught by Christina and other guest-chefs (Flying Fish's Chris Keff made an appearance early this month), benefit Children's House on Orcas, whose mission involves providing quality child care and additional family resources for lower-income families. Thanks in large part to Christina and Bruce, the cooking series has raised $150,000 for that cause.

Bruce, who gave up his job in politics years ago to join Christina in the restaurant business, where he ran the dining room and acted as sommelier with warmth and cheer, was on hand last weekend at the Orcas Island Farmers Market in Eastsound, promoting his run this year for San Juan County Council.

Like Christina, he's been an active member of his island community. In recent years he's served on the Washington State Arts Commission and had a four-year tenure as an elected San Juan County commissioner while running the restaurant. He can also be found running his riding lawnmower at home, lest any newly-wedded brides sully their shoes down on the farm during catered events held there.

Not bad for a couple of hippies who've made a name for themselves — and a beloved restaurant — on my favorite island. I wish them, and Christina's new owner, well.

Nancy Leson: 206-464-8838 or nleson@seattletimes.com