32 years of Westport: my favorite spots
I've spent 32 years on this little corner of the Washington coast. Grew up in South Bend, have family in Grayland, and now I'm just down the road in Raymond. These towns and these businesses feel like mine to root for. With Pirate Daze just wrapping up, it felt like the right time to write down my actual favorite spots. The ones I go to because I want to, not because I'm working.
Rick and I come here for food, drinks, and football, and it is one of the few places on earth I have successfully gotten Rick to dance in public. That alone earns it a permanent spot on this list.
I know the whole coast is team halibut and I respect that. But Bennett's cod fish and chips? I'm not budging. It's my favorite.
We are big fans of splitting a big cocktail. This is where we do it.
My favorite boutique in Westport, full stop. I have bought dresses, flannels, and one very memorable octopus candle holder here. My favorite body spray came from Pomegranate. I leave every single time with something I didn't plan on buying and I have zero regrets.
We stayed here earlier this year and loved it. Exactly what a coastal stay should feel like.
Our friend works here, so we always pop in to say hi. Great atmosphere, cool spot.
Shuffleboard. Enough said.
Shop n' Kart (forever Ted's Red Apple to me)
When we're staying at my family's cabin in Grayland, this is our stop. I still call it Ted's. I will probably always call it Ted's.
Vegan cheese, great pizza, used to be House of Pizza and it's still delivering. Rick and I get this more than I'd like to admit.
Genuinely a great date night spot, though I usually end up going here with girlfriends because Rick does not drink wine. His loss, honestly.
The shops down Westhaven Drive & the charters
I just bought a red glass float on my last walk through. My dad was a deckhand on the Outlaw back in the day, so charter boats and the waterfront have always felt personal to me. Rick won the derby a few years back. I got the second biggest lingcod, which I think about more than I should.
I just went up to the lighthouse for the first time recently and I genuinely don't know why it took me so long. Go if you haven't.
And a little further out:
The Local, the Tokeland Hotel, smoked scallops from Nelson Crab, and occasionally we’ll throw in a twenty or two at the Shoalwater Casino. These spots are technically "outskirts" but they're part of the same world to me.
I'm a big believer in shopping local and supporting small businesses, not as a slogan, but because these places are woven into my actual life. Supporting small takes a village, and I want to be part of this one for a long time.
About Chelsea Moudry
Chelsea Moudry is a coastal hospitality photographer, Experience Westport's contracted photographer, and a 32-year resident of this corner of Washington. When she's not shooting boutique hotels and coastal restaurants, she's eating Westport Pizza, losing money at the Shoalwater, or thinking about that lingcod she caught five years ago.