Driving through St. Edward State Park, you immediately feel transported to a new, quiet place. Away from the city, the park is filled with trails, and though full of hikers and dog walkers, the place feels serene and removed.
Arriving at The Lodge at St. Edward Park, that serenity lingers. The structure and décor gives away its former life as a school—the heavy double doors, long hallways and institutional stairwells—but quiet luxury now defines the austere space. I arrived as part of a press tour, so there are expectations for the experience to come, but I was already impressed with the lodge.
Formerly the Saint Edward Seminary from 1931 until 1976, the property was sold to the State to create the park, but the building stood empty and crumbling for several years. Real estate developer Kevin Daniels took on the project and began restoring the seminary in 2017, reopening as the Lodge at St. Edward in 2021.
Day 1
After a seamless valet parking and check-in, I immediately scoped out the bar. There are actually two of them: Father Mulligan’s Heritage Bar, connected to restaurant Cedar & Elm on the main floor, and The Tonsorium down in the basement, which used to be the seminary’s barbershop. It’s easy to imagine harried students would have appreciated such a conversion, were they allowed to partake.
The long corridors are filled with paintings, photographs and sculptures. The hotel has also gone through the trouble of adding placards of QR codes near points of interest. One such placard, posted next to a rather stern-looking door at the end of the fifth floor hallway, leads to a Macklemore music video that was filmed at the site before the restoration.
The guest rooms are small—being each composed of two of the original seminary dorm rooms—but deeply comfortable, especially the beds. The bathrooms are equally compact but well-appointed with Grown Alchemist toiletries, in various strong, refreshing scents. The overall effect is cozy and quiet.
Our cohort had a little time when we arrived to try out the Heritage Bar, and then we were introduced to Daniels over drinks and appetizers, who filled us in on the history of the property and the renovation. We also met the chef, Luke Kolpin, who worked at Noma for nine years before returning home to Seattle. At the time of my visit, he had been the executive chef of Cedar & Elm for four months.
When it comes to happy hour, the Lodge has you covered. The cocktails we tried were inventive and rather clever. I loved the “Gardener’s Gimlet” with its bright flavors of lime, tarragon, honey and cardamom bitters set against fresh thyme. Others in our party enjoyed a pretty gin concoction called the “Hidden Pond Catholicon” which had Cap Corse Blanc, lemon, bitters and a green pea syrup with another fresh herb garnish. I was dubious about a drink called “Burn, Brine & Bee” made with scotch, Ancho Reyes liqueur, honey and pickle juice, but I ended up trying it anyway. I’m still not sure it really worked for me, but the combination was fascinating. They have a strong non-alcoholic showing as well, which we were happy to sample.
After our cocktail hour, we toured the property, visiting the beehives, the chef’s garden—filled with herbs and cherry tomatoes—the spa, fitness center and even climbed the narrow spiral staircase into the bell tower. The library was delightful, filled with books, comfortable furniture and work tables, and stocked with elaborate versions of classic board games. I especially wanted to play a round of Clue, since the board actually consisted of tiny, dollhouse-style rooms.
Our first dinner at Cedar & Elm was casual, which turned out to mean Kolpin sent us a wild array of appetizers before we chose our own entrées from the standard menu. We ate flatbreads served with “dirty dip,” a mix of onion braising oil, veal Demi-glacé and pan drippings, which made people moan. We sampled bite-sized tarts of crab meat and horseradish; crisps topped with beef tartare and dotted with egg yolk; and crunchy, salty ricotta gnudi with mushrooms—the latter especially delicious, like fat, creamy tater tots.
It’s immediately clear when dining at the Lodge that Kolpin is religiously devoted to butter, onions, mushrooms and seaweed, and the menu reflects this. Our entrées included a delightful chicken schnitzel with brown butter cream, apricot-glazed pork belly and short ribs with black garlic, but the standout was a roasted black cod with cured egg yolk, roasted green onions and a heroic amount of butter. It was probably the best thing I ate the entire trip. Happy noises were heard from every diner.
Dessert followed, because we’re professionals: salted caramel ice cream on a citrus tuile, topped with shiitake cream and dusted with blueberry powder. It was delicious, but had an unexpected, tangy note from the mushroom that lingered in the mouth. The second dessert was rather strange looking, but turned out to be an olive oil cake soaked in marigold syrup, dusted with freeze-dried strawberry powder, fresh strawberries marinated in buttermilk and seaweed, topped with a strawberry sorbet and a pool of seaweed oil. The overall effect was concentrated strawberry, with the odd, saline note of the seaweed coming through at the end. Each dish was artfully plated on black dishes, which had the compound effect of highlighting the star ingredients, while rendering the totality of the dish somewhat unrecognizable. It made the experience of tasting each a mystery to be solved.
Thus sated, we finally headed to our rooms—though some stayed up for a nightcap—and I discovered that the staff had kindly left a bottle of their house blanc de blancs, along with a jar of honey and a dish of sweets I was totally unable to cope with after dinner. It was definitely time for bed.
The bed was wildly comfortable, and I don’t just say that because I didn’t have several cats sleeping on me like I usually do. The mattress and pillows were luxurious, and my room on the fifth floor was so dark and quiet with just the sheer curtains drawn that I didn’t even notice there were heavier drapes until the next day. With the exception of a cross-country meet one afternoon, the property was calm and quiet the entirety of our stay.
Day 2
After a breakfast at the Heritage Bar, we were taken on a nature walk with an herbalist recently graduated from Bastyr University, also located within St. Edward State Park. There are trails winding all over the park that go down to the shores of Lake Washington, and many of them accommodate pedestrians and mountain bikers. There is a playground, and two ball fields as well, making it a popular local spot on a summer’s day. Our guide was not always correct in her plant information, but she made up for it with her enthusiasm. Bits of licorice fern were passed around and chewed on as we followed the Seminary Trail half a mile down to the lakefront.
Following our trek, many of our group took to the skies for a seaplane tour of Seattle with Kenmore Air, a family-owned company of four generations, and then we piled into a shuttle for a guided wine tasting at Rocky Pond Winery’s Woodinville tasting room. The Lodge has arrangements with several local businesses to provide bespoke excursions like this for their guests.
A moment alone meant I was able to sneak a happy hour at the Lodge’s second bar, The Tonsorium. Esteban, the mounted head of a red-eyed unicorn, presided over the bar, and sunlight streamed in through the high windows. I asked the bartender for her recommendation, and she made me a particularly nice rendition of a Black Manhattan, with black walnut liqueur and Cio Ciaro amaro.
Dinner that night was a chance for Kolpin to be even more creative—a wine pairing dinner, which he plans to hold regularly. We started off with grilled baby gem lettuce stuffed with shrimp and watercress, drizzled with dill oil; but that wasn’t all—with each course he brought to the table, the chef arrived with a small amuse-bouche. Before we could partake of the salad, we first had to eat a tiny shrimp taquito in a crisp rice paper wrapper. We were served bowls of ripe berries, fresh and dried cherry tomatoes, white currants and a seaweed sauce with parsley. This was followed by a bread course with coarse salt and chives, scallops served on a crispy piece of chicken skin, and cured halibut in caramelized milk, mushroom-seaweed sauce, pine salt and horseradish. We finished off the evening with—you guessed it!—a seaweed ice cream with a tiny blueberry tart, served with white port.
Each of Chef Kolpin’s courses came out with an amuse-bouche like this; shrimp in a crispy rice paper tuile. 
Grilled gem lettuce with prawns, watercress and dill 
Fresh berries with cherry tomatoes, seaweed and parslet 
Tiny tomato tartlets 
Halibut with caramelized milk, mushroom and seaweed 
Fresh bread with chives and coarse salt 
A blueberry tart served with seaweed ice cream and white port.
Some of us needed a cup of coffee and a nightcap to recover after this rich meal, so we returned to the Tonsorium. We had just missed a live music performance, and the place was still lively with chatter. I ordered an old fashioned with smoked rosemary, a very pleasant tipple that made the entire bar smell lovely each time it was ordered. I don’t think I was alone in collapsing into my bed after the evening’s indulgence.
Day 3
On our final morning after breakfast, we attended a session of Kundalini yoga, a meditative form of yoga practice I’d never tried but greatly enjoyed. After a reflective break in one of their “quiet rooms” with snacks and herbal tea, I gathered myself to leave. I’ll admit I had hoped to try the Lodge’s infrared sauna, but I was afraid if I didn’t get myself on the road home, I might not leave at all.
This piece was the result of a press tour. We strive to be transparent when our content is sponsored, and while the stay was provided by The Lodge at St. Edwards, the author’s opinions are their own.