Consider that thousands of restaurants dot the Columbia-Pacific region. Since this column began, a scant half dozen have garnered four-star status. Three remain, all beacons of culinary creativity and bastions of superlative service. Here’s an update on this four-star trio, plus a peek at the chefs who make these superlative eateries click.

Moby Dick Hotel and Oyster Farm4 stars

25814 Sandridge Road, Nahcotta, Wash.; (360) 665-4543; 5:30 to 9 p.m. Thursday through Monday

This region’s most laid-back four-star establishment is presided over by chef Jeff McMahon, a rising star at Portland’s uber outpost of pan-Asian cuisine, Saucebox Cafe & Bar, until he moved to the beach four years back. Talk about a transformation. Instead of basking in Portland’s culinary limelight, puffery he never relished, McMahon now oversees an essentially one-man operation at the Moby Dick, a pleasantly funky hotel-restaurant combo beached in a virtual culinary Garden of Eden on the Willapa Bay shoreline.

Freshness is a McMahon obsession, and the variety of his twice-monthy menus seems limited only by what land and sea can provide. An expansive front yard organic garden furnishes a cornucopia of produce; oysters are harvested out back in the Moby Dick’s own beds. McMahon’s Mediterranean-inspired offerings may be more comforting and down-home than cutting-edge. Yet his meals are graced with nuances that mom wouldn’t have even considered: mushroom risotto cakes and spaghetti tossed with oysters and pancetta, for example, or pot au creme endowed with Belgian chocolate – a harmony of sweet and rich, thick and light and brown and white.

Accomplished as he is, McMahon is the antithesis of a celebrity chef. Ask him if he misses the ultra-trendy Saucebox and he’ll fire off a one-word answer: “Never!”

Home Spirit Bakery Cafe4 stars

1585 Exchange St., Astoria; (503) 325-6846; 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday for lunch, 5:30 to 6 p.m. and 7:30 to 8 p.m. dinner seatings Thursday through Saturday

Think your schedule is grueling? On Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, Michael Henderson rolls out of bed before 4 a.m. to tuck his Columbia sourdough, Astoria Hearth bread and other sundry loaves into the back-room oven at his attractively restored 1892 Victorian home and restaurant. By 9 a.m., much of the bread rests on cooling racks; come afternoon, most of it is sold.

Deservedly, Henderson has received accolades for his chewy artisan loaves, flaky croissants, fruit scones and mounds of puffy perfection called Gateway cinnamon rolls. But this 52-year-old Louisiana native is far more than an accomplished baker. Less recognized is Henderson’s skill with a pan-seared New York steak, a wine sorbet or a lamb stew. He insists on locally grown organic fruit and produce, Willapa Bay clams and oysters, wild Pacific Northwest salmon and freshly forayed wild mushrooms for his internationally inspired prix-fixe dinners, repasts that showcase sumptuous soups, imaginative salads, cheese and veggie tarts and a quartet of nightly entrees and desserts. Tomato tortilla soup, Moroccan fruit and nut salad, a goat cheese tart, baked Thai chicken and chocolate-coffee-hazelnut ice cream cake are selections from the current menu.

Sure Henderson enjoys mingling with customers: heck, he often serves them their food. But his easy-going personality precludes adulation. He simply wants to ensure patrons are happy. Quietly, unassumingly, he has become this region’s least-heralded super chef.

Shoalwater Restaurant4 stars

4415 Pacific Highway, Seaview, Wash.; (360) 642-4142; 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily for lunch, 5:30 to 9 p.m. (later on weekends) daily for dinner

Lynne “Red” Pelletier, an effervescent down-to-earth New Englander sporting bright red locks, defies the image of upscale restaurants being strongholds of male culinary supremacy. A feisty hands-on chef who has called Astoria home for more than a decade, she orchestrates the goings-on inside what’s arguably this region’s most venerated kitchen. An enclave of gastronomic creativity, this smallish and usually frenzied portion of the restaurant has nurtured other female food luminaries such as Cheri Walker of the nearby well-regarded 42nd Street Cafe and nationally acclaimed TV personality and Portland chef Caprial Pence.

Since she signed on four years ago, Pelletier has enhanced the Shoalwater’s growing reputation for purveying unfailingly unforgettable meals. Although her seasonal menus nod occasionally toward pan-Asian fusion – say, a wedge of seared ahi topped with an exhilarating cucumber-tomato salsa and awash in creamy wasabi – Pelletier remains rooted in Northwest cuisine, an elusively undefinable cooking style that features fixings ranging from local seafood and seasonal mushrooms to Oregon pinot noirs and Willamette Valley free-range lamb. Her flavors, however diverse, invariably match and blend.

But rather than individual dishes, stellar though they are, it’s the overall experience that makes the Shoalwater so memorable. The elegant dining area features an eye-pleasing array of brass, wood and stained glass, the service is reliably on target and the wine list is exemplary.

“Our vision has always been clear,” says Tony Kischner, who co-owns the Shoalwater with his wife Ann, the restaurant’s baker and pastry chef. “We want to provide an extraordinary dining experience for everyone who walks in the door.” With Pelletier “manning” the kitchen, it’s a done deal.

Contact the Mouth at The Daily Astorian, P.O. Box 210, Astoria, OR 97103 or phone (503) 325-3211 or e-mail mouth@dailyastorian.com

Four-star statusWhat’s it take to attain four-star status? A restaurant must offer dependably superlative food not available elsewhere. Atmosphere can be elegant, homey, or in between, so long as the interior feels unpretentious and welcoming. Courses should be well-paced, and service should approach impeccable. No restaurant is perfect, but the above three are consistently outstanding and the best the Columbia-Pacific region has to offer.