A timeless experience at Thyme Inn

By Marc Boissoneau
Sun contributor

“You don’t mind if I work while we talk, do you?” Carol Worsley asks. “Because as a cooking teacher, I’m used to working and talking.”

On this particular day, Worsley is shelling shrimp for a friend, but she already has plans to bake scones and cookies when she finishes that project. “I have to make cookies this afternoon because we pride ourselves on always having a full cookie jar, and they’ve been going rapidly!” she explains as she gestures to the two remaining chocolate cherry pecan cookies.

Her gourmet cooking is a hallmark of Thyme Inn, which she owns with her husband, Don. “I’ve stayed at probably a hundred B&B’s all over the USA and Europe. This is number one,” says one of their frequent guests, Russ Douglas. “I mean, where else can you go and be surrounded by European antiques and a gourmet kitchen, and be served a three-course breakfast that’s fit for a king? It’s just — it’s fabulous.”

And Worsley’s credentials are impeccable. A graduate of fine cooking schools including Le Cordon Bleu, she also worked under Julia Child. “Yes, Julia,” she says with a smile. “I mainly knew her French ‘sister,’ and they worked together for many years. She was my mentor, and through her I met Julia. Actually, I met them both through a gal from Glen Lake who had a place in France and introduced me to them when I was in my twenties.”

As she cleans up a small mess, Worsley recalls a piece of criticism she once received from the great chef. “You’re a good chef, Carol,” she recites in Child’s blustery tone, “but you’ll never be a great one — you’re too neat!”

“Julia would leave a dish by the sink, and I’d wash it right away because I wanted to impress her,” Worsley explains, “so she’d turn around and be surprised to see it set aside to dry.”

With her culinary skills, Worsley could ostensibly have made a go of the inn anywhere, but she feels a strong connection to Glen Arbor. “This is our 48th year here,” she says. “We built a cottage here when we were in our 20s. We’ve spent every summer here, and I have to say I appreciate it more now in retrospect. I was raised in the Upper Peninsula, and that’s a beautiful area as well, but there’s a certain essence to Glen Arbor.”

For now, the Worsleys split their time evenly between Glen Arbor and Birmingham, where they own a contracting business and an architectural consulting service. “But the time is coming that we’re going to be here all the time,” she says. “Don’s still running our businesses downstate, but it’s not for forever, because he needs to be here. He’s a city boy, but he loves the country.”

Worsley was attracted to the inn, however, not only for its location, but also for the building itself. “One reason I wanted this place was that it didn’t have a porch,” she says. “We’d drive past, and it looked very plain. I always wanted to buy it and put a porch on it. So my husband bought it for me as a surprise and said, ‘Now you can put a porch on it’!”

The porch is, however, not the only improvement the Worsleys have made since they purchased the building, previously an antique shop, in 1997. “The previous owner had a garden, but not what I thought this place should have,” she says.

“It’s not a neat, well-ordered garden,” Worsley says of her installation. “It’s more like an English or French garden, with just a profusion of flowers. I have a balance of color that I always try to keep in mind. Right now, I’m missing …” She trails off as she crosses to peer out the window to survey her flowers. “I’m missing pinks,” she decides. “I want to see brilliant colors: fuchsias, yellows, oranges, brilliant lilac purple.”

“Truthfully, I could cook all day, and I could garden all day. I just love both. I even like to weed!” she says with a chuckle.

In addition to regular guests, the Worsleys often host weddings and anniversary parties at the inn. “They’re all such happy times,” Carol says fondly. “My granddaughter, Mackenzie, has been helping me with cooking and things since she was nine. One time when she helped me with a wedding, she said, ‘Grandma, I love all this love.’ I was so proud. She got it.”

It is, in fact, the people more than the place that Carol says she is fond of. “In eight years, truthfully, there’s only been one person I haven’t cared to have back,” she says. “I have a lot of repeat business. There are some people who come three times in a summer, and they become friends, some of them really good friends.

“There’s one young couple who got engaged here, and got married here, then came back for their first anniversary, their second anniversary, and now this is their third anniversary, and they have a nine-month-old baby girl. It’s so gratifying to see that the inn means so much to people. And I get to see their family grow; they’ve become really close friends.”

And with her connections to people and places in the area and beyond, Worsley hopes to maintain the inn for many years to come.

Visit Thyme Inn on the web at ThymeInn.com or call (231) 334-6920.