The Quartermaster Inn and Restaurant recently curtailed its hours for fall and winter and is now open from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday through Sunday. The restaurant will also host a variety of special events during the off-peak months.

“We really recognize after having been in business a year we are dependent on tourists down here in Burton, more so than restaurants in town,” said Marie Browne, who owns the business with her husband Troy Kindred. The absence of Burton’s summer residents also makes a difference in the off season.

When Browne and Kindred took the helm of the Quartermaster in the spring of 2009, Browne said they thought they had bought a restaurant with an inn attached, but they have since learned the reverse is true: “We are an inn with a restaurant attached.”

They routinely feed guests throughout the weekends, so opening the doors to the public made sense, Browne said. They have served Sunday brunch since opening, but breakfast on Fridays and Saturdays is new. All-American items make up the menu, including includes ham, bacon, eggs, a breakfast strata and more.

Breakfast, though, is not the only new addition to the schedule; several special events are in the works. The third Thursday of the month will be wine tasting-dinners with Ron Irvine of Vashon Winery bringing wine and Mardi Ljubich preparing dinners to go with the wine.

Other guest chef nights are planned, as well as a “Vashonvore” night, when all the food and drink come from Vashon’s growers, bakers and vintners.

“We have an amazing wealth of people of people who are making food here locally,” Browne said.

Hosting an all-Vashon dinner is a way of “closing the circle,” she added, and supporting Island businesses.

House concerts are planned, too, with musicians from Seattle and Vashon, and each Friday and Sunday there will be live music as well. People are also encouraged to call if they would like to hold a special event there.

Their first summer as restaurant owners was slightly busier than the one that just ended, Browne noted, something she attributes to the cool, wet summer, which dampened people’s enthusiasm for dining on the restaurant’s deck, as well as the ongoing recession.

But despite the slower times, Browne is optimistic about the months ahead.

“We’re looking forward to building a fire and cozying up for the winter,” she said.