Seattle travel: Pike Place Market lets you sample the Emerald City’s iconic food, brews and more

Seattle’s bustling, world-famous Pike Place Market is a nine-acre, multi-level warren of some 400 shops, stalls, neon-lit arcades and eateries. Rich with waterfront tradition, the market can be a bit overwhelming — even slightly surreal — at times, like a carnival at night or a Fellini film. It’s a Pacific Northwest feast for the senses — colorful and dizzying, but a lot of fun.

I love the quirky corners of this marketplace. Most visitors start on Pike Place across from the main arcade, where bakeries tout flaky, buttery treats, plump piroshkis and freshly baked loaves and boutique coffee shops (including the original Starbucks) abound.

Cross the street and enter the historic main arcade, crowned by its iconic neon sign, and you’re greeted by fish mongers barking loudly as they famously toss fish around. Dazzling bins of produce and flowers erupt into the aisles, and creaky old stairways and obscure corridors wind their way through the building to shops such as Market Magic (magic trick supplies and vintage magician posters) and Holy Cow Records (a hip outpost for vinyl).

Launched in 1907, the Emerald City’s Pike Place Market is the oldest continuously operating farmers market in the western U.S. You’ll find more than 70 farmers stalls and stops here, including family-owned Sosia’s Produce, which has set up its dazzling displays of fruits and veggies from independent local farms for more than 50 years.

My day at the market was framed by food stops, of course, starting with an amandine croissant at the oh-so-Francais Le Panier bakery. Midday, I paused for chowder and crispy fish and chips at Jack’s Fish Spot, hit up happy hour at nearby Pike Brewing Company and its Fish Bar and finished up the day at Shama, a new, glass-walled Moroccan restaurant with beautiful views of Elliot Bay and the Seattle waterfront. That’s a Seattle sampler bar none.

Here’s just a sampling of the Pike Place market attractions that await. (Tip: Organize your excursion by creating a “your market day” itinerary at www.pikeplacemarket.org/market-directory.)

Shop Pike Place’s arty side

Enter the northern entrance of the main arcade off Pike Place, and you are welcomed by the colorful, exuberant paintings by Ernesto Ybarra, whose Jean Michel-Basquiat and Pablo Picasso-influenced imagery runs from Latino culture to urban images and religious iconography. More than 170 artisans set up tables in the market each week, and you’ll find nearly 50 in the Producers Hall, which opened in 2017 as part of a major expansion project.

Then head for Eighth Generation, a shop owned by the Snoqualmie Tribe which partners with community-based Native artists around the country to design, manufacture and market colorful and intricate wool blankets, clothing and gifts.

Sherwood Silkscreen offers colorful fish-themed (of course!) T-shirts in handprinted, wood-block style graphics by Mary Kay Sherwood, whose Pike Place Market-themed aprons, tote bags and tees have been market favorites for more than 40 years.

Take a peek inside Tenzing MoMo, one of the West Coast’s oldest herb stores, which offers more than 400 medicinal herbs and 100 fragrances and essential oils, as well as Tibetan and Buddhist statuary, salves, soaps and bulk teas. You can also book tarot and psychic sessions with two readers who bring a combined 60 years of experience to their prophetic art.

And quirky Ugly Baby offers “unapologetic art for immature adults.” It’s owned by two Seattle artists who claim to have invented “Shower Art” (waterproof art you can hang in your shower with a suction cup). They also sell screen-printed hoodies and tees, home goods and Seattle souvenirs. You can find the shop by following the sidewalk chalk unicorns from the infamous — and gross and disgusting — “Gum Wall” on the lower levels of the market. (And if you’re looking for cool Seattle bars and coffee spots, the shop’s website — https://uglybaby.shop/ — has recommendations, too.)

Dine in trendy — or old school — style

The new Dressing Room Bistro and Bar in the Can-Can, a culinary cabaret theater that features French-inspired Pacific Northwest fare, made with ingredients sourced fresh from Pike Place Market, and cocktails such as a Boudoir Noir, made with aquavit and cassis. The romantic indoor space features plush booth seating draped in velvety reds and satin pinks and classic cancan memorabilia. And the rooftop patio offers gorgeous views of Post Alley and the Puget Sound. Check out the menu at www.thecancan.com.

Open since March, the elegant, modern Moroccan Shama is one of the newest eateries at the market. Start with labneh topped with tomatoes, radishes, cucumbers and mint oil, koufta or a shrimp and calamari-centric M’killa, then savor entrees such as D’jaj bi Zetoun (chicken with housemade preserved lemons and saffron broth) or Carre D’agneau (spiced Moroccan lamb cutlets with freekeh). Find details at www.shamaseattle.com.

But if you want to go old school on the waterfront, Lowell’s Restaurant & Bar — its slogan is “Almost classy since 1957 — has been a market fixture for more than a century. It offers three floors of scenic views of the Olympic Mountains, the Port of Seattle and the ferries plying the Puget Sound. Seafood is their specialty, with Dungeness and smoked salmon Eggs Benedict for breakfast and New England-style clam chowder, Alaskan cod fish and chips, Dungeness crab melt sandwiches and Manila steamer clams for lunch. You’ll find menus, lore and more at www.eatatlowells.com.

The Athenian Seafood Restaurant and Bar has served delicious food and beverages in one of Seattle’s most iconic restaurant settings since 1909. Every table has a commanding view of Puget Sound and the snow-capped Olympic Mountains. Enjoy a frosty mug from one of Washington’s microbrew beers while you watch the ferries slip in and out of their waterfront dock. Movie buffs take note: this restaurant was featured in the 1993 film “Sleepless in Seattle.” The Athenian Seafood Restaurant and Bar are in the main arcade next to Pure Food Fish, one of several seafood markets in the complex. Find details at www.athenianseattle.com.

And Jack’s Fish Spot is an open-air, old-timey fish market and seafood bar with rows of well-used bar stools circling the fish displays. This is a great spot to embed yourself in the heart of the market, people watch and enjoy a lunch of steamers, fish and chips, chowder or grilled Alaskan salmon. Details: www.jacksfishspot.com

Sip Seattle suds

It’s almost criminal to visit Seattle without sampling the region’s craft beer. Fortunately there are two excellent breweries in the Pike Place milieu where you can sample this beer bounty—and enjoy an excellent meal too.

Located in the market’s stylish new Marketfront addition, Old Stove Brewing crafts a wide variety of beers, which you can enjoy on their wide deck overlooking the waterfront. Try a “Light Flight” of Pilsner, Belgian Blonde, Helles Lager, Streaker Citra, Seasonal Sour and Pike Place Seltzer, perhaps or a “Hop Head Flight” of six hoppy brews that include Hazely’s Comet Juicy IPA and West Coast IPA. The taproom clam chowder is made with Amber Waves ale and bacon, and the mains include Belgian Blonde beer-battered fish and chips, served with urfa biber tartar sauce. Check out the menu and beer lineup at www.oldstove.com.

Pike Brewing, which is just outside the market, has a warm and wondrous beer factory ambiance. In addition to a solid selection of IPAs, a stout and a Pilsner, the brewery also offers seasonal barrel-aged brews, such as The Long Dark, named after the long, dark Pacific Northwest winters and aged for 36 months in Woodinville whiskey barrels. The brewery has two restaurants, but my favorite is the Pike Fish Bar, which focuses on beer, oysters
and fish and chips — and offers an excellent happy hour from 3 to 6 p.m. on weekdays.

That may be a work day for everyone else, but you? You’re on vacation.