| Pike Place Market is one of
Seattle's most popular tourist attractions, noted as much for its exuberant
theatricality as for its vastly appealing fish and vegetable market. The lively,
always bustling market fills daily with the bounty of local farms, rivers and
the sea. Add in arts and crafts, loads of restaurants and cafés and buskers and
other performers, and you'll discover why this mazelike market is Seattle at its
irrepressible best. It sees about 40,000 visitors a day, and a good portion of
them are locals out shopping for fresh fish and produce. |
| The market features some of the most boisterous fishmongers in the world,
whose daredevil antics with salmon merge gymnastics, theater and cuisine.
Despite the tourist fielding showiness, the market maintains a down-home
authenticity; real people work and buy here. A tip: don't eat before you go.
This is one of the hotbeds of Seattle noshing and dining. You can get everything
from a freshly grown Washington apple to a pot sticker, or even a seven-course
French meal. Some of Seattle's favorite watering holes are also tucked into
unlikely corners of the market buildings
The Market is a nine-acre National Historic District, and home
to more than 100 farmers, 150 craftspeople, 300 commercial businesses, 500
residents — and 50 street performers.
The world's first Starbucks opened in the Market in 1971, and is
still brewing up beans at the site.
Pike Place Market overlooks Elliott Bay waterfront in Seattle it is the oldest
continually-operated public farmer's market in the country.
You will find many small business here such as farmers, craftspeople and
merchants who sell their local wares here.
It is also Seattle's most popular tourist destination located in Downtown
Seattle west of First Avenue between Pike Street and Union Street. It is named after
its central street, Pike Place, which runs northwest from Pike Street to
Virginia Street.
The Market is built on the edge of a steep hill. It has several lower levels
below the main level, featuring a variety of unique shops. Antique dealers,
comic book sellers, and small unique restaurants.
The upper street level features fishmongers, fresh produce stands, and craft
stalls operating in the covered arcades. Local farmers sell year-round in the
arcades from tables they rent from the Market on a daily basis.
One of the Market's major attractions is Pike Place Fish Market, where employees
throw fish to each other rather than passing them by hand.
Visit
www.pikeplacemarket.org for more information.
Shop the Market from 9-6 Mon-Sat and 11-5 Sun. On summer
Saturdays the Market opens at 7 a.m. — and don't forget Organic Wednesdays and
Sundays.
The nation's oldest continually working farmer's market (since
1907), Pike Place is a tribute to the Seattleites who saved it from corporate
takeover in the early '70s. The result is a jubilant, open-air celebration of fresh regional
fruits and vegetables, seasonal flowers, herbs, seafood, spices, cheeses,
hand-crafted work by artisans, eclectic shops, and fine restaurants and
eateries--many with views of ferry and freighter traffic on Elliott Bay.
Here in
this revered nine-acre community with its cracked walkways and uneven
cobblestone streets, the scent of sweet peas mingles with Dungeness crabs and
spicy teas, street musicians compete with "free sample!" vendors, and weird
things make their appearance: bottom-dwelling monkfish and rubber-necked geoducks.
A piscatorial highlight: Pike Place Fish, where world-famous
fishmongers have elevated salmon-slinging to new heights.
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PIKE PLACE MARKET & THE WATERFRONT