Seattle: A Morning At Pike Place Market
I must be honest in this quick overview of what we like about the Pike Place Market area… I’m completely smitten with this part of Seattle, and I quite frequently feel the urge to just buy a plane ticket and go visit for a day. I don’t know what exactly it is, because I tend to not enjoy crowds and noisy places… but this place just has a special attraction to me. The hustle, the bustle, the flowers, the vendors… the delicious coffee, beer, and food… it’s such a cool place.
There are plenty of websites and blogs that tell you the most popular and best places to stop here, but I’m going to share my favorites. The best tip I can give you is to just walk all around the place and see as much as you can, and be ready to try lots of treats and snacks.
Storyville Coffee
I will choose this coffee shop over every other one in Seattle any day. Smooth espresso, delicious pastries, shockingly good breakfast sandwiches. Also, they work towards a good purpose, so it’s not just good coffee for profit. I know the “original” Starbucks is in the neighborhood, but with it’s crazy long lines, I’d tell anyone to head to Storyville first. There are two locations now - one in the middle of the market, and one a few blocks away!
Flowers & The Market
This is my favorite thing about the market. The fresh cut flowers all over the place. They are beautiful, they smell good (even though they make me sneeze), and the artists building bouquets are fun to watch. Seriously… so pretty!
The Gum Wall
And opposite of the pretty flowers, this alley is just gross. Tons of chewed gum is stuck to every surface it could stick to, and it’s a must see according to every Seattle visitor guide. I think it’s gross, and kind of feel like holding my breath when I walk through, but it’s worth a look, if you’ve never been!
Three Girls Bakery
My favorite cookies, chocolate crackles, are always on the rack here… so this is the bakery I hit first. There are so many options for donuts and pastries though, definitely check out some of the others and try a little bit of everything. I will always leave with a bag full of crackles though!
The Alweg Monorail
Definitely more of a tourist type of transportation, but this thing is super cool. It doesn't go very far, but helps you hop from the Space Needle to Downtown pretty quick and easy. It's a couple of dollars, and well worth the ride.
Pike’s Pit BBQ
Delicious, saucy, spicy, wow… Grab some of this BBQ for lunch, and go find a brewery to have some cold beer to wash it down. Delicious! (No photos, because delicious BBQ is also very messy!) :) I recommend the pulled pork, at medium heat. It was pretty spicy!
Good Beer
Old Stove Brewing
This brewery has a great selection of beer across the spectrum of light to dark. Their saison and double IPA were the ones we liked the most, but they have lots to choose from. This is a great pub, right in the middle of the action, and they also serve some food. We stuck with the beers!
Cloudburst Brewing
This is a smaller brewery, and bit further down the street from the market, but still easily walked to. The fact that it sits a little ways down the street actually made for a bit of a calmer environment, and seemed to have more locals enjoying the beers. The selection here was smaller at the time we visited, but we had a good IPA to enjoy with our spicy BBQ!
Pike Place Brewing
Another brewery that we visited in the heart of Pike Place. This is par of a huge restaurant, so we had some appetizers and a flight - not the best of beers, but good food. If you want a good beer, we’d point to Old Stove above all that we tried.
Seafair Parade
We were lucky on this visit and happened to be in town at the beginning of the big Seafair celebration held downtown - the parade was on the day of our visit!
We really do love this downtown area... there is so much to see and smell and taste and try. Our list is certainly not complete, but a summary of some of the things we like. Let us know what you love about the Pike Place area and downtown Seattle!
