No trip to Seattle is complete without visiting the iconic Pike Place Market!
Home to the first ever Starbucks and where crowds gather in the hope of ‘catching a fish’ at the famous Pike Place Fish Market. We woke early and headed off to explore.
Where is Pike Place Market ?
Pike Place Market is located on Pike Street over looking Elliott Bay. If you need help with directions, ask anyone as everyone knows where it is.
History
The market opened its doors on 17th August 1907 and was created as a place for the residents of the ever growing city to buy fresh produce from local farmers. The market has grown to what it is today and has on average 20 – 40 thousand visitors on a daily basis. It’s a busy wee market alright!
A more fuller history can be found here.
What to see and do?
Pike Place is home to hundreds of different sellers from butchers, bakers, florist, to the weird and wonderful arts and crafts shops and eateries. I’ll throw it out there and say if you need it, someone in Pike Place Market will be probably be selling it.
Dander around
Like any market, the best thing to do is just dander around. Taking in the sights, tastes and sound of what is going on. The vendors are more than happy to interact and we learnt plenty as we walked around the main floor. You could easily spend a full day here exploring.
Darted around the Market are local street buskers, who really add to the feel and ambience of the place.
We tasted some absolutely beautiful samples of fruit from all over the world.
Megan couldn’t believe the size of these crab legs, she has only seen tiny ones on crabs back home. We still couldn’t tempt her to try one though!
The market has a huge array of fresh flowers all beautifully displayed and from what we seen quiet reasonably priced.
Fish Throwing
This is where the famous fish throwing takes place. Now it is pure luck that you will actually see this happening. It gets very busy and you need to be prepared to stand your ground and wait and wait. Maybe just buy a fish, ask them to chuck it to you and hope you don’t drop it!!
While we did get to see a fish being thrown, we didn’t manage to get a snap of them in action. The local fishermen working at the market are very friendly and good fun, they seem to just really enjoy being there and entertaining the crowds!
Rachel the piggy
An interesting find for us was Rachel the piggy. We done a bit of googling when we stopped for a beer after and found out that Rachel is the unofficial mascot of the market and actually a piggy bank. Rachel has been in place since 1986 and every year she collects around ten thousand dollars for the market foundation which supports local charities in the area. A fab way to give back to the local community while you’re there as a tourist.
She can be found beside the fish throwers, just beside the gum alley.
Eat
Fish seems to be top of the list for most visitors, with lengthily lines queuing for seafood chowder. However, with Megan being her fussy self that simply wasn’t an option for us. Instead we visited Uli’s Bierstube. Initially being honest we went in thinking sausage in a bap, great cheers Megan!
How wrong could we be. The menu is huge, with every type of sausage you can think off, each made with flavours from around the word. The sandwiches are paired with the perfect fillings and sauces. There is even an option to build your own. WOW they were to die for and made fresh from the deli.
There is no way you can try them all, lucky they have a deli counter to bring some home.
Arts and Crafts
While the main floors are all about fish and fresh produce, the floors beneath contain a hidden gem of shops specialising in arts and crafts, jewellery and original art.
We purchased these small prints showing the infamous Fremont troll and Pike Market itself, at a very reasonable price.
Beer
Seattle has the strangest drinking laws we have come across. However, The Old Stove brewing company had no issues with us coming in to sample some beers. It was a fabulous place to sit and watch the world go by out of the mid day sun!
Chewing Gum Alley
This is one of the most weirdly beautiful places we have visited.
Funnily the wall came about as theatre go’ers would stick their chewing gum onto the wall outside, staff tried to clear up the mess but eventually gave up.
They regularly clear down the walls. It takes 130 hours and over 2,000 pounds of gum is lifted (heaves at the thought!). However, almost instantly gum started to appear on the walls again.
We had great fun adding our bits of gum to the wall and daring each other to eat a bit from the wall – what’s your price? How much would it take for you to eat a piece.
Top Tips
- The market gets very very busy, especially at weekends. If you are visiting with young kids, hold onto them like glue as it is just crowds of people. Perhaps go first thing in the morning to beat the crowds.
- Come hungry and sample the delights on offer.
- Talk to the traders, if anyone is going to give you knowledge and information on Seattle it is them.
Would you recommend
Yes 100%. We had the best afternoon at Pike Place Market. If we ever find ourselves in Seattle again it is the first place we will go! It’s an iconic institute of Seattle and its just one of those places you have to go.
For more information on Pike Market Place, visit their website here.
Thanks for reading!
The Lewis family.
If you enjoy reading about our days out in the USA. Check out our other blog posts here – Places to visit USA