Seattle, WA Part IV: Pike Place Market

Seattle's Pike Place Market is located at the edge of the downtown area along the waterfront. The market is the oldest, continuously-operating farmers' market in the United States. In addition to fruits, vegetables, meats, and fish, the market also has crafts and other merchandise.

Our online research turned up Savor Seattle that has a number of food tours around the city including two different tours of Pike Place Market. We chose the tour that is recommended for first-time visitors to the market that includes a brief history of the market, a walking tour of the market, behind the scenes info, and samples at quite a few of the shops.

Our plan of saving our city sightseeing for the weekend worked out OK on Saturday, even with everything that was going on in town; but it worked out even better on Sunday because there was only a baseball game going on downtown and we were much farther from the stadium. We found a conveniently-located parking lot with a weekend parking rate of only $5 whereas the same lot for the same amount of time would have been $18 during the week.

The tour started at a Starbuck's Coffee Shop right across the street from the market entrance. The tour guide had a microphone with a transmitter and we were all given earpieces so we could hear everything he was saying. We started off our tour with a sample of Starbuck's iced coffee, then headed across the street to the market. The photo below shows the main entrance to the market. That's our tour guide on the right with the pink umbrella. He used that when we got into some of the more open areas so we could find him more easily. As the morning went on, the umbrella really helped because it started to get pretty crowded.

Back in Seattle's early days, farmers sold their produce on consignment through middlemen in an area called Produce Row. Even though the middlemen sold the produce to consumers at inflated prices, many times the farmers didn't even receive enough money to break even. Both the public and the farmers grew increasingly dissatisfied with this arrangement.

In 1907, a city councilman proposed a public market that would connect customers directly with the producers. Pike Place Market was born when the city designated the area along Pike Place overlooking the bay as the site of the market.

  Today, there are 200 year-round commercial businesses, 190 craftspeople and 200 farmers who rent table space by the day, and 240 street performers and musicians who perform (not all at the same time) at the market for tips. Except for a few vendors who are "grandfathered," all farmers and craftspeople are only permitted to sell what they grow or make themselves. The commercial businesses occupy the same stalls, called high stalls, every day. The day stalls and spots for entertainers are assigned according to a set of rules that are based on seniority. There are even some stores on the lower levels of the market. The market is open every day except Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years Day, although some of the shops may set their own hours.

One of the market's most famous attractions is the Pike Place Fish Market with its flying fish. Employees got tired of walking back and forth between the main counter and the ice tables of fish out front of the counter. They decided they could save a lot of time and steps if one of them could stay at the table to help customers pick out their fish, then throw it to another employee behind the counter for filleting and wrapping. The photo below shows the counter at the Pike Place Fish Market where some of the smaller items like crab, shrimp and oysters are displayed.

 

The next photo shows the table with the larger fish. Notice the octopus. We don't think they would try to throw that, but...

...there goes a salmon.

At Pike Place Fish Market, we had samples of delicious, alderwood-smoked salmon and salmon belly strips (also known as salmon jerky).

The next photo shows our tour group at MarketSpice, which is a shop that sells spices and teas. We had a sample of spiced tea with cinnamon oil, cloves, and orange.

Of course, vegetables are what the market is all about. At Frank's Quality Produce, we sampled apricots and bing cherries. Washington State is known for bing cherries.

Paul was attracted to the very colorful ristras as we passed by the shop in the next photo.

At another shop called "Piroshky, Piroshky," we had samples of piroshky, which are Russian meat pastries. In the photo below, Margery was watching as they made up a batch.

 

And in the next photo our tour guide is passing out samples of meat and cheese and smoked salmon piroshky.

We passed a number of street entertainers. There are musical notes painted in the pavement at numerous locations around the market. Each entertainer is assigned a spot where they stay for an hour. They then must move to another spot, which helps insure everyone gets a good chance to spend at least part of their time at the higher traffic areas. The fellow in the photo below is going to have to push that piano around every hour. You can see the red musical note on the sidewalk on the right marking his spot.

We saw the three-piece band with the washtub bass in the next photo at what was obviously obviously a high-traffic area. They are on the sidewalk in front of the first Starbuck's, which is a very popular stop for tourists. Actually, the first Starbuck's was about two blocks down the street, but the building where they were located was torn down. They moved to this location and are using the same business license, so technically it's the same business, although it's not at the same location.

The fellow in the next photo was making balloon animals.

 

Beecher's Handmade Cheese makes cheese on site. You can watch the process through the window.

At Beecher's, we had samples of their award-winning Flagship cheese that was similar to a Gruyere and a to-die-for macaroni and cheese. On our tour, we also had samples of mini-doughnuts, clam chowder and seafood bisque, crab cakes, and chocolates. The food was great, as was the whole tour. The two-hour tour ended when we reached the far end of the market.

 

After the tour was over, we had time to meander back through the market on our own. We stopped for a tourist photo.

We saw dozens of people carrying beautiful flowers while we were on our tour, so we stopped at one of several flower stalls. The flowers were very reasonably priced. Most of the bunches of flowers in the photo below were only $10.

We bought a small bunch of sunflowers for $5, headed back to the car, and drove back to the motor home. We still have more places to visit before we leave Seattle, so stay tuned.

Comments

[holy land tours]

On my tour in Seattle i visited Pike Place Market and it was one of its kind experience. There is so much variety in this place, so many thing to see and shop, a heaven! Thank you for your post, it reminded me of that good time i had.