Downtown, Pike Place & Waterfront
Downtown Seattle is a standard (except with more hills) American amalgam of boxy skyscrapers and brand-name shopping opportunities. It is given welcome oomph by Pike Place Market, the city’s heart, soul and number-one must-see sight. The waterfront is home to kitschy tourist attractions and incredible Puget Sound views.
The Short List
APike Place Market Seeing, smelling and tasting the unique energy of this Seattle icon, from the charismatic fish throwers to the creative – but disgusting – gum wall.
ASeattle Art Museum Experiencing the latest surprise lighting up this constantly evolving museum.
ASeattle Great Wheel Viewing Seattle’s ongoing waterfront regeneration from inside an enclosed pod on this giant wheel.
Getting There & Around
d Sound Transit’s Central Link light-rail from Sea-Tac Airport has two downtown stations: Westlake, and University St and 3rd Ave.
j Streetcar service to South Lake Union from Westlake.
g You can get downtown easily from any part of Seattle by bus.
Top SightPike Place Market
A cavalcade of noise, smells, personalities, banter and urban theater sprinkled liberally around a spatially challenged waterside strip, Pike Place Market is Seattle in a bottle. In operation since 1907 and still as soulful today as it was on day one, this wonderfully local experience highlights the city for what it really is: all-embracing, eclectic and proudly unique.
%206-682-7453
85 Pike St
h9am-6pm Mon-Sat, to 5pm Sun
dWestlake
Orientation
If you’re coming from downtown, simply walk down Pike St toward the waterfront; you can’t miss the huge Public Market sign etched against the horizon. Incidentally, the sign and clock, installed in 1927, constituted one of the first pieces of outdoor neon on the West Coast.
Main & North Arcades
The thin, shed-like structures that run along the edge of the hill are the busiest of the market buildings. With banks of fresh produce carefully arranged in artful displays, and fresh fish, crab and other shellfish piled high on ice, this is the real heart of the market. Here you’ll see fishmongers tossing salmon back and forth like basketballs. The end of the North Arcade is dedicated to local artisans and craftspeople – products must be handmade to be sold here.
Down Under
As if the levels of the market that are above ground aren’t labyrinthine enough, below the Main Arcade are three lower levels called the Down Under. Here you’ll find a fabulously eclectic mix of pocket-sized shops, from Indian spice stalls to magician supply shops and vintage magazine and map purveyors.
Economy Market Building
Once a stable for merchants’ horses, the Economy Market Building, south of the market entrance, has a wonderful Italian grocery store and one of the oldest apothecaries on the West Coast. Look down at the Economy Market floor and you’ll see some of the 46,000 tiles sold to the public in the 1980s for $35 each. If you bought a tile, you’d get your name on it and be proud that you helped save the market. Famous tile owners include Cat in the Hat creator Dr Seuss and former US president Ronald Reagan.
Post Alley
Narrow Post Alley (named for its hitching posts) is lined with shops and restaurants. In Lower Post Alley, beside the market sign, is the LaSalle Hotel, which was the first bordello north of Yesler Way. Originally the Outlook Hotel, it was taken over in 1942 by the notorious Nellie Curtis, a woman with 13 aliases and a knack for running suspiciously profitable hotels with thousands of lonely sailors lined up nightly outside the door. The building, rehabbed in 1977, now houses commercial and residential space.
Gum Wall
Seattle’s oddest and most unhygienic sight is the bizarre gum wall situated at the southern end of Post Alley. The once venerable redbrick facade is now covered in used pieces of chewing gum, originally stuck there by bored theater-goers standing in line for a nearby ticket office in the 1990s. Despite early attempts by the city council to sanitize, the gum-stickers persevered and in 1999 the wall was declared a tourist attraction. Feel free to add your own well-chewed morsels to the Jackson Pollock–like display.
The New MarketFront
In a city as fast-moving as Seattle, not even a historical heirloom like Pike Place Market escapes a makeover. In 2015 ground was broken on the ‘Pike Up’ project, a 30,000-sq-ft extension of Pike Place. Made possible by the demolition of the Alaskan Way Viaduct, the MarketFront complex opened in 2017 with new shops, restaurants and stalls, and links the market to the waterfront via terraces, staircases and green space.
Market History
Pike Place Market is the oldest continuously operating market in the nation. It was established in 1907 to give local farmers a place to sell their fruit and vegetables and bypass the middleman. Soon, the greengrocers made room for fishmongers, bakers, imported groceries, butchers, cheese sellers and purveyors of the rest of the Northwest’s agricultural bounty. The market wasn’t exactly architecturally robust – it’s always been a thrown-together warren of sheds and stalls, haphazardly designed for utility – and was by no means an intentional tourist attraction. That came later.
An enthusiastic agricultural community spawned the market’s heyday in the 1930s. Many of the first farmers were immigrants, a fact the market celebrates with annual themes acknowledging the contributions of various ethnic groups; past years have featured Japanese Americans, Italian Americans and Sephardic Jewish Americans.
By the 1960s, sales at the market were suffering from suburbanization, the growth of supermarkets and the move away from local, small-scale market gardening. Vast tracts of agricultural land were disappearing, replaced by such ventures as the Northgate Mall and Sea-Tac airport. The internment of Japanese American farmers during WWII had also taken its toll. The entire area became a bowery for the destitute and known as a center of ill repute.
The Market Today
In the wake of the 1962 World’s Fair, plans were drawn up to bulldoze the market and build high-rise office and apartment buildings on this piece of prime downtown real estate. Fortunately, public outcry prompted a voter’s initiative to save the market. Subsequently, the space was cleaned up and restructured, and it has become once again the undeniable pulse of downtown: some 10 million people mill through the market each year. Thanks to the unique management of the market, social-services programs and low-income housing mix with commerce, and the market has maintained its gritty edge. These initiatives have prevented the area from ever sliding too far upmarket. A market law prohibits chain stores or franchises from setting up shop and ensures all businesses are locally owned. The one exception is, of course, Starbucks, which gets away with its market location because it is the coffee giant’s first outlet.
Top SightSeattle Art Museum
While it doesn’t have the size or star power of its contemporaries in New York and Chicago, the Seattle Art Museum (SAM) has a collection that feels uncommon, intimate and extraordinary. Its sterling selection of contemporary and antique art of the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest alone makes this a required stop on any visit to the Emerald City.
%206-654-3210
1300 1st Ave
adult/student $24.95/14.95
h10am-5pm Wed & Fri-Mon, to 9pm Thu
dUniversity St
yTop Tips
AEntry to the museum’s permanent collections is free on the first Thursday of the month. Special exhibitions are half price.
AYou can hear live jazz in the main entrance hall on the second Thursday of every month.
5Take a Break
SAM’s excellent on-site restaurant Taste (%206-903-5291; www.tastesam.com; mains $8-14; h11am-5pm Wed, Fri, Sat & Sun, to 9pm Thu) is far more comprehensive and elegant than your average gallery cafe. Sometimes it even creatively fine-tunes its menu to tie in with the art exhibits on show.
Slip over to Heartwood Provisions for a heady art discussion over some happy hour craft cocktails.
Entrance Lobby
The museum’s main building is guarded by a 48ft-high sculpture known as Hammering Man (by Jonathan Borofsky, 1991) and contains a cascading stairway inside guarded by Chinese statues called the Art Ladder. Look up to take in Middle Fork by John Grade, a giant plaster cast of an actual tree that hangs over the ticket desk. You’ll get a good view of it from above as you take the escalator.
Modern & Contemporary Art
SAM has an enviable collection of modern art. Level 3 is home to Andy Warhol’s Double Elvis, a silk-screen image of a young Presley firing a pistol right at the viewer, and Jackson Pollock’s drippy (and trippy) Sea Change. The broad hallway at the top of the escalators has a small collection of exhibits from the Pilchuck Glass School, an excellent appetite whetter if you’re heading over to Chihuly Garden & Glass later.
Native American Art
The Hauberg Gallery on level 3 is dedicated to the museum’s impressive collections of art from the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest coastal regions, including the Tlingit, Haida and Kwakwaka’wakw. Large wooden masks and colorful textiles are displayed thoughtfully here and the exhibits are accompanied by a video installation on contemporary Native American culture. There are also pieces from elsewhere in the Americas before European colonization, including a small room of artifacts from pre-Columbian Mesoamerica.
1Sights
5Eating
6Drinking
7Shopping
Sights
1Seattle Free Walking Tours WALKING
A nonprofit tour company that does an intimate two-hour walk takes in Pike Pl, the waterfront and Pioneer Sq, among other tours. Each tour is ‘pay what you can,’ and the company notes that comparable walking tours run around $20. Reserve online. (www.seattlefreewalkingtours.org; 2001 Western Ave; admission free)
1Gum Wall PUBLIC ART
Seattle’s famous gum wall is one of those cultural monuments you can smell before you even see it. The sweet aroma of chewed gum wafts from this strip of Post Alley, which is completely covered in the stuff. It’s a popular selfie spot, and is worth a peek for the sheer magnitude of it alone. It cannot be emphasized enough just how much gum there is! (Post Alley; dUniversity St)
1Road Dogs Seattle Brewery Tour TOURS
Road Dogs’ popular three-hour Seattle Brewery tour takes in three breweries from a list of 25, from long-established microbreweries to nascent nano-businesses. To allow you to safely sup samples en route, you’ll be picked up and whisked around in a minibus driven by a beer expert/driver.The company also runs local coffee and distillery tours. Book online. (%206-249-9858; www.seattlebrewerytour.com; 1427 Western Ave; tours $79; h10:30am, 2:30pm & 6pm Sun-Fri, 10:30am, 2:30pm & 6:30pm Fri & Sat)
1Seattle Great Wheel FERRIS WHEEL
This 175ft Ferris wheel was installed in June 2012 with 42 gondolas, each capable of carrying eight people on a 12-minute ride. The wheel sticks out over the water on Pier 57 and has quickly become synonymous with Seattle’s ever-improving waterfront. It’s the tallest of its type on the West Coast, though it pales in comparison with other behemoths such as the London Eye. (www.seattlegreatwheel.com; 1301 Alaskan Way; adult/child $14/9; h10am-11pm Sun-Thu, to midnight Fri & Sat late Jun-early Sep, 11am-10pm Mon-Thu, to midnight Fri, 10am-midnight Sat, to 10pm Sun early Sep-late Jun; dUniversity St)
1Seattle Central Library LIBRARY
Rivaling the Space Needle and the Museum of Pop Culture for architectural ingenuity, Seattle Central Library looks like a giant diamond that’s dropped in from outer space. Conceived by Rem Koolhaas and LMN Architects in 2004, the $165.5 million sculpture of glass and steel was designed to serve as a community gathering space, a tech center, a reading room and, of course, a massive storage facility for its one-million-plus books. Come here to enjoy art, architecture, coffee and literary comfort. (%206-386-4636; www.spl.org; 1000 4th Ave; h10am-8pm Mon-Thu, to 6pm Fri & Sat, noon-6pm Sun; 
p; dPioneer Sq)
1Seattle Aquarium AQUARIUM
Though not on a par with Seattle’s nationally lauded Woodland Park Zoo, the aquarium – situated on Pier 59 in an attractive wooden building – is probably the most interesting sight on the waterfront, and it’s a handy distraction for families with itchy-footed kids. (%206-386-4300; www.seattleaquarium.org; 1483 Alaskan Way; adult/child $34.95/24.95; h9:30am-5pm; 
c; dUniversity St)
1Argosy Cruises Seattle Harbor Tour CRUISE
Argosy’s popular Seattle Harbor Tour is a one-hour narrated excursion around Elliott Bay, the waterfront and the Port of Seattle. It departs from Pier 55. (%206-623-1445; www.argosycruises.com; 1101 Alaskan Way, Pier 55; 1hr tour adult/child $31/17; dUniversity St)
1Columbia Center VIEWPOINT
Everyone rushes tp the iconic Space Needle, but it’s not the tallest Seattle viewpoint. That honor goes to the sleek, tinted-windowed Columbia Center at 932ft high with 76 floors. An elevator in the lobby takes you up to the free-access 40th floor, which has a Starbucks. From here you must take another elevator to the plush Sky View Observatory on the 73rd floor, from where you can look down on ferries, cars, islands, roofs and – ha ha – the Space Needle! (%206-386-5564; www.skyviewobservatory.com; 701 5th Ave; adult/child $20/14; h10am-10pm late May-early Sep, to 8pm early Sep-late May; dPioneer Sq)
Downtown Seattle
Downtown Seattle, though impressive from a distance, is a bit of an anomaly. Instead of being the beating heart of the city, it’s a fairly quiet, functional business district adjacent to Seattle’s twin lures: Pike Place Market and Pioneer Sq.
What most people mean by ‘downtown’ is the collection of office buildings, hotels and retail shops between 2nd and 7th Aves. It’s best to visit on a weekday, when throngs of people are working and shopping in the area. At night and on weekends it can feel rather desolate.
Eating
5Beecher’s Handmade Cheese DELI $
Artisanal beer, artisanal coffee…next up, Seattle brings you artisanal cheese and it’s made as you watch in this always-crowded Pike Place nook, where you can buy all kinds of cheese-related paraphernalia. As for that long, snaking, almost permanent queue – that’s people lining up for the wonderful homemade mac ’n’ cheese that comes in two different-sized tubs and is simply divine. (%206-956-1964; www.beechershandmadecheese.com; 1600 Pike Pl; snacks $5-12; h9am-6pm; dWestlake)
5Heartwood Provisions FUSION $$$
Cocktails are having a moment as the alcoholic libation du jour in Seattle and nowhere is that more clear than at Heartwood, a handsome restaurant and bar with a menu of mixed drinks that is unmatched. Come for dinner, where each dish is infused with Southeast Asian flavors and has its own cocktail pairing (optional for an additional $7). (%206-582-3505; www.heartwoodsea.com; 1103 1st Ave; mains $24-37; h4:30-10pm Sun-Thu, to 11pm Fri & Sat, also 9:30am-2pm Sat & Sun; dUniversity St)
5Piroshky Piroshky BAKERY $
Piroshky knocks out its delectable sweet and savory Russian pies and pastries in a space about the size of a walk-in closet. Get the savory smoked salmon pâté or the sauerkraut with onion, and follow it up with the chocolate-cream hazelnut roll or a fresh rhubarb piroshki. (%206-441-6068; www.piroshkybakery.com; 1908 Pike Pl; snacks $3-6; h8am-7pm Mon-Fri, to 7:30pm Sat & Sun; dWestlake)
5Café Campagne FRENCH $$
Short of teleporting over to Paris, this is about as Gallic as a Seattleite can get. Inside Café Campagne’s effortlessly elegant interior you can live vicariously as a French poseur over steamed mussels, hanger steaks, generous portions of frites and crispy vegetables. Save room for the crème brûlée dessert. Should you be sufficiently satisfied, consider coming back for weekend brunch. (%206-728-2233; www.cafecampagne.com; 1600 Post Alley; mains $18-28; h10am-10pm Mon-Fri, from 8am Sat & Sun; dWestlake)
5Wild Ginger ASIAN $$$
A tour of the Pacific Rim – via China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and Seattle, of course – is the wide-ranging theme at this highly popular downtown fusion restaurant. The signature fragrant duck goes down nicely with a glass of Riesling. The restaurant also provides food for the swanky Triple Door dinner club downstairs. (%206-623-4450; www.wildginger.net; 1401 3rd Ave; mains $19-34; h11:30am-10pm Mon-Thu, to 11pm Fri & Sat, 4-9pm Sun; dUniversity St)
5Matt’s in the Market NORTHWESTERN US $$$
Matt’s, run by a former Pike Place Market fish-thrower, is perched above the bustle of the market with views out over the famous clock. Most of the ingredients on the menu come from down below. Expect plenty of fish, fresh veg and organic meats. (%206-467-7909; www.mattsinthemarket.com; 94 Pike St; mains lunch $15-21, dinner $38-48; h11:30am-2:30pm & 5:30-10pm Mon-Sat; dWestlake)
5Steelhead Diner SEAFOOD $$$
It’s all about the fish at the Steelhead, one of Pike Place Market’s posher posts. The fish-and-chips are a given, but you’re better off trying the more typically Northwestern smoked salmon cakes, sautéed sole or the multifarious cioppino (fish stew) here. The place has a good reputation so it’s wise to book ahead. (%206-625-0129; www.steelheaddiner.com; 95 Pine St; mains $18-38; h11am-10pm; dWestlake)
5Pink Door Ristorante ITALIAN $$$
A restaurant like no other, the Pink Door is probably the only place in the US (the world?) where you can enjoy fabulous linguine alle vongole (pasta with clams and pancetta) and other Italian favorites while watching live jazz, burlesque cabaret or – we kid you not – a trapeze artist swinging from the 20ft ceiling. (%206-443-3241; www.thepinkdoor.net; 1919 Post Alley; mains $19-30; h11:30am-10pm Mon-Thu, to 11pm Fri & Sat, 4-10pm Sun; dWestlake)
5Pike Place Chowder SEAFOOD $
Proof that some of the best culinary ideas are almost ridiculously simple, this Pike Place Market hole-in-the-wall takes that New England favorite (clam chowder) and gives it a dynamic West Coast makeover. You can choose from four traditional chowders in four different sizes accompanied by four different salads. Then you can fight to eat it at one of four tables. (%206-267-2537; www.pikeplacechowder.com; 1530 Post Alley; medium chowder $8.75; h11am-5pm; dWestlake)
Arty Navigation
Look down! Seattle’s public art extends to its hatch covers (manholes). Nineteen of them have been emblazoned with an imprint of a downtown map with your location marked. It’s impossible to get lost.
Drinking
6Ancient Grounds CAFE
If it’s not enough that this cozy coffee nook serves some of the best espresso shots in the city, Ancient Grounds also doubles as a showroom for a well-curated selection of antiques. While waiting for your latte, you can pick through a rack of vintage kimonos or peruse a display of wooden masks from indigenous communities of the Pacific Northwest. (%206-7749-0747; 1220 1st Ave; h7:30am-4:30pm Mon-Fri, noon-6pm Sat; dUniversity St)
6Bookstore Bar BAR
Cementing downtown’s reputation as a fount of good hotel bars is the Bookstore (encased in the front window of the Alexis Hotel), which mixes books stacked on handsome wooden shelves with whiskey – an excellent combination (ask Dylan Thomas). There are over 100 varieties of Scotch and bourbon available, plus the full gamut of weighty literary tomes from Melville to Twain. (%206-624-4844; www.alexishotel.com; 1007 1st Ave; h7am-11pm Mon-Fri, from 8am Sat, 8am-10pm Sun; dPioneer Sq)
6Owl & Thistle IRISH PUB
One of the best Irish pubs in the city, the dark, multiroomed Owl & Thistle is located slap-bang downtown but misses most of the tourist traffic because it’s hidden in Post Ave. (%206-621-7777; www.owlnthistle.com; 808 Post Ave; h11am-2am; dPioneer Sq)
6Radiator Whiskey WHISKEY BAR
A fruitful marriage of style and substance, Radiator Whiskey, on the top floor of Pike Place Market, has exactly the amount of rustic design you’d want from a whiskey bar that has dozens of bourbons, ryes and single malts on offer. There are other spirits too, as well as a drink list that includes four takes on the classic Manhattan. (%206-467-4268; www.radiatorwhiskey.com; 94 Pike St; h4pm-midnight Mon-Sat; dUniversity St)
6Storyville Coffee CAFE
There are so many coffee bars in Seattle that it’s sometimes hard to see the forest for the trees, unless it’s the kind of wood that adorns the curved bar of Storyville. Welcome to one of Seattle’s newer luxury coffee chains, whose two downtown locations (the other one is at 1st and Madison) attract a mixture of tourists and locals looking for excellent coffee. (%206-780-5777; www.storyville.com; 94 Pike St; h6:59am-6pm; 
W; dWestlake)
6Alibi Room BAR
Hidden down Post Alley opposite the beautifully disgusting ‘gum wall’, the Alibi feels like an old speakeasy or perhaps the perfect place to hide from the perfect crime (or all the Pike Place crowds). Dark and cavernous, it provides surprisingly good entertainment with regular DJ nights, art installations, stand-up performances and experimental-film screenings.
If you’re peckish it has a menu of pretty damn good pizza ($19 to $23) and other snacky bar foods. (%206-623-3180; www.seattlealibi.com; 85 Pike Pl; h11:30am-2am, food to 1am; dUniversity St)
6Zig Zag Café COCKTAIL BAR
If you’re writing a research project on Seattle’s culinary history, you’ll need to reserve a chapter for Zig Zag Café. This is the bar that repopularized gin-based Jazz Age cocktail ‘The Last Word’ in the early 2000s. The drink went viral and the Zig Zag’s nattily attired mixers were rightly hailed as the city’s finest alchemists. (%206-625-1146; www.zigzagseattle.com; 1501 Western Ave; h5pm-2am; dUniversity St)
6Nest ROOFTOP BAR
Like many rooftop bars in major US cities, the Nest is overpriced and usually crowded with cliques of lawyers and PR executives. But the views of the downtown skyline rolling out along the Puget Sound with Mt Rainier visible in the distance on clear evenings make it well worth at least one drink. (%206-512-1096; 110 Stewart St; h5pm-midnight Sun-Thu, from 3pm Fri & Sat)
6Pike Pub & Brewery BREWERY
Leading the way in the US microbrewery revolution, this brewpub was an early starter, opening in 1989 underneath Pike Place Market. Today it continues to serve good pub food (mains $15 to $26) and hop-heavy, made-on-site beers in a busily decorated but fun multilevel space. Free tours of the brewery are available. (%206-622-6044; www.pikebrewing.com; 1415 1st Ave; h11am-midnight Sun-Thu, to 1am Fri & Sat; dUniversity St)
Starbucks – It Started Here (Almost)
It’s practically impossible to walk through the door of Starbucks (map; %206-448-8762; www.1912pike.com; 1912 Pike Pl; h6am-9pm; dWestlake) in Pike Place Market without appearing in someone’s Facebook photo, so dense is the tourist traffic. But, while this hallowed business might be the world’s oldest surviving Starbucks store, it is not – as many assume – the world’s first Starbucks location, nor is it Seattle’s oldest espresso bar.
The original Starbucks opened in 1971 at 2000 Western Ave (at Western Ave’s north end). It moved to its current location, a block away, in 1976. The honor of Seattle’s oldest continuously running coffee bar goes to Café Allegro in the U District, which opened in 1975.
Until the early 1980s Starbucks operated purely as a retail store that sold coffee beans and equipment (plus the odd taster cup). The company didn’t open up its first espresso bar until 1984, after CEO Howard Shultz returned from an epiphanic trip to Italy. The Pike Place cafe is unique in that, in keeping with the traditional unbranded ethos of the market, it doesn’t sell food or baked goods – just coffee.
Entertainment
3A Contemporary Theatre THEATER
One of the three big theater companies in the city, the ACT fills its $30 million home at Kreielsheimer Place with performances by Seattle’s best thespians and occasional big-name actors. Terraced seating surrounds a central stage and the interior has gorgeous architectural embellishments. (ACT; %206-292-7676; www.acttheatre.org; 700 Union St; dUniversity St)
3Benaroya Concert Hall CONCERT HALL
With a bill of almost $120 million in construction costs, it’s no wonder the Benaroya Concert Hall, the primary venue of the Seattle Symphony, oozes luxury. The minute you step into the glass-enclosed lobby of the performance hall, you’re overwhelmed by views of Elliott Bay; on clear days you might even see the snowy peaks of the Olympic Range in the distance. (%206-215-4747; www.seattlesymphony.org/benaroyahall; 200 University St; dUniversity St)
3Triple Door LIVE PERFORMANCE
This club downstairs from the Wild Ginger restaurant is a Seattle mainstay with a liberal booking policy that includes country and rock as well as jazz, gospel, R&B, world music and burlesque performances. There’s a full menu and a smaller lounge upstairs, called the Musicquarium, with an aquarium and free live music. (%206-838-4333; www.thetripledoor.net; 216 Union St; dUniversity St)
3Showbox LIVE MUSIC
This cavernous 1137-capacity showroom – which hosts mostly national touring acts, ranging from indie rock to hip-hop – reinvents itself every few years and successfully rode the grunge bandwagon while it lasted. It first opened in 1939 and its dressing-room walls could probably tell some stories – everyone from Duke Ellington to Ice Cube has played here. (%206-628-3151; www.showboxpresents.com; 1426 1st Ave; dUniversity St)
Shopping
7Old Seattle Paperworks POSTERS, MAGAZINES
If you like decorating your home with old magazine covers from Life, Time and Rolling Stone, or have a penchant for art deco tourist posters from the 1930s, or are looking for that rare Hendrix concert flyer from 1969, this is your nirvana. It’s in Pike Place Market’s Down Under section. (%206-623-2870; 1501 Pike Pl; h10am-5pm; dWestlake)
7Market Magic MAGIC
Selling fake dog poop, stink bombs, water-squirting rings and magic tricks, this Pike Place Market magic shop is heaven for aspiring magicians, pranksters, school kids, and grown-ups who wish they were still school kids. (%206-624-4271; www.marketmagicshop.com; 1501 Pike Pl; h10am-5pm Mon-Sat, from 10:30am Sun; dWestlake)
7Metsker Maps MAPS
In its high-profile location on 1st Ave, this 65-year-old map shop sells all kinds of useful things for the traveler, from maps and guidebooks to various accessories. It also has a good selection of armchair-travel lit and pretty spinning globes for the dreamers. (%206-623-8747; www.metskers.com; 1511 1st Ave; h9am-8pm Mon-Fri, from 10am Sat, 10am-6pm Sun; dWestlake)
7Left Bank Books BOOKS
This collective of more than 40 years displays zines in español, revolutionary pamphlets, essays by Chomsky and an inherent suspicion of authority. You’re in Seattle, just in case you forgot. (%206-662-0195; www.leftbankbooks.com; 92 Pike St; h10am-7pm Mon-Sat, 11am-6pm Sun; dWestlake)
7DeLaurenti’s FOOD
A Pike Place Market veteran, this Italian grocery store/deli has been run by the same family since 1946. Not needing to roll with the times, it offers a beautifully old-fashioned selection of wine, cheese, sausages, hams and pasta, along with a large range of capers, olive oils and anchovies. The sandwich counter is a great place to order panini, salads and pizza. (%206-622-0141; www.delaurenti.com; 1435 1st Ave; snacks $5-12; h9am-6pm Mon-Sat, 10am-5pm Sun; dUniversity St)
7Tenzing Momo GIFTS & SOUVENIRS
Doing a good impersonation of one of the magic shops in Diagon Alley from the Harry Potter books, Tenzing Momo is an old-school natural apothecary with shelves of mysterious glass bottles filled with herbs and tinctures to treat any ailment. It’s in Pike Place Market's Economy Market Building. (%206-338-0193; www.tenzingmomo.com; 93 Pike St; h10am-6pm Mon-Sat, to 5pm Sun; dUniversity St)
Bainbridge Island
Tap the average Seattleite about their most cherished weekend excursion and they could surprise you with a dark horse – a cheap and simple ride (tickets from $8.50) on the commuter ferry across Puget Sound to Bainbridge Island. There’s nothing quite like being surrounded by water and seeing Seattle’s famous skyline disappearing in the ferry’s foamy wake.
The ride is only 35 minutes each way and is free coming back from the island. Catch the ferry at Pier 52 on the waterfront.
