The Market in Seattle

[J.Greene]

Do locals shop for fresh food at the Market in Seattle? Is it just a tourist thing?

JG

[cpg]

When I lived in Seattle locals shopped there along with the tourists. It's a cool place even if it's a tourist must see atmo.

Curt

[Ray]

Do locals shop for fresh food at the Market in Seattle? Is it just a tourist thing?

JG
I haven't lived in the area since '92, but lived about five blocks from the market (on the Denny Regrade) and worked another 10 blocks or so in the opposite direction from the market. I stopped for fresh fish and/or veggies nearly every day on my walk home from work. When I later lived in the northern part of Seattle, we only shopped there on weekends and far from every weekend. When we moved to the suburbs east of Lake Sammamish, we essentially became tourists and pretty much never shopped there. Maybe once every few months when we happened to be in town for something else. I'd strongly suspect with the upsurge in downtown residential units, more people shop there daily than did back then. But it really depends on how "local" is local.

-Ray

[Kirk007]

Agree with Ray. I lived about two miles from the Market, but two blocks from a really great grocery store, which is where we usually ended up. Now being only an infrequent tourist I regret not shopping at the Market much more...

[Ray]

When I lived in Seattle locals shopped there along with the tourists. It's a cool place even if it's a tourist must see atmo.

Curt
And the tourists are mostly a weekend event anyway. With a few more during the summer weekdays. But most weekdays in the late afternoon, there are few or no tourists there. In the winter, you really find out who the regulars are. I almost never went on a summer weekend - too friggin' crowded. And I'm sure its much worse now.

-Ray

[Kevan]

you any good at catching fish?

[big shanty]

Only if you live downtown or have people visiting. Good deals to be had, though.

[Bud_E]

I was there years ago being a tourist. It was the only place where I ever had broasted rabbit.

[imp25rs]

Only if you live downtown or have people visiting. Good deals to be had, though.

I will second that. If you are looking for fresh food or something that is hard to find it is a good place to go. I usually try to avoid the area as much as possible though. I am not one for crowded places.

[Steve Hampsten]

Years and years ago, I cooked at a place in the Market called "Dalmacija" (or close) - it's where Campagne is now

We did a whole roast sucking pig on weekends

It slayed

Broasted Rabbit I would kill for - a little hoisin/ginger bbq sauce...I'm tellin' ya...

[big shanty]

Elliott Bay Cycles (home of Davidson) is right across the street...a worthwhile stop.

[J.Greene]

I was at the market a few weeks ago. I was just wondering if locals shopped. If I lived or worked whithin walking distance of the market there would be much less food in the fridge.

I really enjoyed dinner at the pink door on post alley. What a nice funky kinda place. The mac n cheese at beechers was unreal. Salumi was a nice walk and not too far away.

Now if I could find a way to enjoy FL winters and Seattle summers......

JG

[rwsaunders]

Locals shop there and dine there. It's a great place for both tourists and locals alike.

[Ozz]

I head there for lunch frequently....sometimes grab stuff for dinner, but not too often. I have a couple pretty good local grocery stores near my home.

The Market just had it's 100 year anniversary in the past week or so....I guess they delivered the produce on wagons and such like when the market first opened.

Flower vendors started to displace a lot of the produce sellers in past years, but it seems that trend is reversing as more folks are looking for locally grown food and such.

More condos and apartments are going up in Belltown every day and I suspect those folks will see the market as the local grocery store.

[big shanty]

More condos and apartments are going up in Belltown every day and I suspect those folks will see the market as the local grocery store.

My advisor recently bought a $1M condo that is currently a hole-in-the-ground @3rd & Pine. He is stoked about being close to the market. He also wears a fanny pack and has a mullet and drives a white RAV4.

[Ray]

My advisor recently bought a $1M condo that is currently a hole-in-the-ground @3rd & Pine. He is stoked about being close to the market. He also wears a fanny pack and has a mullet and drives a white RAV4.
We rented a pretty large one-bedroom in a then-new high rise at 3rd and Blanchard for $500 a month back in the mid-'80s. Then we bought a nice little house in Ballard for about $70,000. The house is worth over half a million now and I can't imagine what the condo would go for. Amazing. Although, the people who we bought the house from bought it 15-20 years earlier for about $16,000, so they were equally shocked that they could sell it for $70,000. I don't even want to think about what our next house in the Redmond area would sell for now...

It's all just numbers to me now - just bought a frickin' CONDO for nearly twice what we'd ever paid for a house before and are selling our house for what looks like its gonna be well over twice that figure. Not in the Seattle area, but this area's been going up too.

-Ray

[Marron]

There has been a proliferation of local farmer's markets throughout the region and I think they have supplanted the Pike Place Market as a place to buy direct from producers. I guess if you live downtown it's still the best place to go, but the few times I've been in the new Whole Foods a couple of blocks away it seems pretty packed with "locals".

Steve, I remember Dalmacija; that was a killer place at a time when there weren't many in Seattle.

[bigbill]

The two previous times that I was stationed over in Bremerton (I return for another two years starting in November), I would enjoy spending the day doing stuff downtown like checking out REI, checking out eclectic shops, etc. Before heading back to the ferry, I would pick up some nice steaks or fish, veggies, and some kind of dessert to take back home for dinner. The cost was equivalent to going out to eat, but there is something special about putting a perfect steak or salmon filet on your own grill with perfect veggies. I can hardly wait to get back. Italy is getting old pretty fast.

[dspang]

We live on the east side of Lake Washington and do an occasional foray into "town". The market is too much of a PIA to get to, we do our shopping for veggies in the International District, lots of shops to choose from along Jackson St. Prices are a bit better too.

Do the weekend Dim Sum thing, grab a 5# bag of mis-fortune Fortune Cookies from the Tsue Chong Co. - kitty corner from Four Seas. Shopping along Jackson St. Great fun!

[Kevan]

I was there during a business trip. My daughter Brennan, an unusual first name I think, was just a toddler then and while I walked the length of the market there was this guy at one end selling first names sawn from a piece of pinewood. I looked over the cute display of names and he aked me for a name. I responded, nahhhh...you won't have it. Give me the name, he demanded. Okay, Brennan. B-r-e-n-n-a-n. I think he took 5-10 seconds to pull out the name from his storage box.

What was I to do? I had to buy it.

[svoop]

My advisor recently bought a $1M condo that is currently a hole-in-the-ground @3rd & Pine. He is stoked about being close to the market. He also wears a fanny pack and has a mullet and drives a white RAV4.

what sort of advice would you take from this person?

[rwsaunders]

Where did you get the rad mullet?

[big shanty]

what sort of advice would you take from this person?

Science advice only. Maybe advice on the latest advances in cellular phone technology. That's about it.

He let it slip one day that he had a red scooter in graduate school, and routinely wore a bandana with humpback whales on it. You might be able to get those at the market, come to think of it....