7 Best Sandwiches in Pike Place Market

If you don't know this, Pike Place Market has more delicious restaurants per square foot than anywhere else in the city. We have eaten most of the food at the market and feel we have curated a beautiful list of the best sandwich fare offered.

Prepare to salivate.

DeLaurenti's Grinder

DeLaurenti's is one of our absolute favorite places to visit in the market. They have groceries, they have wine, they have cheese, and to our delight, they also have a BOMB Italian Grinder. This sandwich is piled with Italian meats, provolone, tomato, lettuce, and mayo. The bread sprays crumbs as you bite down into the crunchy, carby amazing-ness. Grab an Italian soda and a spot at their bar by the window and chow down while you people watch! 

Three Girl's Bakery's Meatloaf Sandwich

Three Girl's Bakery is an institution at Pike Place Market. They opened up shop in 1912 and were the first business licensed to women in the City of Seattle. And man, did these three know how to make a mean meatloaf sandwich. Even if you don't like meatloaf, you'll like this meatloaf by the time you're done chowing down. Ask for the rosemary bread and you'll die in sandwich heaven. 

Dot's Meatball Sandwich 

Dot's is new to the market, but not to Seattle. This butcher and deli shop has been earning its stripes for years and they seem to have perfected a lot of things in the meat department. Our favorite though? The meatball sandwich. When they handed it to us the first time we ordered rays of sunshine spilled out of the middle and the sound of angels singing could be heard. Then we bit into it and blacked out for a minute because this sandwich is so. Freaking. Good. 

Pike's Pit BBQ's Pulled Pork

Pike's Pit BBQ caught our attention about a year ago with a free sample. Food + free = we can be friends. After one tiny taste of the BBQ pork we went in for the real deal. If we are being honest we wouldn't have been able to resist even without a sample because the smell of cooking meat will draw you in from a mile away (unless you don't eat meat, and in that case this list probably isn't for you).

The ordering here is going to either embarrass you or thrill you because you get to say weird things. For example Kristina's order goes a little something like this: "Chopped Pork Sandwich with Medium BBQ sauce. Say Cheese (add cheese), Slaw It Please (add cole slaw) and Wickle It (add pickles)."

Honest Biscuit's Fried Chicken Sandwich

This little shop is a tiny bit hidden (although they are getting a new and exciting location in the MarketFront Expansion), but it's worth the hunt. Honest Biscuit makes all their biscuits fresh daily and don't get us wrong, they are delicious plain, but the real money is in the fried chicken sandwich. We recommend adding pimento cheese. (Our life motto: always add cheese). Pull up an orange chair and enjoy!

Beecher's Grilled Cheese

Oh, Beecher's. You are such an wonderful place. You cover everything on your menu in cheese, you always have free samples, and we get to watch you make cheese while we eat. Truly great. So, if you love cheese as much as we do we recommend stopping here and getting yourself the grilled cheese sandwich. We've tried a few others and the classic is simply the best. Cheese and carbs, who knew? (We did, we knew. That is a recipe for success 100% of the time.)

Lowell's Hot Dungeness Crab Melt

You can't have a list about food in Pike Place Market without some seafood thrown in. Lowell's wins in this category with their Hot Dungeness Crab Melt. They pile dungeness crab on rosemary bread and top it with a buncha mozzerella cheese. (Are you seeing a trend here with cheese? Don't make a sandwich without cheese. Ever.) The secret sauce is their Bacon-Tomato Jam though. This stuff is crack and anything on the menu with it is worth trying! Make sure to sit on the 2nd floor and get your food with beautiful views of Puget Sound. 

5 Reasons We Love CommuniTea

The Rain or Shine team looooves kombucha. We drink it daily and have tried multiple brands and flavors. So, naturally, we were beyond excited when CommuniTea kombucha entered the Seattle scene. It has quickly become one of our favorites and here's why:

1. It's perfectly balanced. CommuniTea only makes 1 flavor of kombucha. While some might view this as a con, it actually means they can focus entirely on making sure that one flavor is perfect. They use only organic and biodynamic tea, and they don't add sugar after the fermentation. It's perfectly sweet and not overly vinegary. It kinda tastes like you're drinking a hard apple cider only this won't leave you hungover.

2. They have a brewery you can visit! Tucked away on the 21st street of the Central District is their brewery which is also open to the public. It's small with only a few two-top tables but you can stop in and sample their kombucha for free. You can also purchase a glass from their tap and they even offer a small snack plate (cheese, nuts, and apples). The staff is friendly and will answer all your questions about how this fermentation business actually goes down.

CommuniTea's DIY kombucha kit

3. They sell DIY kits! Okay, so kombucha is spendy. We get it. Why not try to make it yourself? CommuniTea sells kits that include the kombucha scoby, a large glass jar with built-in thermometor, tea, sugar and, of course, instructions. So, basically everything you need to make your own homemade kombucha for only $15. Let us know if you try it!

Pick your size!

4. It's easy to find and buy. The city loves this stuff as much as we do, which is good news if you can't make it all the way to their brewery for a bottle. Find it in grocery stores, farmers markets, and local restaurants. Buy two bottles. It goes fast. Also, if you return your old bottles, you can receive a credit on your next purchase. Score!

5. It makes great cocktails. Fun fact: we were told by a staff member that if you drink a glass of kombucha at the end of a night of drinking, you won't have a hangover the next morning because kombucha eats alcohol. Now, we haven't put this to the test (believe us, we are going to try), but it sounds like great advice! What we HAVE tried is turning kombucha into cocktails such as adding champagne for a kombucha mimosa or vodka and mint for a fun twist. Give it a try because we are pretty sure if you drink kombucha with your alcohol it's actually not that bad for you. Please note: we are not medical experts.

Cheers!

Seattle Hidden Gems: Fat Cork

Photo courtesy of Fat Cork

With Valentine’s Day upon us, a bottle of Champagne seems like a fine way to mark the occasion. However, at Fat Cork, a small underground Seattle warehouse dedicated entirely to grower Champagne, the full staff strives to Celebrate Everyday. As they put it, sometimes the act of opening the bottle IS the celebration.

When I say Fat Cork is underground, I literally mean it: housed in the basement of a nondescript grey building triangled between three streets in lower Queen Anne, I had to circle the building to find the way in. Look for the tiny door plaque and button code “13” to get buzzed in, then head downstairs.

Photo by Amy L. Dickson

Founded by husband and wife team, Bryan Maletis and Abigail Richardson, Fat Cork’s mission is to change the perception of Champagne as an exorbitant delicacy to an exciting option for celebrating everyday moments. The organization does this by providing the nascent, hungry market of North American bubbly drinkers access to grower Champagnes.

“Even though we are hard to find in our small Seattle cave, we are breaking down the barriers of Champagne,” Bryan explained. “We go find the best growers in Champagne and bring them directly to our customers in a fun and approachable way. We want people to find us and find reasons to celebrate everyday.”

What are grower Champagnes? These are sparkling wines created by the growers and their families from their own vineyard grapes. The personalities and styles of the winemakers and vineyards are highlighted in the resulting cuvées. According to Wine Folly, less than 5% of the Champagne imported into the US is grower Champagne. And remember, only Champagne from the Champagne region in France can be truly labelled Champagne.

Photo courtesy of Fat Cork

Fat Cork is both a shop to purchase Champagne, but also offers a club with multiple entry points to join: Each shipment is customized to the drinker based on tastes, feedback, and previous orders. Fat Cork represents 13 growers back in France and serves as the sole US importer for these labels so if you’re looking for a one-of-a-kind gift, these wines are it.

Every Fat Cork club shipment is a gorgeous gift in its own right, carefully labeled with bespoke tasting notes and Pacific Northwest accompaniments like Ballard mustard or hazelnuts from Oregon. To date, the slow, steady Fine Champagne (FC) club’s growth is largely attributed to word-of-mouth referrals, but the team hopes to increase membership by nearly 30% this year by attracting attention in major US cities like New York and LA.

Photo courtesy of Fat Cork

While exploring the facility, cave, and warehouse my guide Tori popped open a bottle of Hervy Quenardel Cuvée Brut Prestige Grand Cru. Aromatic and citrusy on the nose, this mouthful of silky pearls was both coating and refreshing, leaving me with a crisp dryness on the palate. A classic example of the power and beauty of traditional Champagne and one I’ll not be able to find anywhere else in America.

Fat Cork also offers select curated services to design your Champagne menu for special events, including weddings. For club members headed to France, Bryan and team will connect travelers with the actual growers so they can visit the vineyards and houses where their Champagne is made.

Simply curious? Fat Cork has an open public tasting the last Saturday of every month where you can sample some of the most unique, limited production Champagnes on the planet. What are you waiting for? Salud!

Amy L. Dickson is a communications professional, freelance writer, and contributor to Rain or Shine Guides. She’s currently training at the NW Wine Academy for her Level 1 sommelier certification. Follow her at @amyldickson75

Photo by Amy L. Dickson

Photo by Amy L. Dickson

Photo courtesy of Fat Cork

4 Secret (and Cheap) Food Spots in Seattle

There is a time and place for the uber-nice, fancy food spots in Seattle. We definitely have our favorites (as seen here), but what really gets us excited is when we hear from a friend of a friend’s cousin that the best $2 tacos are being sold discreetly in the back of a bar or there is a spicy banh mi for $1.50 from a dive-y street cart. These are the real heroes in our eyes! Check out these four secret and cheap spots we have learned about in the last year. They are all worth checking out and all are dirt cheap and delicious.

Cafetal Quilombo Café

You probably would never guess that this brightly colored coffee shop in Beacon Hill would also be home to some of the best tamales in the city, but that’s what makes it so great! The owners are from Mexico, which means they know what they are doing and there are 7 different choices at only $2.50 a pop. In our opinion, tamales can sometimes be dry, but not these. They are soft and warm, flavorful and filling. Our favorite was the pork with red salsa, but the chicken was delicious too. Don’t forget to get a Cafe de Olla (Mexican spiced coffee). This is Seattle after all.

Pork and chicken tamales at Cafetal Quilombo

Tamale list

45th Stop N Shop

This convenience store on 45th Street in the Wallingford neighborhood will sell you a 5-hour Energy and make you a fresh and colorful poke bowl. While there is excellent poke in this city, we like the Stop N Shop because the portions are large, the fish is extremely fresh, and the soy sauce is house made. In addition to the rice and fish, the bowls are loaded with other toppings including lettuce, edamame, seaweed, crab salad, ginger, sesame seeds, and some other delicious stuff we are probably forgetting.

Order your poke by the 5-hour Energy

Lyon’s Grocery

Lyon’s, located on Dexter Avenue, is the neighborhood grocery store of your dreams. Not only can you get your fix of Pop-Tarts, cereal, and ice cream, but you can grab a warm deli sandwich for lunch or dinner too. Lyon’s has an extensive list of sandwiches that includes both standard and unique flavors. We love the Caribbean Roast Pork and the I Love NY, but we also had our eyes set on The Bird, which sounds like Thanksgiving dinner (think turkey and cranberry sauce). 

Inside Lyon's

Carribean Pork sandwich

I Love NY

Quick Pack Food Mart

Fried chicken from a convenience store might scare some people, but we’ve never been choosy. It’s a good thing too, because the fried chicken you can purchase from the Quick Pack is the perfect consistency of tender and crunchy. How do they get it so right? It's cheap, fast, and tastes as good as it smells. Ask for their hot sauce if you like a little heat to your bird-- it's a great addition. And while the Quick Pack is small, you can still grab a drink and something sweet as you check out to round out your fried-chicken-in-a-convenience-store experience.

Got a secret and cheap food spot we need to know about? Please share! We promise not to tell a soul…