The Backside of the Pike Place Market: Part Two

Last year we got to know all the cool, hidden spots on the backside of Pike Place Market. Since then, there have been some developments that we thought you all would like to hear about! 

First up, the changes.

Spanish Table closed it's doors and moved in with Paris Grocery (it's now the Paris-Madrid Grocery). Billie the Pig found a new home down the street. And there has been a whole lot of construction for the new Marketfront Expansion. 

The Marketfront Expansion is going to be well worth the pesky construction though. With the new market space and some other new businesses coming to the backside of the market this is going to be an even better part of the city to explore!

Marketfront Expansion Project

The Marketfront Expansion is in full swing and we can't even tell you how excited we are for all the new businesses that will open in the new space in June! It will include a chocolate factory in indi chocolate), a brewery (Old Stove Brewing), and a restaurant/cannery from Jarr and Co. along with a lot more day stalls for local craftspeople and artists. 

The new space is also set to include a beautiful, open air plaza for locals and tourists to enjoy as well as a new neighborhood center and low income lofts for local artists. 

So what else is new on Western Ave. aka the backside of the market.....

Choukette Eclairs

This place is a little pricey, but if you like eclairs they know how to do them right. These light, fluffy filled desserts add a little more diversity to the market's sweets scene. Our favorite flavors are hazelnut praline and caramel.

Paper Feather

Lovely Jennifer Cullin from the Paper Feather

The Paper Feather isn't new to the block, but we didn't cover them in our last post and this shop is too fun not to know about! Jennifer Cullin is the mastermind and artist behind all the paper crafts and creations here. We covered her in our Meet the Maker series too! 

The Carrot Flower Company

This new flower shop compliments the businesses in this stretch of the block perfectly. With Paper Feather making wedding invitations and decor right next door, the back of the market can be your one stop shop for a Pinterest-perfect wedding! 

Room for Change, a mural by Carolina Silva 

This new mural was unveiled on the Pike Place Market Hillclimb and it adds a huge pop of color to the space! 

Multiple panels of repetitive pattern envelope the space, transforming a forgotten place- a mundane passageway- into a vibrant room. Repetitive patterns and hand-traced flowers are recurrent elements in Silva’s recent work; they represent chaos within harmony, or rather harmony within chaos.

That concludes this update for now, but keep an eye out for an extended post this summer reviewing the new Marketfront Expansion opening! 

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…

10 Awesome Seattle Dates Under $20

1. Play a round of mini golf at Flatstick Pub. This fun indoor mini golf pub only costs $7/person and is a great place for a night of fun. 

2 .Watch the sunset and roast s'mores at Golden Gardens. This is hands down one of the best waterfront parks in Seattle. They have fire pits, so bring a picnic bag with some wood, matches, and all the fixings for your perfect s'more. 

3. Get your karaoke on at Rock Box. Because who doesn't want to belt out to Celine Dion with their BAE? Full price at Rock Box is $7/hour, but during happy hour you can get the amazing price of $4/hour. 

4. Volunteer together. Seattle is a tightknit community, which means there are a ton of places to get involved and give back! This is a great way to grow closer and get to know new people as well. Some of our favorite nonprofits include Treehouse, EarthCorps, and Solid Ground. 

Volunteering at Pike Place Market Food Bank

5. Rent pedal boats at Greenlake. Green Lake is a beautiful place to get out on the calm water for some 1-on-1 time. Pedal boats are $20/hour and are perfect for a leisurely jaunt out on the lake!

6. Grab some ice cream at Molly Moons in Queen Anne and head down to Kerry Park to soak up the views. Just a few blocks away from the best views in Seattle is some of the best ice cream! Check what time the sun is setting and go grab a bench, enjoy your waffle cone, and watch the sun go down.

7. Take advantage of Seattle's awesome music scene and see some live music at Conor Byrne. This bar in Ballard hosts amazing local talent for a very low cover charge! You can't go wrong with any of the artists, they are always great! 

8. Take a hike - There are tons of great hikes of varying difficulty to do around the city (WTA.org is a great resource). You don't even need to leave the city for Discovery Park. A hike to the lighthouse on the water is a perfect date for an afternoon! 

9. Play some games! Seattle has so many fun places to go if you like arcade games (we will 100% destroy on any skee ball set-up in our presence). Full Tilt Ice Cream Parlor, Kings Hardware, Unicorn and Shorty's are our favorite picks in the city! 

Skee ball at the Unicorn

10. Go place some bets at Emerald Downs. There aren't many people who don't enjoy the thrill of placing a bet at the races! Head over and see if you can win big. You can bet for as low as $2 a race!

What are some of your favorite cheap date spots? We would love to hear about them!