When our bus driver let us off at Mount Rainer National Park in the Paradise region, he said we had two places to choose from to dine at. One was called Paradise Inn Restaurant and the other was available at the Henry M. Jackson Memorial…Read More

When our bus driver let us off at Mount Rainer National Park in the Paradise region, he said we had two places to choose from to dine at. One was called Paradise Inn Restaurant and the other was available at the Henry M. Jackson Memorial Visitor Center. We decided to eat at the Paradise Inn because the other eatery served the traditional grilled food like hotdogs and hamburgers. In addition, I heard there was only outside seating.

Paradise Inn is located in the Paradise lodge where you can have an accommodation at. It is one of the National Historic Landmark Inns located here. As a result, it is on the prestigious Historic Hotels of America register. This lodge was built in 1917. Alaskan Cedar charred by a fire that came from the nearby forest called Silver was used. The lodge’s lobby has hand-hewn furniture, tables, piano and a grandfather clock.

Like the lodge, the Paradise Inn Restaurant is rustic looking and has an antique Northwest décor. It has wood beams, wood chairs and tables and a stone fireplace. In addition, it has picture windows for the spectacular scenery. This place serves breakfast, brunch on Sunday, lunch and dinner. A snack bar is also available and it has soups, chili, sandwiches, beverages and ice cream.

Although you can order American traditional food such hamburgers, onion rings and chili, you can give your taste buds an adventure. This place serves many buffalo meat items. For instance, there is buffalo stew and buffalo quesadillas. My partner selected the buffalo quesadillas. It consisted of flour tortillas with buffalo sausage, onions, tomatoes, pepper jack cheese and sour cream. She said it tasted "gamey" or like strong beef, but it was delicious. She paid $8.75 for this. I chose a duller meal of a turkey wrap with fries. It was great! It was $9 in cost. Our friend, Gabi, ordered the Yakima Spinach Salad. It had spinach leaves, sliced Washington apples, candied walnuts, blue cheese bits with pear vinaigrette, herb roasted chicken breast, and alderwood smoked salmon in it. She said it was "tasty" and sweet. The cost of this meal was under $9. We also paid $2 for soda here.

What I liked about this restaurant was the cozy feeling you received when you first enter the lodge and then the entrance to the restaurant. As I noted earlier, the lodge has an antique Northwest décor. This in turn for me provided for a comfortable and relaxed environment. In addition, the restaurant even had a cute little table set up with bear décor that welcomed us (they knew in advance that some of the Gray line bus tour was going to eat there). Lastly, the waiters were courteous and attentive.

I highly recommend this restaurant to eat at because of the aforementioned. It serves brunch on Sunday from 11am to 2pm, but it also serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Mount Rainier National Park’s address is 55106 Kernahan Road, East Ashford, WA 98304. The Managing Director’s number is 360/569-2400 and the number for reservations at the lodge is 360/569-2275.

The following are directions to Mount Rainier National Park coming from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport are as follows: I-5 South to Hwy 7, Hwy 7 South to Elbe, Hwy 706 East to Nisqually Entrance (SW Entrance), Mount Rainer National Park.

   Close

Two types of dining that deserve a special recognition when visiting Seattle are Sushi and Dim Sum, so here is a quick guide to what it is, where to get it in Seattle and how to eat it. Sushi, which originates from Japan, is a serving…Read More

Two types of dining that deserve a special recognition when visiting Seattle are Sushi and Dim Sum, so here is a quick guide to what it is, where to get it in Seattle and how to eat it.

Sushi, which originates from Japan, is a serving of seafood (but sometimes other ingredients) with vinegared rice. It can be either wrapped in a roll with rice and seaweed (Maki), or be a sliver of fish neatly placed upon a bed of rice (Nigiri). Due to it’s maritime location, Seattle is home to a variety of seafood, therefore Sushi tends to be fresher and cheaper here than in other parts of the country (and when it comes to Sushi, freshness is the most important factor of all). Several types of Sushi deserve a special recognition: Shake (salmon), is raw, pink and delectable (and the most popular fish served around Pacific Northwest); Hotate (scallop), is a rich, soft morsel that melts in your mouth; Mirugai (geoduck), a giant clam native to Pacific Northwest, chewy and delicious (even more so if sautéed with ginger).
There are several notable places for Sushi in or around Seattle. Toyoda Sushi (12543 Lake City Way NE, (206) 367-7972) is a great bet, drawing loyal crowds everyday. Shiro’s Sushi (2401 2nd Ave, (206) 443-9844) is a great Belltown location with the freshest (according to its chef Shiro) fish available in town. Two other places of distinction are: I Love Sushi (1001 Fairview Ave N, (206) 625-9604) with their wonderful lakeside location, and great lunch specials ($10.50 for a salad, miso soup, 8 piece Nigiri and a California Roll); and Nikko (1900 Fifth Ave, (206) 322-4641), located in the Westin Hotel with one of the most spectacular dining rooms in town and the largest and fishiest roll around (Nikko Roll, containing seven types of fish).

Another popular type of Asian cuisine you will run into in Seattle is Dim Sum. This Cantonese style brunch is served between 9AM and 2PM (although some restaurants serve it as late as 5PM or even late nights). You can pick the dishes that look appetizing to you, as they fly past you, being pushed around on carts by waitresses. Most of the dishes are of a dumpling variety (Shu Mai: pork and shrimp dumplings are fantastic), but you can also get rice, seafood or vegetable dishes. Some noteworthy bites are Gai Lan (Chinese Broccoli, served with oyster sauce); Sweet Tofu, which can be either almond or coconut flavored, or warm, bland and served with delicious ginger sauce; and for those not adventurous, there are plenty of "safe dishes" like Char Siu Bow: steamed buns with barbeque pork inside.
The heaviest concentration of Dim Sum restaurants can be found in Seattle’s International District. Top Gun (668 S King Street, (206) 623-6606) and House of Hong (409 8th Ave S, (206) 622-7875) are the favorites of the local Chinese, but the most distinguished and universally accepted Dim Sum restaurant is The Noble Court (1644 140th Ave NE Bellevue, (425) 641-6011). This place gets so busy on weekends that you cannot find parking if you arrive after 11AM (keep in mind also that cars may get double parked).

So dive in and be adventurous!

   Close

There's a natural dividing line on the Ave, 45th Ave, where all the buses go through. The 4500 block has other things to do than sell food, but don't forget the pocket version of Aladdin Falafel at 4541. And right next door is…Read More

There's a natural dividing line on the Ave, 45th Ave, where all the buses go through. The 4500 block has other things to do than sell food, but don't forget the pocket version of Aladdin Falafel at 4541. And right next door is the extremely popular Thai Tom's. This place always has lines waiting outside, blending with the grunge kids on the sidewalk. So I doubt it's all that cheap, and I don't know how the food is. I wouldn't be caught dead waiting in line to eat. Are these people lemmings? Have they never been in the Army or prison or USSR? You'd have to be a moron to stand in line for a restaurant.
Up at the corner of 47th is the Greek Ghetto, Costas on the corner, and the Continental Cafe one door south. Neither is all that cheap. Costas has more atmosphere, but don't go off on some big Greek trip with posters of Corfu and all. The Continental is almost totally atmosphere-free, but that's where a lot of cool people have hung out for years, if only drinking coffee and eating the merinques, baklavas, and luscious Honey Bars. I'm a habitue and it just seems like authors and relics from the sixties, and artists and such are always coming in. It's a place that can give that 'second living room' feeling without trying to. Or there's Starbucks next door if you're a total write-off.
The 4700 block features two Indian places across from each other: both nice with table cloths and such, both featuring all you can eat buffets. Neelams at 4735 bills itself as 'Authentic Indian Cuisine,' and if there's any doubt, just note how many of the customers are wearing turbans or caste marks. The curries and tandoori meats here are for real. Yet you can stuff yourself at their 14 item buffet for just $5.95 during the week, $6.95 on Sunday. Across at 4728 is the oddly named Spice Rack, featuring 'Indian-Mediterranean Cuisine.' They handle both the Sea and the Sub-continent (what the hell is a sub-continent anyway? Atlantis?) competently and their buffet is $5.99.
North of 50th is a concentrated strip of eateries on the east sidewalk that is different from the funky student-places lower down the Ave. The lower rents in this less-trafficked area let them keep prices down, but most go up-scale in niceties. The Northeast Thailand at 5004 does a very authentic style with quietly gentile service and settings. You can get a soup for lunch here from $3.99, most lunches are $4.95. And they have the distinctive Thai Ice Tea, done just right.
At 5014 is something different, even on this strip--the Hawaiian Barbecue. There's a distintive Hawaiian taste and attitude, and they have it. Lots of goodies under $5.00 here , $3.45 for small orders of stuff like Ginger chicken. Their mahi-mahi fish burger is only $3.65.
At 5018, the Kiku Tempura House is staunchly Japanese, at decent prices, but nothing to flip out about. Next door at 5020, Inay's Manila Grill, on the other hand, you can get some very unusual and scrumptious Philipino dishes/ Adobo, Pancit, Lumpia, a fantastic sausage dish I forget the name of. And from 10-2 daily you can lunch there for $3.25, the Ave's price to beat.
The Mandarin Chef next door has nothing special to spiel, but it's one of the better Chinese restaurants in the area, with a highly regarded chef, despite it's modest location. Dinners start at $6.75, a great deal.
Tandour, next door at 5024, is also understated but a major value. Sparkling clean set-ups and snowy white linen cloths advertise their conscientious approach. A fine Indian restaurant, yet only $5.95 for lunch, $6.95 for Sunday brunch, when you'll see a lot of the area's Indian population chowing down.
Finally, at 5026, is A-Pizza Mart, for a sort of 'Resume Normal Eating' buffer zone. But, check it out, a 10 inch pepperoni pie is only $2.99.    Close

If you want to eat some sort of weird ethnic food, you can't find it easier than on the Ave...and it's the CHEAP place to scarf. Although all the other streets in the U. District are Avenues, what should be 14th Ave. is officially…Read More

If you want to eat some sort of weird ethnic food, you can't find it easier than on the Ave...and it's the CHEAP place to scarf.
Although all the other streets in the U. District are Avenues, what should be 14th Ave. is officially called 'University Way.' So of course everybody calls it 'The Ave.' Below Campus Parkway is 'Lower Ave,' and of no tourist interest until it hits the water at Boat Street, where Agua Verde and Boat Street Cafe offer very pleasant dining. North of 50th is the 'Upper Ave,' with a solid row of cheap foreign chow. In between is just The Ave, boulevard for students, street people, beatniks, bozos, buskers and boners. And the length of it is almost solid restuarants--almost all of them in the cheaper price range, and almost all offering lunch specials. Here's a partial guide:
Lets start south and work our way north, like fire ants and killer bees. At 4108 University Way is one of the oldest places on the Ave, the European Pastry Shop. The restaurant side of this place feels like Amsterdam or Stockholm and features Eurochow at decent prices. You can get breakfast there for $4.25, by the way. But what explains the Shop's longevity is the other half, glass racks of the yummiest pastries West of the Nisiqually. Haxelnuts and marzipan and macaroons dance through your head, beside Mohn strudel and biscotti and scones and croissants and florentinos and sinful tortes. It's like 'Europe on Five Tums a Day.' Insane sugar shock shack is the idea.
Right next door at 4114, and continuing the breif Euro segment of Ave eateries, is Shultzy's Sausage, where only a boor would call them hot dogs. Under $5 will get you some incredible weinies on your buns--bratwurst, Kosher, Italian, even cajun Anouille. They even have an in-house ozymoron--sausage hamburger. A homey place popular with pre-football crowds, with a big window opening to the passing Ave traffic. This block is also packed with several very nice coffee houses, by the way--Perkengruven fits into the Euro-ghetto style with it's antiseptic Scandic interior. Jumping up to 4311, where the Russian Bakery serves Piroshky, Pelmeni, traditional borsch Piroghi, and suffed cabbage (and you can get something for as low as $2.95), that's pretty much it for Euro-centric cusine. The rest tends towards Third World Beat eats.
Starting right out with Orizuru, a Japanese place set back in a parking lot at 4128. They have good food and a style that tends to please a largely Japanese clientele, normal prices. But the nice thing they have is tables outside--a rarity on the Ave.
At the corner of 42nd is Shalimar occupying the spot that was the center of the Ave for decades, the 24 hour den the Coffee Corral, owned by handball God Mike Chase. Nowdays they are a decent Indian place where you can get an Indian salad for $3.50 or a muligatawny soup and naan for $3.50. Can you pass that up? The name alone...muligatawny. Cool.
Across the street at 4139 is a heavy hitter in the cheap eats sweepstakes--Aladdin Fallafel. You can order to go right out the front window, or go in the back where tapestries and that weird/wired Near East music create a sort of cut-rate seraglio feel, sometimes marred by the presence of doofus frat kids. But the main thing is, they do it CHEAP. Their starting sandwich, with a dozen choices including giro, chicken, fallafel, is only $2.76. UNDER $3!!!! You can add size, sides, and goodies for more money. Size may not matter, but sides do. There is another Aladdin above 45th at 4541, but it is just a counter and grill. Same low prices, though.
The east side of the block north of 42nd, up to the Post Office, is almost totally packed with a world-spanning variety of food with alluring odors. All are tasty, all run around $5.95 to start. But one that calls for special notice is The Himalayan Sherpa. When was the last time you ate at a Tibetan restaurant? Especially one that sells Yak meat. Also to go--charts show that Yak beats out beef in fat, protein, cholesterol, bardo, karma, and feng shui. They have lunches starting at $3.99 and a buffet for $5.95
Then the international row starts up: Noble Palace (Chinese), My's Vietnamese which is un-adorned, but has a wide selection of some very good stuff, including 'Vietnamese Sandwiches', Then Pixxa Brava and Thanh Vianother popular Vietnamese joint. The block is topped off by the (sic) Thai-Ger Room, the Wok Chinese cuisine, and Ina Ka Japanese cuisine.
Across the street are a few more places of note. Than Brothers Bakery features Chinese/Vietnamese cuisine, but also French bakery items and has been, for some reason, a hangout for Ethiopians, Eritrians and other African students. Up at 4235 is the University Noodle Shop, with a Thai/Nam orientation. You can get a vergetarian Pad Thai for $3.95. And at 4237 is a MAJOR player in the cheap lunch scenario, China First. They have a $3.25 lunch special from 11-4 every day of the week. You can choose from a dozen specials: Lemon Chicken, Sweet and Sour Pooch, Kung Pau Rat, the usual. Comes with rice, soup, pot of tea and fortune cookie. Not bad. And the place actually has some decor. Best bet is sitting in the front window. If you have a crowd, grab the round table with lazy susan in the middle. Lunch, including drink for $3.25--not too shabby.
One thing you don't find on the ave is sidewalk sitting. If that's what you want duck over to Brooklyn, a block west, at 42nd, where you'll find nice umbrella tables outside the Saigon Deli. NOT a deli, probably due to translation difficulty. Good food, especially if involving noodles, nice people. Not extremely cheap, but there's always a special of soup or noodles for around $4.95. And you're sitting out in the sun. Next door, the Korean Kitchen also has tables and shade if you prefer Kim Chee to Pho.
Also a step off the Ave is the Cedar's Restaurant on 43rd, just past Flowers. This was the first of the Lebanese places in the District, over 25 years ago, and they're still going strong. They do Near East food perfectly and you can pig out with huge feasts...or get a sandwich of shiskebob, kibbey, falafil, gyro or shawarmah for $3.50.
Flowers, right on the corner of 43rd is worth a visit if only for the ceiling. It's completely mirrored, which can give you some odd and disorientating effects as you lean back in your chair, or wander around looking up and stumbling into the salad bar. The ceiling is a hangover from back when Flowers was actually a florist shop--(they kept the name so they wouldn't have to change the old sign). I had my first psychedelic experience with Hawaiian Wood Rose seeds I bought in this place in 1968. I just wish I could have eaten them on the spot and gooned out on the mirrored ceiling. Not a super cheap place, but good and their specialty, an all you can eat vegetarian buffet, is only $6.95.
The 4300 block is mostly taken up with the bookstore, big shops, and the Varsity theater, but there are several very narrow Asian places here, and the Russian Bakery. The Tokyo Garden is worth mention. You can get teriyaki with rice and salad for under $5, miso soup for a buck--and some pretty cheap sushi. 12 piece Taka roll for $4, for instance. Or a plade with Salmon, tuna, ebi, hamachi and taka, with a bowl of miso soup, for $6.45.
   Close

You don't speak of Seattle bars for long before the Blue Moon comes up. It's the most famous and historic bar in Seattle, hands down--and in certain circles the most famous in the West. Not the best circles, to…Read More

You don't speak of Seattle bars for long before the Blue Moon comes up. It's the most famous and historic bar in Seattle, hands down--and in certain circles the most famous in the West. Not the best circles, to be sure: we're talking Deadheads here, and beatniks, and hippies and yippies and Free Thinkers and bootleggers. The Blue Moon as fringe element goes back to the twenties, when it was built like six inches over the legally demarcated One Mile from Campus for purveyors of alchohol, tosspots and rakehells. Who didn't mind at all. Even when it was a college roadhouse, it was tough and artsy at the same time. Those effete Eli's might have their Temple Bar, but UaDub has wallowed in squalor and epiphany in the Moon and lived to tell the tale.
Nowadays the Blue Moon has actually become respectable, mostly to those who wouldn't set foot in the place on a bet. It's a raucous, grubby joint where poor behaviour standards seem to have rubbed into the wood booths like grime. Not for nothing does the front door read, 'Sorry, We're Open'. But when it was about to be razed in 1990, the hue and cry was heard abroad, mostly because the Moon is a star in the literary constellation. It was declared a historic site and sits there with it's psychedelic mural and neon sign and ruffian smugness.
The literary thing is real. Kerouac mentioned the place, Roethke has taught classes there. I saw Alan Ginsberg there once and personally met both Ken Kesey and Tom Robbins at tables in the Blue Moon. You say that in Seattle and people shrug and say 'where else?' There is even a literary magazine (in some ways the best in the area) dedicated to the Blue Moon, or at least largely written and published right there on the wet tables. Check out Point No Point. 712 NE 45th (right AT I-5) and get this, no phone. Just show up and take your medicine.

Perhaps the concensus second place in the Grungy Bar That's Been Around and Famous People Hung There, But Who Cares, Let's Get A Beer poll would go to the Comet Tavern on Capital Hill. (922 E. Pike, to be specific, (206) 323-9853). It's been a wild place for 50 years, but has never stopped being a battered dive where a long-haired working stiff could get a long neck and a game of stick. Back when nitwits were running around Seattle trying to find the real Grunge, they didn't think of the Comet, which was grungy before grunge was cool--and not the least place where that scene took root. You can still spot musicians from that little sonic ejaculation hanging out at the Comet. My favorite night at the Comet involved watching Robert Anton Wilson (author of 'The Illuminatus' and the actual 'Playboy Advisor') getting socked in the kisser with a cream pie. He was speaking there (the Blue Moon doesn't get ALL the literary stuff) when a tall redhead in black leather stepped up, pulled the pie out of a black leather doctor's bag, slapped it into Wilson's open mush, said, 'Hail Eris, my ass,' and hightailed it outside to hop on a gleaming red 1949 Indian replete with black leather and chrome, and blasted off into the night. Back in the Comet, Wilson sputtered. The next day I asked him if pie-in-the-eye wasn't what his book was all about and he got hysterical. Wotta stuffed shirt, had not business being in the Comet. In fact, shoulda stayed off Capital Hill.

I didn't like Murphy's Pub in their old location (now a Starbucks, of course) and I don't like them now. To hell with all these Irish pubs. They're everywhere, and why? Are phony Irish drunks better than Albanian lushes or something? But for some reason everybody goes to Murphy's for open-mike music and darts and all that Irish crapola. Seriously, it's a fun crowd, great mingling and all that. I've seen Eddie Vetter of Toe Jam or whoever they were, and Chris Vasilovic or whatver they call that mutant giant Nirvana bass player, and lots of other players you'd recognize at once if you are into that dumbass music. 1928 N 45th (In Wallingford, a mile form the University District, in reach of lots of other watering holes). Do you really need a phone number--why the hell call a bar, you never get a straight answer.

   Close

Pike Place Market is as multi-leveled culturally as it is physically. There's the tourist hoopla level: THE place to see in Seattle, watch the Salmon fly, take your picture by the brass pig, see actual farmers selling actual food! And then there's a…Read More

Pike Place Market is as multi-leveled culturally as it is physically. There's the tourist hoopla level: THE place to see in Seattle, watch the Salmon fly, take your picture by the brass pig, see actual farmers selling actual food! And then there's a very old level at which the Market is a community, a small town in the city: several communities actually, of musicians, producers, retailers, restauranteurs, and the old people who have apartments upstairs. In between there are levels in which local people hang out at the Market because it's a fun place and shop there because it has things available nowhere else. Here are a few places where you will find the unusual, or downright rare.

The main level mostly sells produce and crafts, but you can start going downstairs and never stop. I mean, and find a lot of cool shops. Likewise in the arcades and alleys across Pike Place from the main Market. I won't get into restaurants or bars here. Okay, just a little bit. I never go through the area without stopping for a Hum Bow at the Mee Sum Bakery. These are huge humbows, filled with barbecued pork, curry, or chicken and mushroom--then BAKED to get rid of that pasty steamed dough look and give a golden brown outer layer. God, they're yummy. Just say Mee Sum, Too. And, in the aisle parallel to Pike St, between the Flying Salmon and the Newstand, is a little stall called Crepes de France, where a really good-looking woman is pouring crepes. I won't bother with details, just tell you to pull up a stool and try a crepe. Alors!

But to get back to the rarities and such, walking north on Pike Place, past Mee Sum, you run into the Totem Smokehouse. If you want a perfect souvenir, or a 'send home' package, this place rates a look-in. The big specialty is alder-smoked salmon packaged in all sorts of ways, from canned to airtight in foil to packed in cedar boxes with NW Coastal Indian designs. Salmon JERKY, they've got. And canned dungeness crab and local smoked oysters. Northwest cuisine since prehistory, with modern package technology.

A few more steps and you'll hit The Souk, purveyors or Near Eastern food stuffs, spices and whatnots. Where else are you going to find ghee? Or Indian tea? They have shelves of strange, exotic-smelling spices like Zahtar mix and Sjwain seeds. They have big sacks of cardoman. They have stuff you can't even figure out whether to eat or clean your clothes with. If you like this stuff and aren't afraid to use it, this is a unique spot to score.

Right on along Pike Place, by the way, is the World's First Starbucks. Feel free to give them the 'Number One' mudra with whatever finger seems appropriate.

Circulating down through the Market's rabbitt warren of passageways and shops will lead you to a lot of cool and unusual emporia, but let me mention a few that seem special. On the second layer down is the Viking Emporium, where they sell woolens. Angora sweaters, icelandic wools, llama pullovers, Norse cable knit sweaters. Great place to suit up for the local weather.

Also on that level, right around the corner, is F&J Western Trading, masters of the peculiar and inappropriate. You want old posters of NW events, bizarre weapons and body parts? Need metal street signs? Huge mounted Amazon insects? They have it and will part with it. Take a stroll, you are guaranteed to something you've never seen before, and something you just can't imagine.

Also on the Lower Level is the Pike Place Pipe Palace, a head shop. But for crissakes don't call it that. And don't call a bong a bong, either or, under Washington State laws, you will have to leave the shop and come back later. Which will teach you a lesson. Ask to see the 'water pipe.' Or the 'teensy little spoon.' Better yet, ask to see the mushroom growing kits, something you don't find in just any headshop--locally produced and guaranteed to produce silly siben. Highly recommended.

Down another level is another unique place, the Women's Hall of Fame. Billed as handling 'Women's history, past & present,' they mostly sell cool shirts, plaques and bric-a-brac. (A T-shirt proclaims, 'I speak Patriarchy (But it's not my mother tongue)'. It's not as lame and non-sequitur as the fish needing a bicycle crap, but it's fun. And that's probably what's so cool and unique about the Hall--it's feminist, but with a sense of humor. And they said it couldn't be done.

At some point in going down all those steps that eventually lead from the market down to the waterfront, you cross Western Avenue. Be sure to check out World Merchants at 1509 Western. This is the ultimate spice and tea shop. Seriously. They have teas I've never seen outside the Orient and chiles I've never seen North of the River. They have Anxi Oolong and Dragonwell and Golden Monkey and Gen Mai Cha--and instructions for brewing. A tea-fancier's paradise. They also have masalas and hard-to-find Indian spices, as well as seldom-seen arabic spices like Khnieri and Baharat. And Mexican goodies like powdered Habaneros, chipotle rubs, and Black Aji, with which you could make a Oaxacan black mole if you knew how. They have rubs, mixes, pure spices...a huge, incredible-smelling wave of taste. I can't truthfully say you couldn't find this stuff anywhere else in the country: you could dig it up in New York or some such. But not under one roof, and not without speaking Arabic and Hindi and Cantonese. A remarkable collection. Also, check out their website.

You don't have to trudge downhill to explore some of the Market's hidden pleasures, though. There are areas tucked in behind the Fish Market, and leading down into the Annex that runs down First Avenue. Most people see MarketSpice and accept it as a great place to get teas and spices. Which it is, but not compared to World Merchants. Their big fame comes from MarketSpice Tea, very popular with people who can stand cinnamon in tea. But behind them is a sort of alley leading back to Raven's Nest Treasure a personal favorite. This place is actually a sort of garage sale by the owner, and a hodge-podge of cool stuff. He has huge pieces of fossil ivory and delicate antique jewelry, carved amber and various bones and teeth for carving or keychains. He has a nice collection of Indian art, at good prices, and there is usually a talented Indian carver at work right there, making paddles and totels and plaques. It's the kind of place that's hard to see all at once. I go by once a month and am always spotting new goofs.

Past the Raven's Nest is a a ramp that runs up to Tenzing Momo, a 'herbal apothecary' that carries Chinese medicines, Tibetan statues, an amazing collection of very serious incense, bulk herbs and tinctures that tend towards the oriental and mystic. You've never smelled a place like this before, and I'll bet you a stone lingam that you've never been in a place as seriously into incense as Tenzing Momo. From there you can go down a stair to the annex, walking down towards Union Street past Tribal Art (see my Indian Art entry) and Lark in the Morning (see my music stores entry).

   Close

Seattle has always been a major music town, and usually just off-kilter to the rest of the country. Before Cobain, before Heart, before Jimi, even before the Wailers and Kingsmen, there has always been a bunch of pickers and singers in this area who…Read More

Seattle has always been a major music town, and usually just off-kilter to the rest of the country. Before Cobain, before Heart, before Jimi, even before the Wailers and Kingsmen, there has always been a bunch of pickers and singers in this area who are talented and off-beat. People like Baby Gramps and Dwyer & Beck, and Nausea Trois and Reverend Chumleigh and Artis the Spoonman...oops, he's famous now, isn't he? But definitely off-beat in both style and choice of instruments.
So it's not surprizing that Seattle turns out to be a great place to get instruments, especially bizarro instruments. You're not going to find gamelans or sitars or alpenhorns or temple gongs or steel drums or zaphoons back in Iowa, or even in Boston. So check out some of the local specialty music stores and pick up a souvenir that will keep on giving.
Widest, wildest, and most centrally located is Lark in the Morning, at 14ll First Avenue it's in a sort of annex to the Pike Street Market, a series of streetfront shops that run south to Union. You can ogle Lark's stuff through the window or enter off Union. (206) 623-3440. You sort of have to slide into the Lark--it's totally packed. Every inch of wall space is hung with guitar/harps and chinese banjos and big ol' Mariachi guitarrones and ouds and bass balalaikas and kotos--and there are more hanging from the ceiling. You have to wind your way through djembes and ashinkos and dumbeks and stuff too weird to name (but the staff will know the name, and how to play it). Racks are full of penny whistles, cedar Indian flutes, medeival reeds and musettes, bamboo saxaphones, and Peruvian panpipes. This place is a MAJOR trip up music lane. Lark in the Morning also has stores in the Cannery in San Francisco and in Mendocino, by the way, and does mail order, including off their website, but it's a lot more fun being able to touch and play the stuff.
Another mecca for musicians who flock to Seattle for the Folklife Festival on Memorial Day weekend is Dusty Strings in Fremont. You can get there by the 26 or 28 bus from downtown, step off at first stop past the Blue Bridge and you're right in front of the steps down to musical heaven. (3406 Fremont N, 206-634-1662) Dusty Strings has two different aspects: a retail store full of unusual and beautiful instruments of all kind (not to mention books, CD's electronic tuners, etc) and a factory that builds harps and possibly the world's nicest hammered dulcimers. Which are heart-wringingly gorgeous instruments--tecnically perfect and graced with fine woods, little hand-carved leaves over the sound holes, and a no-nonsense but lovely general construction gesture. Concert professionals all over the world play Dusty Strings dulcimers and so can you, right there in the store. They also have a room of guitars, banjos, violins, plucked dulcimers, zithers, bowed psaltries and that sort of thing: some of the world's finest make of guitars, including a great line of dobros and metal resonator guitars for finger or slide. Then they have a big line bodhorans and Indian hand drums, a selection of whistles, flutes and various folk tooters rivalled only by Lark in the Morning (isa $300 penny whistle an oxymoron?). And even though customers include a lot of the very cream of folk and jazz musicians, this is not a place where you have to handcuff the kids (however good an idea that might be). They have a lot of simple instruments for the rug rats and don't mind them trying them out. No folkie should omit a visit to Dusty Strings.
If you're mostly into drumming, you will sooner or later be led to John's Music Center, which local drummers just call 'John's' and nuff said. This shop at 4501 Interlake N. is the epicenter for world-type drummers. (It's a block east of Stoneway and a block north of 45th, easily available on the 44 or 16 buses. 548-0916 or 800-473-5194) Also has a website. This is percussion city. No kit drums (that's all next door, where they selled used trap sets, marimbas, vibraphones, and such) but all sorts of african, South American, Asian, Native American, and just generally weird and funky drums and noise-makers. They have like hollow logs here, and big-ass samba drums from Rio. This is also a place where you can get lessons on timbales, udus, djembes African cowbells. and Brazilian bizarreness I'm not even going to try to spell. They're not snobs, either. They carry Remo and down-scale stuff and encourage newbies and kids. They also have a fantastic collection of books (both method and repretoire) in all these world beat types, videos of drumming all over the world, replacement drumhead hides, and a nice collection of whistles and flutes (John's into that, too) such as fine wood Native American flutes, and whistles made from bones. Plus recorders of all grades and price. There is something here for your budget, and something that will fit in your luggage.
One more place musicians always stop by: The Trading Musician at 5908 Roosevelt Way NE (522-6707). The 48 bus goes right by, and it's only three blocks west of University Way, which is an easy hop from downtown on a 71,72,73 bus. Nothing high tone here, it's a used car lot for axes. But nothing slick or sleazy, either. This is where working musicians move up and around. They have a great repair shop, but mostly they are an emporium of instruments from lap steels to hand-carved congas to huge thundering computer driven PA systems. Whatever comes in the door. I have bought a silver C Melody sax there, and a $10 fife, and a Pignose amp, and a highly customized Strat that was a screaming deal. They have a room of acoustic stuff, a long hall of electric guitars and basses and amps, then upstairs they have a boggling collection of drums of all types, a room of keyboards, and studio stuff. You can get some real deals here, or you can find some amazing collectibles.    Close

Once called 'Marzitarts,' this place makes what it's new name suggests--cakes and pasteries with pornographic designs. Little marzipan genitalia are more cute than nasty, but lots of fun to eat. You MIGHT want to get a wedding cake built here, but how about…Read More

Once called 'Marzitarts,' this place makes what it's new name suggests--cakes and pasteries with pornographic designs. Little marzipan genitalia are more cute than nasty, but lots of fun to eat. You MIGHT want to get a wedding cake built here, but how about a Divorce Cake? Or an Orgy cake? Send a birthday 'tart' to Jesse Helms.

Located at 2323 N 45th St, at the east edge of the nice, walkable Wallingford gentrification. Take the 44 bus, get off at Sunnyside. Or call the suggestive 545-6969.

   Close

The unique art of Northwest and Coast Indians is part of Seattle's culture. Here are some places to see totem poles and eat in NW Indian art surroundings. Also see entry on visting Indian art galleries and an Indian cultural center if this…Read More

The unique art of Northwest and Coast Indians is part of Seattle's culture. Here are some places to see totem poles and eat in NW Indian art surroundings. Also see entry on visting Indian art galleries and an Indian cultural center if this entry interests you.

TOTEM POLES

The 'flagship' of Seattle poles (though maybe less photographed than the one at the Seattle Center) is in the triangular Pioneer Square on lower First Avenue. This imposing 50 foot red cedar totem was originally stolen from the Tlingit tribe in 1898, but rotted away and was replaced in 1938 by a replica, carved by the obliging Tlingits. The pole depicts three myths: Raven steals the moon, Raven and Frog have frog-like children, Raven and Mink travel in a Killer Whale. The pole sits amid Seattle's old section, full of bars, live music, and cool shops.

A block south in Occidental Park, are four poles carved in 1974, including the 32 foot 'Sun and Raven'. Occidental is right across Yesler from the heart of the gallery scene.

Down by the waterfront is the Port of Seattle's 35 foot cedar monument carved at the Indian Arts Center in Haines. It is entirely symbolic of that state, including the Bear holding a coin representing the Alaskan mineral wealth. This pole, at Alaskan Way and Washington, is across from the station for the quaint Street Cars that ply the waterfront.

The two poles in what is technically Victor Steinbrueck Park (whoever he was), just north of the Pike Street Market, have caused the place to be called 'Totem Pole Park' by locals. Quinault work, one pole depicts Haida legends and the other one is a very unusual totem fashioned after one found in Ketchikan, Alaska. It features Abraham Lincoln and a farming couple standing back to back on top--a sort of Native American Gothic. This park is a hangout for everyone from bums to musicians and painters to foreign tourists. Native art fans should scan the benches closely: sometimes very fine carvers do their work right there in the park. Buy a totem or canoe paddle on the spot for half of what they will go out of a gallery.

Up by the university district (right across the Montlake Bridge from Husky Stadium) is a beautiful old pole done by a Haida carver in 1937 in Waterfall, Alaska. This is a 40 foot 'story pole', a sort of vertical comic strip about an old woman left behind by her tribe who is fed by a divine eagle. When a bear tries to steal the eagle's bounty, the spirits kill the bear. The location of this pole is very special, a tiny park located right on the Montlake Cut, and the start of a footpath that leads along the marshlands to the edge of Lake Washington, by way of the Museum of History and Industry. You can get there by the 44, 48 or several other 'Montlake' buses, get off south of the Montlake Bridge and walk down the steps to the water-then go east until you see the park with it's pole and railed observation deck to watch boats going through the cut.

Across the Bay on the West Seattle peninsula, at Belvedere Viewpoint (Admiral Way and Olga--pull over in a car, or get off the Admiral Way buses) is a pole two local carvers in 1966 copied from a deteriorated 1930's pole from the Bella Bella tribe from British Columbia. The pole will compete for viewing time with a stunning vista across the water of Seattle's skyline.

RESTAURANTS

Ivar's Salmon House on Lake Union (401 NE Northlake Way--632-0767) is built 'after the fashion' of a cedar Long House and is a showplace of Indian wooden art. You feel wrapped in cedar inside, and the walls are cluttered with carvings and plaques. The cuisine is also Indian-like, featuring salmon, rice and cornbread.

For a more intensive Indian experience, there is a widely-advertised junket to Tillicum Village on Blake Island across Puget Sound. It's a triple-threat tourist trap: one hour boat ride to the island, salmon dinner in an Indian village replica, and a live show of Native American dance and music, but you might want to give it a shot. At the Tillicum village you can see poles actually being carved by Native craftsmen. The dinner is 'potlatch style'--salmon planked on cedar strips and smoked over an alder fire. The after dinner show might be 'Las Vegas meets Pocahuntus', kids love it and...there it is, native dancers and costumes. Phone for reservations (443-1244).    Close

Seattle has something for everyone, but I think most people forget to just get out of the car and walk around the streets of Seattle. So I suggest you do just that. Put down the travel books and brochures, put on your walking shoes,…Read More

Seattle has something for everyone, but I think most people forget to just get out of the car and walk around the streets of Seattle. So I suggest you do just that. Put down the travel books and brochures, put on your walking shoes, and step off the bus or taxi.
The skyline is just amazing with a return of architecture to buildings, Seattle is a mix of old and new, where beauty can be found even in the new glass highrises that reach for the sky along Seattle's downtown corridor.
Take a short trip up to highland park on Queen Anne hill and over look Seattle while the sunset plays its last rays of pink light over the crown of Mt. Ranier. Of course,
if you get there at the wrong time, you may only see a peak of what our fine city has to offer.    Close