The Stranger's 2023 Seattle City Guide

SEATTLE HOW TO PRESENTS

BEACHES

FOOD

ARTS

DRINKS

MUSIC

PARKS

PRESENTED BY:

How to Seattle

CUSTOMER

Hartunian, Jesse Cramer

Parroco

CIRCULATION

Seattle is often misunderstood by the masses. If you believe mainstream media, our vibrant city—nestled between picturesque mountains and sea—is nothing but rain, coffee, and weed.

We’re proud of our city, so all of us here at The Stranger (Seattle’s only media outlet) have put together this guide to the best attractions, food, music, galleries, and, yes, weed shops, so you can see the best the city has to offer, whether you’re here for a weekend or for good. We’ll get into specifics later, but first, here’s a primer on Seattle’s diverse neighborhoods and what you can do in each one.

Bainbridge Island

Ballard

KNOWN FOR: A mix of classic, seagoing, Scandinavian Seattle with hipster breweries and upscale bars. CHECK OUT: The huge Sunday Ballard Farmers Market, the Nordic Museum, the fish ladders at the Ballard Locks, and sunsets at Golden Gardens Park.

Queen Anne/Uptown

KNOWN FOR: Old, beautiful homes on Queen Anne Hill, stairs (so many stairs), and proximity to the Space Needle. CHECK OUT: A stunning view of the skyline from Kerry Park, art-house movies at SIFF Cinema Uptown, and Seattle Kraken and Seattle Storm games at Climate Pledge Arena.

Seattle Center

KNOWN FOR: The Space Needle and the monorail. CHECK OUT: Nirvana and horror film exhibits at the Museum of Pop Culture, the Chihuly Garden and Glass museum, live music at the Vera Project, radio station KEXP, local food in the Armory, and Pacific Northwest Ballet and Seattle Opera performances.

Belltown

KNOWN FOR: Trendy bars, shops, clubs, and restaurants. CHECK OUT: Art installations and Puget Sound views from the Olympic Sculpture Park, live music and comedy at the Crocodile, and bars like Shorty’s (with a pinball arcade) and the James Beard Award-nominated speakeasy Phòcific Standard Time.

Downtown

KNOWN FOR: Being declared “dead” by mainstream media, skyscraper office buildings, and proximity to Pike Place Market. CHECK OUT: The architectural gem of the Central Library, the Seattle Art Museum, the view from the 40th floor of the Columbia Center (tickets required), art space Nii Modo, and Pike Place Market.

Waterfront

KNOWN FOR: Tourists and seafood restaurants. CHECK OUT: The Seattle Great Wheel, the family-friendly Seattle Aquarium, and the quirky Ye Olde Curiosity Shop.

KNOWN FOR: Easy day trips on the ferry for a taste of smalltown, laid-back life. CHECK OUT: James Beard Award finalist Hitchcock, the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, and the 150-acre Bloedel Reserve garden.

West Seattle

KNOWN FOR: Its relaxed, beachy vibe and being hard to get to, except by riding the water taxi. CHECK OUT: Alki Beach Park, the view from Hawaiian-Korean taco joint Marination Ma Kai (get the Sexy Tofu Tacos!), and in-store performances at Easy Street Records.

Fremont

KNOWN FOR: Referring to itself as the Center of the Universe, lots of hippies, and the Solstice Parade / naked bike ride in June. CHECK OUT: Public art like the Fremont Troll and the Statue of Lenin (which is actually privately owned, but shh), tours of the Theo Chocolate Factory, the nearly 20-mile BurkeGilman Trail through the city, and year-round flea market goodies at the Fremont Sunday Market.

Pioneer Square

Wallingford/Green Lake/Phinney Ridge

KNOWN FOR: Residential neighborhoods with cute shops and restaurants, and easy access to the outdoors. CHECK OUT: Gas Works Park on Lake Union, the Archie McPhee joke shop in Wallingford, the trail around Green Lake Park, and the summer concert series at the Woodland Park Zoo.

University District

KNOWN FOR: The sprawling, Gothic University of Washington campus, and vintage shops and cheap restaurants along University Way (known as “the Ave”). CHECK OUT: The Henry Art Gallery and Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, the impressive University Book Store, handmade noodles at Xi’an Noodles, and live music at Neptune Theatre.

South Lake Union

KNOWN FOR: Amazon’s headquarters, waterfront bars and restaurants, and houseboats. CHECK OUT: The plant-filled Amazon Spheres, the Museum of History & Industry, the street food-filled South Lake Union Saturday Market, and rowboat rentals from the Center for Wooden Boats.

Capitol Hill

KNOWN FOR: Bars and music venues that come alive at night, rainbow-painted crosswalks and gay bars, and beautiful old mansions. CHECK OUT: The cedarshelved Elliott Bay Book Company, the trendy shops, bars, and restaurants at Chophouse Row, live music at Neumos, and walks in Volunteer Park.

KNOWN FOR: Being Seattle’s oldest neighborhood, plus brick buildings housing art galleries and restaurants.

CHECK OUT: The Underground Tour, the monthly First Thursday art walk, the Smith Tower observatory, and the Waterfall Garden Park and Occidental Park.

Central District

KNOWN FOR: Its history as the hub of the city’s African American community and close proximity to Lake Washington. CHECK OUT: The Northwest African American Museum, Ethiopian restaurants like Meskel and Cafe Selam, and classic movies with table service at Central Cinema.

Chinatown-International District

KNOWN FOR: Amazing Asian American cuisine and cultural institutions (and The Stranger offices!). CHECK OUT: The Asian supermarket Uwajimaya, the Wing Luke Museum, Fuji Bakery, and the drool-worthy Dough Zone Dumpling House.

Sodo/Georgetown

KNOWN FOR: An industrial background, and Safeco Field (where the Mariners play) and Lumen Field (where the Sounders, OL Reign, and the Seahawks play). CHECK OUT: The Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery, the Hat ’n’ Boots sculptures at Oxbow Park, and the factory where Obama’s favorite Fran’s Chocolates are made.

Columbia City

KNOWN FOR: Having wonderfully diverse communities with great food and music. CHECK OUT: The James Beard Award semifinalist Columbia City Bakery, community coffee shop the Station, and live music at the Royal Room and Clock-Out Lounge (both of which have excellent food, too).

As Seen In

Dwell Magazine Simply Scandi Luxe Interiors 91 Magazine Seattle Met Vancouver Magazine

Getting Around

No Need To Rent a Car, Public Transportation Is Reliable

BY STRANGER STAFF

Light rail

The light rail travels north from Angle Lake to Northgate, making 17 stops along the way, including the airport. You can buy a ticket in any station. If you’re in town for more than a few days, consider buying an ORCA card. It’s reloadable and can be used on buses, streetcars, and water taxis. For trip planning, go to soundtransit.org.

Bus

Seattle’s extensive bus system is great for getting around the city. Pay as you board with bills and/or coins—it’s $2.75 for adults and free for children 18 and under—or use an ORCA card. Go to metro. kingcounty.gov to check the schedules. The app OneBusAway is also handy when you need to pull up nearby and real-time bus information.

Cars and cabs

Ride-sharing companies are plentiful in Seattle. We have all the majors, including Uber, Lyft, and Moovn, a Black-owned rideshare company that was launched in Seattle in 2009. Cabs still exist, too! You can request a cab using apps like Flywheel or the Yellow Cab app. Want to do your

own driving? Rent a car by the hour through Zipcar or by the minute through GIG. Both require memberships.

Ferries

Washington State Ferries take you to the islands and peninsulas in Puget Sound. You can drive your car right onto the boat, or you can walk or bike on. Find more info at wsdot.wa.gov/ferries. For a shorter but still scenic ride, head over to West Seattle via the West Seattle Water Taxi.

Bikes

Seattle hosts two free-floating bike-share companies—Lime and Veo, the latter of which offers e-assist bike rentals (very helpful on the hills). Bike rentals are also available at several local bike shops.

Scooters

There are three different scooter companies in town—LINK, Bird, and Lime. You can’t walk a block or two through most neighborhoods without passing one. Beware: Drivers and pedestrians alike are often cranky about scooter riders, as they have a reputation for being reckless in Seattle’s traffic and on crowded sidewalks.

EDMONDS CENTER FOR THE ARTS

June 13

July 14

July 29

August 12

September 9

Marty Stuart & His Fabulous Superlatives

Toad the Wet Sprocket

Riders in the Sky

Wild Rumours: A Fleetwood Mac Experience

Daughtry: Bare Bones Tour

Be prepared to have your spirits lifted by world-class musicians, dancers, and comedians who will grace our stage with their awe-inspiring talent. 2023-2024 Season On Sale Soon!

Attractions Seattle’s Most Iconic Landmarks, Marvels, and a Gum-Covered Wall

BY STRANGER STAFF

Ballard Locks

BALLARD

The fresh water in Lake Washington and in Lake Union is about 20 feet higher than the salt water in Puget Sound. Boats use the locks to get lifted/lowered from one body of water to the other. More boats

travel through these locks than any other locks in the United States, and a million people per year gather around to watch it happen. You can spend a few minutes here, or all day. Pro tip: Check out the fish ladder viewing area to watch shiny little salmon swimming for their lives. (SEAN NELSON)

Fremont Troll

FREMONT

Tucked under the famous, almost-3,000feet-long Aurora Bridge is Seattle’s most famous troll. (All the other, not-so-famous ones live in The Stranger’s online comments section—har har). A few fun facts: The Fremont Troll was installed in 1990, it weighs 13,000 pounds, and it was a filming location for the 1999 teen rom-com 10 Things I Hate About You! Cameron (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Bianca (Larisa

Oleynik) hang out on the troll and talk about whether or not Bianca’s sister Kat (Julia Stiles) is “a k.d. lang fan.” Oh, the ’90s.

The Great Wheel

WATERFRONT

What beloved Seattle institution is round, white, and 175 feet tall? No, it’s not the world’s largest Percocet, it’s the Great Wheel! More like the London Eye than some rickety county fair Ferris wheel, TGW lends a sense of majesty and moment to the waterfront district, granting you an aerial view of Seattle’s dense, ever-growing skyline, the Olympic Mountains, and a glimpse of the Twin Peaks–like mystery of the islands across the water (extra mystery if it’s foggy). The price ($17 adults/$17 seniors/$12 kids 3-11) may seem a little steep, but you get three

full turns of the wheel, about 15 minutes’ worth of new perspective. It’s worth it.

(SEAN NELSON)

Gum Wall

PIKE PLACE MARKET

It’s a wall. Covered in an astonishing amount of gum. It was cleaned off once, in 2015, and workers removed more than 2,350 pounds of the chewy, sticky stuff in hopes that the attraction/public health concern would be retired, but a new collection of chewed-up gum began to accumulate again almost immediately.

Hat ‘n’ Boots at Oxbow Park

GEORGETOWN

Oxbow Park, better known as “Hat ‘n’ Boots,” is home to a fantastic 44-footwide orange cowboy hat and a pair of 22-foot-tall cowboy boots—remnants of

The Great Wheel

Fremont Troll

JESSICA STEIN

Photo: Jueqian Fang; Photo courtesy of Gail Pettis; Photo: Julia Kuskin

an old gas station rumored to have been visited by Elvis. The park also has grass, a play area, and a community garden.

(ANGELA GARBES)

Smith Tower

PIONEER SQUARE

After a revamping in 2021, Pioneer Square’s iconic Smith Tower now has all kinds of cool shit going on, including its actually very good lounge, the Smith Tower Observatory Bar. They do movie nights in the Orcas Room, historic talking tours, DJ nights in the summer on the

22nd-floor lookout, and there’s a scary sky cage ringing around the entirety of the 35th floor, and you can get drunk and walk around in it! It’s a whole city’s worth of fun events packed into a single Neoclassical skyscraper. (MEG VAN HUYGEN)

Space Needle

SEATTLE CENTER

If the weather is right, go to the Space Needle, tourist trap be damned! The structure—built in 1962 for the World’s Fair—underwent some hefty renovations in 2018 and it is now home to the world’s only rotating glass floor. It’s kind of scary to stand on, tbh! But also very cool. On the upper deck, you can grab coffee and a cupcake from the Atmos Cafe—or a glass of wine at the wine bar—and sit back and let the 360-degree views slowly pass you by. (One full rotation takes about 45 minutes.) If you’re feeling more adventurous, snap a selfie from the outdoor deck, where the only thing standing between you and the view (and the 520-foot drop) are thick panels of “floor-to-forever” glass. Adult passes start at $30, with discounts for kids (5-12) and seniors (65+), and the price fluctuates up to $40 depending on the time of day.

Since 1962, Scandinavian Specialties has provided Nordic goods to the Pacific Northwest and beyond. We are the last remaining Scandinavian store in Seattle.

Come and shop our huge selection of Scandinavian meats, fish & cheeses, Swedish bulk candy, chocolate and much more! We also offer sandwiches, wraps & baked goods in our cafe!

JESSICA STEIN

BRUCE W

Gum Wall

Smith Tower

Eight of Our Favorite Restaurants for Every Budget and Craving

BY STRANGER STAFF

Phòcific Standard Time and Phò Băc Sup Shop

Phòcific Standard Time and Phò Băc Sup Shop

DENNY TRIANGLE

Phòcific Standard Time, referred to less formally as PST, is the collaborative work of sisters Yenvy and Quynh Pham—who grew up in their family’s multi-location Phò Băc chain of soup shops—and bartender Katie Frazier. Guests at PST enter first through the soup shop, then up a flight of stairs into a space that feels like a secret. There are around 10 drinks on offer at any given time, a comfortable cluster of two-tops and bar seating, and a tight selection of satisfying snacks, including a sweet, creamy, savory crab dip served with Vietnamese “Sky Flakes” saltine crackers, as well as pho from downstairs offered in an oversized Cup-O-Noodles bucket. The bar feels dark, date-y, with flickering candles and the ebb and flow of

conversation. There will be Viet pop on the stereo. You will lose track of time. (JORDAN MICHELMAN)

More pho-vorites: Pho Than Brothers (various locations), Ba Bar (various locations), Pho Viet Anh (Belltown), Pho Bac (Mt. Baker), Dong Thap Noodles (Chinatown-International District)

Cycle Dogs

BALLARD

Cycle Dogs is the place to be for fast-casual vegan comfort food and fancy cocktails. If it’s brunch, you’re eating the French Tourist. Imagine, a hot, sloppy sandwich with juicy vegan sausage patties, perfectly seasoned tofu scramble, onions grilled golden, and a combination of cheese and mayo that you won’t believe will spare you IBS symptoms, all on a buttery brioche bun. If you go for dinner, you’re

COURTESY OF PHO BAC SUP SHOP

Open Monday,Tuesday, Thursday 11am-6pm, Friday 11a-7pm, Sat 9am-7pm* & Sun 9am-3pm *Happy Hour 3-6pm • Wed CLOSED

getting the Elote Dog. It’s a Field Roast hot dog between a bun with a crisp outside and soft inside covered with corn, a drizzle of mayo, a sprinkle of cayenne, and green onions. If you’re feeling fancy, add pickled jalapenos and Tapatío. I recommend eating it with a fork and knife like a filet mignon at a Michelin-star restaurant. That’s the respect it deserves. (HANNAH KRIEG) More vegetarian and vegan favorites: Plum Bistro (Capitol Hill), the Wayward Vegan (Roosevelt), Cafe Flora (Madison Valley), Georgetown Liquor Company (Georgetown), Araya’s Place (University District)

Communion

CENTRAL DISTRICT

The New York Times put it on the Restaurant List 2021. Condé Nast Traveler named it one of the twelve Best New Restaurants in the World 2021. Communion is a place to meet old friends, make new ones, and foster community while celebrating the singular, very specific culinary heritage of the Central District, both past and present. You’ll find soul food in the CD, yes, but also Vietnamese cuisine, Middle Eastern food, Ethiopian restaurants. Communion’s menu’s a historical document. A meta-geography lesson. A food pedigree. An edible infographic. The award for Best Thing I’ve Ever Put in My Mouth probably goes to their neck bone stew. Chef Kristi Brown gives her a creative hat-tip with the catfish po’mi, a bánh mì made with Helen Coleman-style cornmeal-crusted

fried catfish, cukes, pickled daikon and carrots, grilled jalapeños, pâté, and tangy remoulade. Don’t skip the banana pudding.

(MEG VAN HUYGEN)

Even more excellent Black-owned restaurants: Cafe Campagne (Pike Place Market), Plum Bistro (Capitol Hill), Fat’s Chicken and Waffles (Central District), Osteria La Spiga (Capitol Hill), Island Soul Rum Bar and Soul Shack (Columbia City)

Mee Sum Pastry

UNIVERSITY DISTRICT AND PIKE PLACE MARKET

A hombow from Mee Sum Pastry is the OG broke-joke Seattle snack. The classic barbecue pork is The One—something about how the liquid fat from the pork and the red, umami-heavy char siu barbecue sauce mixes with the steamy, slightly sweet Chinese roll. The chewy edges of the meat, the delicate crust of the bread, and the pillowy texture. A singular and specific heaven. One hombow is a big snack, two’s a meal. Walk down the Ave or through the Market, whichever, with one in your hand and one in the waxed paper sack, feeling like you have everything in life figured out. (MEG VAN HUYGEN)

More cheap—but great!—eats: Xi’an Noodles (University District), Saigon Deli (Chinatown-International District), Emerald City Fish and Chips (Mt. Baker), Taqueria la Fondita (White Center), Pho Than Brothers (various locations), Piroshky Piroshky (Pike Place Market and Downtown)

COURTESY OF MEE SUM PASTRY

Mee Sum Pastry

ASEAN StrEAT Food Hall

DOWNTOWN

Yes, it’s essentially a mall food court, but the unified concept—the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, with cuisine from each of the 10 member nations represented—is what makes this click. It’s about half lunch-dinner stalls and half dessert stalls, and a handful of them are dolled up like carts you’d see at a night market in Bangkok, with fake wheels on the front. A highlight is Rolling Wok’s mee goreng kee mow, spilling forth from a styrofoam Cup Noodle vessel. This Malaysian dish involves stir-frying thick curly noodles in a spicy sauce, along with your choice of shrimp, pork, or veggies, and there’s the option to crown it with a fried egg. It’s a wonderful, extremely Instagrammable spectacle. (MEG VAN HUYGEN)

Sushi Kashiba

PIKE PLACE MARKET

When you sit down at the sushi counter or a table at Sushi Kashiba, perched above the fish vendors of Pike Place Market, the smartest thing you can do is surrender to chef Shiro Kashiba’s lifetime of knowledge and order the omakase sushi dinner (the price changes based on the market prices and availability; recently it was around $175 per person). Omakase, from the Japanese characters meaning “entrust,” puts you entirely in a chef’s hands. Food at Sushi Kashiba will taste exquisite whether you’re sitting at the sushi bar, in the small dining room, or the lounge. But if you’re lucky enough to secure seats at the sushi counter, each course will be served to you by Shiro-san himself, along with a generous helping of his benevolent expertise

and humor. (Because of high demand, the sushi bar is seated exclusively on a first come, first served basis. Plan to get there before the doors open at 5 pm, or be prepared to wait. Either way, plan to be there for a few hours—don’t worry, it will all be worth it.) (ANGELA GARBES)

More sushi and seafood favorites: Shiro’s Sushi (Belltown), the Walrus and the Carpenter (Ballard), Kisaku Sushi (Green Lake), Sushi Kappo Tamura (Eastlake), Local Tide (Fremont), Taylor Shellfish Oyster Bar (various locations, Ltd Edition Sushi (Capitol Hill), Maneki (Chinatown-International District)

Tomo

WHITE CENTER

Prepare your brain for razzle-dazzle because James Beard Award-winning chef Brady Ishiwata Williams is fucking bringing it at TOMO. For 86 bucks, you get a fivecourse prix fixe, either veggie or meaty, plus usually an amuse-bouche or two. The menu is always changing by the season, but expect Michelinesque food sculptures and an exquisite cocktail and wine list. They don’t hand out James Beard awards for nothin’. They also offer an a la carte menu with prices ranging from $6-$12 for a small starter to $135 for Wagyu for two. (MEG VAN HUYGEN)

More restaurants for when you’re celebrating, or just want to splurge: Canlis (Queen Anne), Sushi Kashiba ( Altura (Capitol Hill), Bateau (Capitol Hill), Copine (Ballard), Lark Restaurant (Capitol Hill) There are literally hundreds of amazing places to eat. For more restaurant recommendations, go to thestranger.com/food.

MEG VAN HUYGEN

ASEAN StrEAT Food Hall

Coffee Seattle Is So Much More than Starbucks

BY MEG VAN HUYGEN

Welcome to Seattle, where we don’t fuck with Starby’s, the Arby’s of coffee. Fortunately, Seattle has BEEEE-YEAUTIFUL world-class coffee in pretty much every neighborhood. From homey hippie-shit coffeehouses with folk music nights to slick Hardie-boarded condo-cafes serving shade-grown, grass-fed beans, we’ve got it all here, and on every corner. Here are a few favorites, from a truly massive list of extremely legit options. I’d better not catch you drinking corporate coffee after this.

DOWNTOWN/BELLTOWN

Moore Coffee is Latinx-owned, with colorful Mexico City-style decor and house-roasted beans (and a big jar of marshmallows to decorate your beverage to spec!). There’s no better coffee in Pike Place Market than at Ghost Alley Espresso in Post Alley, and don’t miss Monorail Espresso, reportedly the world’s first espresso cart, which has been selling its iconic ristrettos and creme brulee lattes since 1980.

CHINATOWN–INTERNATIONAL DISTRICT/PIONEER SQUARE

Since 1997, Zeitgeist has been the king of the coffee game in Pioneer Square, with lofty ceilings, exposed-brick, and cool industrial vibes of your dotcom-boom dreams. But if Zeitgeist is the old king, then Hood Famous is the cocky young upstart who threatens to steal the crown. It has a spectacular single-origin Asian Pacific coffee program, featuring pandan, ube lattes, and Filipino meryenda snacks (get the coconutty-caramel biko, omg).

UNIVERSITY DISTRICT/ WALLINGFORD

When I think about coffee culture in Seattle, Cafe Allegro is what immediately comes to mind: exposed brick, big windows, tons of wacky art, top-shelf coffee, with plenty of students and professors discussing fuckin’ Goethe and shit. On the

Ave proper, David Pierre-Louis is running Konbit Cafe out of a little window next to Urban Outfitters. Serving beans from the coffee commune of Dondon, Haiti, proceeds go to benefit Kay Tita, a nonprofit that supports both working Haitian artists and clean water systems in Haiti.

BALLARD

Watson’s Counter has a full Korean menu, ’90s hiphop on the aux, and fun soft serve flavors. Don’t miss the Korean fried chicken and waffles or the Fruity Pebble French toast. Just a few blocks away, exquisite La Copa Cafe has ethically sourced/ locally roasted beans, beer and wine on tap, and a dog-friendly garden space in the back. It’s a sweet secret hideaway. Venture Coffee Co’s got a Scando thing going on, with beans from their sister company, Hagen Coffee Roasters, and gorgeous Nordic pastries from Freya Bakery.

FREMONT

Aroom Coffee serves high-level Vietnamese phin coffee in various permutations, including some delightfully weird shit like avocado coffee, which is just half an avocado mashed into your iced latte. It’s good! In a pristine Edwardian house with a wraparound porch, Fremont Coffee Company is a scene out of a bygone era—right on busy Leary Way. Brew is fair trade and organic, wallpaper is ornate, and pastries are on point.

GREENWOOD/PHINNEY

Prashanthi Reddy named her coffee shop Makeda and Mingus after an ancient queen of Ethiopia, thought to be the birthplace of coffee, and her rat terrier, Mingus. She serves great coffee and also hosts weekly Indian dinners and sells beer, wine, and fantastic chai. And I can’t not shout out Chocolati Cafe in Greenwood. A chocolatier first and coffee shop second, Choco is where I loiter with my laptop on most days. The coffee’s…okay, but they’ve got a lush urban patio in back and everyone who works there is cool as fuck.

GEORGETOWN/SODO

Voi Cà Phê serves specialty phin-brewed coffee from a teeny tiny shop off Airport Way. Coffee’s phenomenal, and they offer a handful of bánh mìs too, like sardines in tomato sauce and clay pot-braised vegetarian “fish” with mushrooms. Big, sunny All City Coffee is the place to hang out and be seen in Georgetown—and sit around reading indie comic books from Fantagraphics Books next door!

WEST SEATTLE

Sound & Fog has more wine bar vibes than coffeehouse ones, and there’s no wifi. The coffee’s glorious, though, and they have all kinds of fancy chocolate bars, natural wine, and coffee with

turmeric in it and things like that. Go with your bestie, split an expensive chocolate bar from Luxembourg, and talk shit about people you knew in high school. In a twee Craftsman house, C & P Coffee Company is a neighborhood staple, with live music, poetry nights, and cool lectures. Nos Nos Coffee House is named for a Moroccan-style beverage of half espresso and half milk, which it serves, and the chai-like Moroccan spice latte is a standout too. All of the coffee drinks here are powerful in caffeine, so maybe start with a small.

CAPITOL HILL

Caffe Vita is the city’s undeniable coffee powerhouse—it’s the only Seattle coffee roaster to send baristas to compete in the National Coffee Championships and the only reason we can get nice coffee at Sea-Tac International Airport. At Ghost Note Coffee the thing is bespoke coffee cocktails—e.g., the Sun Ship with espresso, smoked grapefruit rosemary syrup, coconut water, seltzer, and lime. And FYI, it was Espresso Vivace, not Starbucks, that “made coffee huge in Seattle,” per former Stranger editor-in-chief Tricia Romano. It’s also where latte art was invented! Vivace’s beloved coffeehole shuttered in April, but you can still get all your pretty coffee flowers at their cafe on Broadway between Republican and Mercer.

ELIZABETH CROOK

Zeitgeist

Booze Our Favorite Places to Grab a Drink

BY MEG VAN HUYGEN

CRAFT COCKTAIL BARS

Il Bistro

PIKE PLACE MARKET

I don’t blame anyone for assuming this Pike Place Market bar is a tourist trap, but this place is sexy and the entire menu is exquisite. They have several unusual amaros, rare scotches, and there’s a nice balance of high-proof, low-ABV, and boozefree drinks available.

Korochka Tavern

WALLINGFORD

Owners Lisa Malinovskaya and Kendall Murphy opened this old-world drinking parlor together, taking inspiration from Lisa’s upbringing in Moscow, as well as her childhood nickname. (Korochka means “heel of the bread,” a name Lisa earned for being stubborn.) I’m in love with this bar: the showy wallpaper, the birch juice, the housemade beet and horseradish vodkas. They also have non-alcoholic kvass.

Oliver’s Twist

GREENWOOD

At Oliver’s Twist, all the drinks are reliably fabulous, balancing between creative stuff

Burgers Liquor Weekend Brunch

like the Pickwick Papers (mezcal, Ancho Reyes, pear-rosemary shrub, lemon juice, and Angostura bitters) and well-styled standards, like their simple but succulent Dark & Stormy with Cruzan blackstrap rum. Sit at the bar, if you can: the bartenders are sweet and chatty, and the bar-top crowd’s a real hilarious scene.

Zig Zag Cafe DOWNTOWN

This is the cradle of the mid-aughts craft cocktail renaissance, thanks to bartender Murray Stenson, whose repoopularizing of Prohibition-era cocktails—including his signature Last Word—happened in this place. Murray’s long since moved on to greener bars, but his legacy remains at Zig Zag, and you’ll still find some of the most inspired cocktails in town inside this unassuming cinder-block basement.

DIVE

Blue Moon Tavern

UNIVERSITY DISTRICT

Say what you will about the Blue Moon— it’s crusty, it’s loud, weirdos will talk to you—but you can’t say it’s not an essential

10am – 2am

10am – 12am

COURTESY OF IL BISTRO

Il Bistro

Music

Fiddle Tunes | Acoustic

Jazz Port Townsend | Voice Works

Brazilian Choro | Red Hot Strings

Chamber Music | Ukulele Festival

Writing

Port Townsend Writers Conference Writing Retreats Residencies

Art

Youth

Explorations

Centrum Owl - Max Grover 2023

Seattle dive. It’s got those great wooden booths with generations of hysterical tripped-out messages carved into them, there’s live music on most nights and it’s good, and this historic place has been all kinds of things over its 90 years in business, from a communist treehouse to a biker bar to a grunge haunt.

The Deluxe Bar & Grill

CAPITOL HILL

You wanna go to the Deluxe for big messy burgs, tots, cheap wells, and a chill respite from the surging crowd of woooo!-ing Capitol Hill people. Nice cocktails at the Deluxe too, and oh, that pressed tin ceiling.

Hattie’s Hat

BALLARD

With its vintage sailed-around-the-cape mahogany bar, kickass diner menu, and perennial crowd of drunks congregated around the TV forever playing VCR movies, Hattie’s Hat is an inestimable Seattle treasure. The food’s solid and inexpensive, and the bathroom graffiti is always prime literature. This is a hallowed and precious place.

Marco Polo

GEORGETOWN

Marco Polo has arguably the best fried chicken in this insufferable cityscape where fried chicken has somehow become haute cuisine and costs $22 for four wings. That’s because they have one of those OG pressure fryers with the giant fuckin’ crank on top, sometimes marketed as Broasters in the ’50s and ’60s. I also really love the vintage bar with the big vinyl bumper on it.

The Streamline Tavern

UPTOWN

You kinda can’t fuck with the Streamline. People wanna act like it lost its powers when it moved a few blocks away, but the new pad has the cool-ass red-and-black checkerboard floor, plus they hauled that huge 1950s bar and all those exact same green pleather bar stools up the street, so what more do you want? They also have pickled eggs—hell yeah.

BEER BARS

Beveridge Place Pub

WEST SEATTLE

Out in West Seattle, Beveridge Place keeps it local, serving craft beers across a magnificent Victorian cherrywood bar. This is a beer nerd’s bar, and the list is massive. The

aesthetic is like a pub in the idyllic English countryside, with a truly beautiful floral outdoor space and cute dogs in abundance.

Brouwer’s Cafe

FREMONT

This is a Belgian beer hall in an old warehouse, and not only do they carry 18 fucktons of brews from 15-plus countries, they also have several dozens of scotches. The food here’s quite good, and they do events, such as Beerlesque! (Need I explain?)

Über Tavern

GREEN LAKE

I’ll confess that I’m not really a beer dude, but I’ve never not had a great time at Über, which has such a tremendous variety of imported and domestic beers that I can always find something I like. Plus they have beer cheese!

BARCADES

Add-a-Ball

FREMONT

Add-a-Ball is a very weird place. The majority of games are arcane shit seemingly rescued from a Midwestern bowling alley basement. Pinball people have a hard-on for this bar, but even if you’re a normal person, it’s fun to just wander the arcade and enjoy all the wacky art and see what you can find. Also, they have fernet! Fernet in a video arcade! Who am I, Mr. Belvedere?

Coindexter’s

GREENWOOD

The arcade list here is real decent, and there’s booze—cool, great! That’s what we want from barcades. But the best thing about Coindexter’s is the ridicu-licious food, and the fact that they serve it late. Nacho fries and grilled cheese on Texas toast until midnight—which isn’t really late-night for most people, but it is for Seattle.

Jupiter Bar

BELLTOWN

Half of Jupiter Bar is a fucking ginormous video arcade with every single game you could ever name. That’s only the second-best thing about Jupiter, though; the first is Lupe Flores’s food kiosk, Situ Tacos, which has the best tacos AND the best soup you’ve ever had in your life. The Lebanese browned beef and the vegan cauliflower tacos are tied for first for me. If she has soup on the menu and you don’t get it, no matter what kind it is, you fucked up.

Sweets

The Best Places to Eat Sugary Treats

BY STRANGER STAFF

Bakery Nouveau

CAPITOL HILL AND WEST SEATTLE

If the words Coupe du Monde de Boulangerie mean anything to you, run, don’t walk to Bakery Nouveau, the beloved bakery owned and operated by William and Heather Leaman. In 2005 William captained the Bread Bakers Guild Team USA and won the Coupe du Monde de Boulangerie, aka the Bakery World Cup in Paris. Eating his twice-baked almond croissant is akin to playing soccer with Lionel Messi. To this day Bakery Nouveau continues to win awards for reliably impeccable macarons, cakes, tarts, and breads, but don’t sleep on the savory side of the pastry case: The ratatouille sandwich is perfection. (MEGAN SELING)

Cupcake Royale

VARIOUS LOCATIONS

A cupcake institution since 2003, you can now find four locations around Seattle, all serving giant, made-from-scratch cupcakes, including those that are regularly available (like tiramisu, lemon drop, lavender, chocolate, and vanilla with a variety of frosting flavors— salted caramel is dreamy), and limited seasonal offerings (an assortment of Pride-related flavors are available

through June). Cupcake Royale also serves its own hand-churned ice cream, like the red velvet cupcake ice cream. There are gluten-free and vegan options, too, and they taste closer to the real thing than you might imagine. (LEILANI POLK)

Deep Sea Sugar and Salt GEORGETOWN

The line for Georgetown’s cutest cake shop window, Deep Sea Sugar and Salt, can stretch down the block on sunny weekends. Go there anyway. Charlie Dunmire’s cake empire lives up to the hype, with a rotating menu of about a dozen different cakes and cupcakes on any given day, and there’s not a single dud in the bunch. One surprising mainstay, and the cake you must try at least once, is the London Fog. The six-layer tower is stacked with intriguing components: Earl Grey cake, honey and Earl Grey syrup, bergamot mascarpone cream, and tangy cream cheese frosting. It sounds like it would be a flowery, herbal delight, right? Somehow, thanks to Dumire’s wizardry, the combination of flavors surpasses the expectations of each individual part, and the gray, unassuming cake tastes like sophisticated Froot Loops. A bright, happy little party of flavor you’d never see coming. Surprise! (MEGAN SELING)

Cupcake Royal

Fran’s Chocolates

VARIOUS LOCATIONS

The melt-in-your-mouth smoked-salt caramels that Fran’s is known for are every bit as delicious as Barack Obama has claimed. The family-owned confectionery is nationally recognized and is named for the woman who’s owned and operated it since 1982, Fran Bigelow (she was inducted into the Specialty Food Association’s Hall of Fame in 2018). While you can order whatever your heart desires online, we suggest picking up your caramels, truffles, gold bars, or chocolate-covered fruits and nuts at any one of the four boutique shops. (LEILANI POLK)

Fuji Bakery

INTERBAY AND CHINATOWN-IN -

TERNATIONAL DISTRICT

Styling themselves as a Japanese French pastry shop, Fuji Bakery is like half dessert shop and half jewelry boutique, so gorgeous are their dainty treasures, which are made with special European butter and their own yeast. Offerings change frequently, but you can depend on Fuji’s perfect croissants, either in buttery classic mode or various

flavors (mango, almond, strawberry, etc.), along with its ruby red Danish, a square of puff pastry filled with pastry cream and crowned with a few gems of red grapefruit. The clafoutis (custard cake with raspberries or blueberries baked in) is spot-on, très Francais. They have a multitude of pleasantly sweet/ bitter green-tea-flavored offerings (panna cotta, Danish, and uji, described as “matcha opera cake”), and the abstract expressionist-inspired Zen (a thick cylinder of green-tea mousse filled with hojicha tea cream, topped with chocolate flakes, and served on a sesame cookie). (MEG VAN HUYGEN)

Full Tilt Ice Cream

WHITE CENTER AND COLUMBIA CITY

Full Tilt Ice Cream is more than just a scoop shop. Both locations offer pinball, arcade games, and an impressive selection of beer, and the White Center store regularly hosts live music and art shows. Owners Justin Cline and Ann Magyar aren’t afraid to experiment with ingredients, either. Just this spring they’ve had Arabic coffee with cardamon, lemon marshmallow, salted popcorn, and Oreo RumChata. They sometimes partner with

local bands and labels for music-inspired mixes, too, including Sub Pop’s Grunge (chocolate, coffee, and caramel) and Mudhoney (honey, cinnamon, and fudge).

(MEGAN SELING)

General Porpoise

VARIOUS LOCATIONS

I’m not sure what manner of witchcraft

James Beard Award–winning chef Renee Erickson employs to make doughnuts like this, but whatever it is, it’s earned General Porpoise a spot on Thrillist’s list of the best doughnuts in America. The dough is magically puffy, pillowy, and yeasty, with just enough toothsome chew to hold

its own against luscious cream fillings and a light dusting of crunchy sugar. The lemon-curd flavor is loud, tart, and bracing, a welcome shout of lemon sunshine, and there’s always a few rotating seasonal flavors, from rhubarb to rose cream to date shake. Like all Erickson ventures, it’s warm, charming, generous, and very Seattle.

(JULIANNE BELL)

Molly Moon’s Homemade Ice Cream

VARIOUS LOCATIONS

The only thing better than walking by any of Molly Moon’s nine locations and filling your lungs with the aroma of griddle-baked waffle cones is actually ducking in and ordering one filled with the ice cream flavor of your choice. Whether it’s one of the 10 that are always on the menu (Stumptown coffee, melted chocolate, maple walnut, and salted caramel among them), or one of their seasonal offerings (right now, it’s raspberry crisp, citrus sorbet, matcha strawberry, and vegan blueberry pie), you pretty much can’t go wrong. (LEILANI POLK)

Find more of our favorite dessert destinations at thestranger.com/food.

Hiromi’s Sonicwonder Georgia Anne Muldrow The Bad Plus Marc Ribot’s Ceramic Dog

Jazz Master Eddie Palmieri

Portuondo

Tubman

w/ Anat Cohen

Hiromi photo by Muga Miyahara

ANNIE PARK

General Porpoise

Iconic Food & Drink

11 Pacific Northwest Specialties Every Visitor Needs to Try

BY JULIANNE BELL

Teriyaki

VARIOUS LOCATIONS, TOSHI’S TERIYAKI GRILL

Comprised of sticky-sweet glazed chicken thighs, mounds of steamed white rice, and that little cup of crunchy cabbage salad in a white sauce, Seattle-style teriyaki is the city’s unofficial comfort food. In 2010, the New York Times declared the local dish the Emerald City equivalent of a Chicago dog. We can thank Toshi Kasahara, who founded Seattle’s first teriyaki restaurant in 1976, for that—Kasahara popularized a sweeter, more syrupy style of the Japanese specialty. Find the ubiquitous staple at any of the teriyaki shops dotting the region, or make a pilgrimage to Toshi’s Teriyaki Grill in Mill Creek to try the original.

Dick’s Drive-In

VARIOUS LOCATIONS

With a moniker that inspires countless titters in middle schoolers and has been name-checked by Sir Mix-A-Lot in “Posse on Broadway,” the old-school Seattle fixture might not make the best burgers you’ve ever had, but that hardly matters to the scores of fans drawn like moths to a flame by the nostalgic glow of its orange neon sign. Get the Dick’s Deluxe (a special-sauce-laden piece of heaven), their perfect peppermint stick hot fudge sundae (if it’s available—there was a peppermint shortage in early 2023), and/or a handdipped chocolate shake for dunking their salty, squishy fries.

HARIS KENJAR

Ellenos Yogurt

Beecher’s Handmade Cheese

PIKE PLACE MARKET

You may have seen Beecher’s Flagship cheese in stores around the country, or perhaps you’ve been to their cafe in New York City, but Kurt Beecher Dammeier’s storefront in Pike Place Market is where it all started. The main attraction is peering in the windows and gawking at the cheese-making process in real time, but they also make superlative grilled cheese sandwiches and mac and cheese.

Ellenos Yogurt

PIKE PLACE MARKET

You know all those terrible yogurt commercials where women are blissed out of their gourds about cultured dairy products?

Ellenos Yogurt makes Greek yogurt that’s so good, it actually makes you feel that way. Creamy, dreamy, and dessert-like, it’s guaranteed to be unlike any other yogurt you’ve ever tasted before.

Geoduck

VARIOUS LOCATIONS

Pronounced “gooey duck,” this long, oversized saltwater clam that’s native to

the Pacific Northwest has got to be one of the weirdest-looking things you can eat. If you can get past the undeniably phallic appearance, you’ll be rewarded with a clean, sweet flavor and crunchy texture. You’ll find them on the menu in various preparations at restaurants including Shiro’s Sushi, Sushi Kashiba, and Taylor Shellfish locations.

Tom Douglas’s Triple Coconut Cream Pie

BELLTOWN

Local restaurant mogul Tom Douglas’s world-famous triple coconut cream pie, a fluffy coconut whipped-cream confection topped with fat chips of toasted coconut and shards of white chocolate in a coconut-spiked crust, is so coveted that it sometimes commands hundreds of dollars at charity auctions. Luckily for you, you can claim it for yourself at a much more modest sum at Douglas’s Dahlia Bakery.

Rachel’s Ginger Beer

VARIOUS LOCATIONS

Rachel’s Ginger Beer founder Rachel Marshall tragically passed away at 43 years old in April. Members of the Seattle

food and drink community remember her as a warm, devoted friend and businesswoman. Marshall started selling her fizzy, spicy-sweet ginger beer at Seattle farmers markets in 2013, and her beloved eponymous elixir is now available in three locations across the city (plus one in Portland), available in distinctive flavors like pink guava, cucumber tarragon, and caramelized pineapple.

Ivar’s

VARIOUS LOCATIONS

Ivar’s is a local seafood chain known for its idiosyncratic founder (entrepreneur and folk singer Ivar Haglund) and its motto “Keep clam.” Perch outside with some crispy-battered fish and chips or creamy clam chowder at their Pier 54 Fish Bar and feed french fries to errant seagulls (a practice endorsed by signs on the premises).

Seattle Dogs

VARIOUS LOCATIONS

There’s something quasi-spiritual about the uniquely Northwest experience of ordering a hot dog from a street vendor at 2 am, toasty after a night of drinking or giddy after a live show at Neumos. Slathered

with cream cheese and piled with grilled caramelized onions, it’s the apotheosis of late-night food. Look for Monster Dogs or Dante’s Inferno Dogs and load up the condiments of your choosing (sriracha and jalapeños very much recommended).

Hot Cakes

BALLARD, CAPITOL HILL

Pastry chef Autumn Martin first conceived the winning idea for take-and-bake molten chocolate cakes in mason jars as a side hustle when she was working as head chocolatier at Seattle’s Theo Chocolate. It caught on immediately and started selling like, well, you know. Visit the immensely popular Ballard and Capitol Hill cakeries to plunge a spoon into the ooey-gooey delicacy in house or pick up a jar of readyto-bake batter as a delicious souvenir.

Ezell’s Famous Chicken

VARIOUS LOCATIONS

This crispy fried chicken is famous for being a favorite of Oprah Winfrey, who’s said to have the chicken flown to her when cravings strike. If it’s good enough for the billionaire philanthropist/mogul, then surely it’s good enough for you.

Parks, Hikes, & Beaches

The Best Places to Soak Up Some Sun (Yes, Seattle Gets Sun)

BY RICH SMITH AND TRICIA ROMANO

PARKS

Green Lake Park

GREEN LAKE

Designed by John Olmsted in 1903, Green Lake Park is one of the most visited parks in Seattle. Located about five miles from downtown (take the E-line bus if you are feeling adventurous), Green Lake has a European feel to it. The lake has a generous path that easily accommodates wheels and pedestrians, and it is especially popular on weekends during the summer. There’s a place to rent paddleboards, kayaks, and canoes. Ice cream and snacks are available from local businesses. But the main point of this is the leisurely stroll— about 2.8 miles around from beginning to end–which should take about an hour.

(TRICIA ROMANO)

Volunteer Park

CAPITOL HILL

Volunteer Park is located on the tonier north side of Capitol Hill. The grounds are lush, and on the west-facing side, there’s a famous sculpture, Black Sun by Isamu Noguchi (yes, the Soundgarden song is named after it), and, during sunset, the sun will line right up in the center of it. One of the lawns has a stage used for out-

door concerts and theatrical productions, and there’s a small conservatory, where, for $6, you can see a range of plants and flowers. (TRICIA ROMANO)

Washington Park Arboretum MONTLAKE

Operated by the University of Washington, the Arboretum is a beautiful 230-acre park right in the center of the city. Walk down the great open trail, Azalea Way, all the way to the end at Duck Bay. If you curve to your left, it’ll take you to another trail with floating walkways and a marshy, swampy area with lily pads covering the water. Or traverse the higher hills and get a completely different, deeper woods experience. (TRICIA ROMANO)

BEACHES

Alki Beach Park WEST SEATTLE

Alki Beach is one of two truly beachy beaches in Seattle—it’s a bit smaller than Golden Gardens in Ballard, but it comes with a totally SoCal boardwalk. Bikers, skateboarders, rollerbladers, and walkers course up and down the crowded sidewalk along the beach. You can take a break and eat ice cream, burgers, pizza, or

drink beer or margaritas by the water and people-watch. The sandy area is small, but there are a few fire pits that you can lay claim to if you want to barbecue, and a beautiful view of downtown Seattle and beyond. Worth the 25-minute trek to West Seattle, especially if you take the water taxi. (TRICIA ROMANO)

Discovery Park

MAGNOLIA

Located in the neighborhood of Magnolia, a short car or bus ride from downtown, Discovery Park is the biggest of the city’s parks. It has 534 acres, and you can make your hike as challenging as you’d like, with a steep trail through the woods that takes you to the beach below. If you get there, you should walk over to the West Point Lighthouse and sit on the rocky sand. (Cheaters can drive right to the beach and park at the lower-level parking lot.) Or you can walk the hilly fields that offer stunning views of Puget Sound. (TRICIA ROMANO)

Golden Gardens

BALLARD

Golden Gardens is a true beachy beach with the golden sand of its name. You’ll see boats swirling around on Puget Sound, people playing volleyball and sitting around fire pits. There might be a drum circle or two, for which we apologize. The west-facing location of Golden Gardens makes for stunning views of summer sunsets and the Olympic Mountains. Show up early if you want to get a spot to barbecue. (TRICIA ROMANO)

Madison Park Beach

MADISON PARK

People in Seattle call city parks like Madison Park “beaches,” in part because it’s a space next to water where the public goes swimming, and in part because there’s a tiny strip of sand. But it’s really a park—a green patch of land next to the water. If you want to see where the young, hip locals hang out for a day in the sun,

then go to this part of the Madison Park neighborhood and relax. (TRICIA ROMANO)

NEARBY HIKES

Poo Poo Point

25-MINUTE DRIVE FROM SEATTLE

According to the Washington Trails Association, during the early days of logging, hikers named this point on West Tiger Mountain for the sound the trains made (“poooooh, poooooh”) as they zigzagged up and down the rails. This was obviously well before we standardized the onomatopoeia for many products of the steam age. Poo Poo Point is the closest and easiest hike (excepting Little Si and Rattlesnake Ridge) for Seattleites, the kind you’re in the mood for if you woke up hungover at 11 am but still want to walk through some red cedars. (RICH SMITH)

Mount Si

45-MINUTE DRIVE FROM SEATTLE

Old reliable. Even in the middle of winter, even when covered in snow, you can almost always get up and down this one without fearing for your life. The switchbacks make the same argument over and over again, especially on the way down, but if you’re in more of a workout mode, you can find comfort in the repetition. (And if you want to take the old trail up, which is a little more interesting, park in the lot for Little Si, hit the trail, hang a right at the Boulder Garden, and take the trail that goes straight up.) Mount Si’s summit feels like a playground. You can scramble up the haystack if you’re trying to impress somebody. Otherwise, you can post up at the first lookout and behold the Cascades rolling out to the south, or else head over to the west side and strain to see Seattle in the distance. Note: Protect your snacks. The top is lousy with gray jays. These birds look like they just finished helping Cinderella get dressed, but they’ll swoop down and snatch a cashew right out of your mouth. (RICH SMITH)

ANTHONY KEO

Green Lake Park

Sports Everything a Fan Needs to Know About Visiting Seattle’s Stadiums

BY BRITTNEY BUSH BOLLAY

With the release of the Kraken, the unlikely ascent of the Seahawks’ Geno Smith, the twin soccer powerhouses of Sounders FC and OL Reign, and the recent end of the Mariners’ 21-year playoff drought, it’s a great time to watch live sports in Seattle. Local fans are friendly and enthusiastic, and don’t generally mind a little small talk or answering a few questions to help a visitor out. And with six teams and three well-maintained stadiums to choose from, there’s a game to see most days of the year.

Note: All three stadiums have a clear bag policy. All welcome empty water bottles; T-Mobile and Lumen allow outside food.

Climate Pledge Arena

HOME TO: SEATTLE KRAKEN

(NHL), SEATTLE STORM (WNBA)

This brand-new stadium built on the bones of Key Arena is a stunner and a great place to catch the 32nd NHL franchise, the Seattle Kraken, or fourtime WNBA champions Seattle Storm. Nestled in the Seattle Center, it’s easy to access via bus or monorail, and it has a true wealth of pre- and post-game food and drink options nearby.

For Kraken games, head to the Seattle Center Armory 90 minutes before puck drop for a beer garden, sign making, face painting, and other activities. From there, it’s a three-minute walk to the arena. Adrenaline junkies should enter early to get a spot next to the glass for warmups, which start 30 minutes before game time. The Storm have fewer organized pre-game activities, but fans are fun and the vibes at the arena on game day are always good.

Food is pricey, but options are varied and lines move fast. Impossible offers vegetarian burgers, nuggets, and specials, or try quirkier options like the bacon pop rocks baked potato or PBJ corn dog. Beer is on tap throughout the

JANE G PHOTO

Climate Pledge Arena

arena, and you can grab-n-go canned wine, beer, or cocktails.

One warning: the men’s bathroom lines at Kraken games are LONG. Like really, really long.

T-Mobile Park

HOME TO: SEATTLE MARINERS (MLB)

Twenty-four years old but regularly updated, T-Mobile Park boasts wide concourses, plenty of standing-room options, and good views of the game from every level. On hot days, splurge on a Terrace Club ticket for access to air conditioning. On cool nights, bring a blanket.

There’s a dearth of good bar options near the park, but Hatback Bar & Grille across the street is a slick Mariners-owned space with decent pizza and local beers. For something divier, head two blocks south to Hooverville. In the stadium itself, standing-room-only area The Pen opens two hours before game time—30 minutes before the rest of the park—and offers happy hour beers until an hour before first pitch. Afterward, 20-ounce pours get expensive, but there are $5 and $6 canned options widely available.

Food options cover every style and price point, from $4 hot dogs to poké bowls to buzzy newcomer Moto Pizza. A newly expanded value menu makes it easier to keep kids (and adults!) snacking, with a dozen options for four dollars or less. There are two free-play areas; a playground on the main level for younger kids and batting cages on the 300 level over home plate. A free photo with the Mariner Moose makes a fun souvenir for all ages.

The light rail is the best option for travel, with Stadium Station a few blocks

away, but if you need to drive you can pre-purchase parking in the Mariners garage across the street or browse for street parking on Utah Ave South. The garage also offers secure bike parking.

Lumen Field

HOME TO: SEATTLE SEAHAWKS (NFL), SEATTLE SOUNDERS FC (MLS), OL REIGN (NWSL) Lumen Field keeps its turf and its rafters busy as the home to three successful sports franchises: three-time conference champion Seattle Seahawks, current NWSL shield winners OL Reign, and two-time MLS Cup winners and current CONCACAF Champions League winners Seattle Sounders FC. Perched on the edge of Pioneer Square, the stadium and the neighborhood have a lively game-day atmosphere no matter which team you’re seeing.

Sounders and Reign games are preceded by a march to the match, open to any and all who fall in along the way. The mood is pleasantly rowdy and the chants are easy to pick up. The Seahawks turn neighboring Lumen Field Events Center into “Touchdown City” before every game, hosting kid’s activities, discounted beer, and mascot appearances. The Pen at next-door T-Mobile Park also hosts a happy hour before Seahawks games.

Food in the stadium is limited during soccer matches, and it’s generally unexciting. A better bet is to grab something when you hop off the light rail (use the Chinatown station) or on Occidental Avenue before you enter. Buses also serve the nearby area well, though service is limited on Sundays. Cascade Bicycle offers bike valet services before many Sounders matches.

Starting August 5th, 100 beautiful

Starting August 5th, 100 beautiful glass floats will be hidden throughout glass floats will be hidden throughout West Seattle: if you find one, it’s yours! West Seattle: if you find one, it’s yours!

TAYLOR MORTIN

T-Mobile Park

Robert Wun, Ensemble, Tsunaina collection, Fall/Winter

2021, Courtesy of Robert Wun, Model: Nyaueth Riam,

Photo: Robert Wun

Museums and Tours

The Best Museums and Tours, Covering Everything from History to Horror Movies

BY STRANGER AND EVEROUT STAFF

MUSEUMS

The Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Museum

PIONEER SQUARE

The Gold Rush Museum is tucked away on a corner in Pioneer Square, and if you aren’t looking for it, you’ll probably pass it by. That is a major mistake. Everyone in Seattle should visit the Gold Rush Museum, which also happens to be one of the country’s tiniest national parks. Many bigger-budget, higher-profile museums do a terrible job of presenting their artifacts, but that’s precisely where the Gold Rush Museum shines. When you enter the museum, your first task will be to choose your character, RPG/ Oregon Trail–style. You’ll then stock up on provisions and choose your route. There’s a lot to do in this small space, and the journey pairs particularly well with a pot lozenge.

(SYDNEY BROWNSTONE)

Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI)

SOUTH LAKE UNION

The MOHAI is a must-see for both locals and visitors. The museum houses many stories, artifacts, and activities that help attendees connect with the region and its history, from the Great Fire to the birth of grunge music and technology that changed the world. Permanent exhibits include Maritime Seattle, the Bezos Center for Innovation, and True Northwest: The Seattle Journey. (On that journey, it is very important to watch the musical film about the fire, if only so you can hear the words “GLUE POT, GLUE POT” ringing in your head for days.) Al Young’s 1970 Dodge Challenger drag racing car is there through March 2024.

Museum of Pop Culture

SEATTLE CENTER

Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP, formerly known as the Experience Music Project) is filled with interesting nerd

matters about rock ‘n’ roll music (the only major art form that routinely denies being an art form), science fiction, games, and such like. In any other city, MoPOP would be a cherished weirdo sanctuary. In Seattle, it’s a problem because it was started by Paul Allen, who was a local billionaire. Don’t be deterred. If you like that sort of thing, you’ll like it a lot. (SEAN NELSON)

National Nordic Museum

BALLARD

The National Nordic Museum in Ballard is the only museum in America dedicated to the lives and cultures of immigrants and communities from the Scandinavian countries. Be sure to check their calendar, as they have great rotating exhibits (FLÓÐ by Jónsi of Sigur Ros is up through July). About a mile-and-a-half away is Scandinavian Specialties, which carries everything from clothes and household

items to tasty gummy candy. (Swedish gummies > American gummies.)

The Wing Luke Museum CHINATOWN-INTERNATIONAL DISTRICT

The Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience is more than an art museum, although you can often find art here. It’s a living history museum filled with artifacts and objects that tell stories of Asian American and Pacific Islander experiences in Seattle, from the Chinese immigrants who began arriving in the 1850s to the diverse communities that thrive here today. The Wing is located in the heart of Seattle’s International District, with historic neighborhood tours happening almost every day. Plus, the best east Asian food in Seattle can be found in this neighborhood. Come hungry, leave inspired.

(EMILY POTHAST)

TOURS

Bill Speidel’s Underground Tour

PIONEER SQUARE

Go and learn about how Seattle’s original streets were once literal rivers of human waste, how a benevolent sex worker created the public education system, and how a lazy Swedish immigrant started the fire that burned it all down in 1889. More importantly: As you lament the ongoing nightmare of Seattle’s transit imbroglios, it may come as some relief to understand that this city, like so many other pre- and postindustrial American conurbations, was founded and framed by thieves and idiots. (SEAN NELSON)

Seattle Architecture Foundation

VARIOUS NEIGHBORHOODS

Learn about windows, building materials, public parks, urban history, and other parts of Seattle you might not have noticed. SAF’s schedule changes often, but their unique 2-hour tour options include several downtown offerings, like “Diamonds & Gold: The Art Deco Skyscraper Northwest Style,” “Greatest Hits: Chart Toppers and Heart-Stoppers” (which includes the impressive Central Library), and “Through the Looking Glass,” which begins at the Amazon Spheres, the giant glass globes on the Amazon campus filled with more than 40,000 plants.

Stalking Seattle Tour

SEATTLE CENTER

These “rock & roll sightseeing tours” play up the nostalgia for Seattle’s early 1990s grunge and rock scene. Stops on the 3-hour van tour include the Jimi Hendrix statue on Capitol Hill, the apartment building where Cameron Crowe’s 1992 grunge rock rom-com Singles was filmed, the park next to the home where Kurt Cobain died, and more. Tours begin outside the Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP).

COURTESY OF MOPOP

Museum of Pop Culture

Photo: Jonathan Vanderweit.

Visual Arts

The Best Galleries, Museums, and Art Spaces

BY STRANGER STAFF

Frye Art Museum

FIRST HILL

Founded in 1952 to house the painting collection of longtime Seattle residents Charles and Emma Frye, the Frye Art Museum has evolved into one of the city’s most innovative venues, featuring exhibitions of cutting-edge contemporary art alongside historical surveys of early graphic design, obscure 19th-century symbolists, and other smart, unexpected shows you won’t see anywhere else. The Frye also consistently champions the work of outstanding local artists—many Stranger Genius Award winners have exhibited at the museum. It’s Seattle’s only private museum of its kind, and it’s always free, making it a great place

to take families and out-of-town visitors who want a taste of local culture.

(EMILY POTHAST)

Henry Art Gallery

UNIVERSITY DISTRICT

Here, though this is the oldest public art museum in the state (founded in 1927), you can expect to see new art, or at least art made since around 1960. There are typically several exhibitions at once, in all mediums, from video to performance to painting to printmaking. The Henry’s located on campus at the University of Washington, and also houses a cafe and the permanent exhibit Skyspace by James Turrell, which Emily Pothast describes as

“a wooden room for contemplation and reflection that opens onto the sky.” Neat!

Museum of Museums

FIRST HILL

Museum of Museums is full of fascinating nooks and crannies, all bursting with vibrant, experimental, and contemporary art. It really is like a museum full of little museums! See enormous exhibits—like Sea of Vapors by local ceramicist Emily Counts, which features life-sized sculptures of witchy, fantastical female figures—in the True Space and peek in on itty-bitty miniature art in the Supperfield Museum of Contemporary Art. And don’t Miss the Soft Touch show in the Malone

Gallery—there through August, it’s a tactile art show you really can touch, pet, and sit on. Access to the first floor of the museum is always free.

Olympic Sculpture Park BELLTOWN

It’s hard to keep Seattleites inside on a sunny day, so fortunately there are places to see art outdoors. Before this nine-acre waterfront sculpture park was downtown Seattle’s largest green space, it spent several decades as an industrial fuel storage facility. Now fully rehabilitated into an ecosystem of native plants and sustainable design, Seattle Art Museum’s Olympic Sculpture Park is currently home to more than 20 pieces of monumental sculpture, bike paths, and an amphitheater for outdoor events. Iconic works include Eagle, the bright-red Alexander Calder sculpture visible in many photographs of Seattle’s skyline, and Richard Serra’s Wake, a towering array of curved steel forms created using a machine that once produced nuclear submarines.

(EMILY POTHAST)

Pioneer Square’s First Thursday Art Walk

PIONEER SQUARE

Once a month, Seattleites flock to the streets in Pioneer Square for a chance to stroll, sip on booze, and attend as many art openings as possible at First Thursday. It’s the city’s central and oldest art walk, and takes place in a historic neighborhood known for its abundance of galleries. Wine and hobnobbing steal the scene for some, but at its core, it’s an impressive communal unveiling of new artwork. A few favorites include Greg Kucera Gallery, J. Rinehart Gallery, Stonington Gallery, and Koplin Del Rio.

Roq La Rue

MADISON VALLEY

Happy anniversary to Roq La Rue! Kirsten Anderson opened this beloved local art gallery in 1998 and it has survived several

ANTHONY KEO

Olympic Sculpture Park

Choose from week-long art camps for youth and art classes including teen glassblowing, painting, jewelry making, and blacksmithing. Tuition assistance and scholarships for teens are available. Contact info@pratt.org for more information.

Pratt Fine Arts Center

1902 S. Main Street

Seattle, WA 98144

206-328-2200 pratt.org

different iterations over the years, from the scrappy dive space in Belltown to its current slick digs in Madison Valley. The gallery has hosted literally hundreds of artists, with a special focus on contemporary underground pop art and anything that leans a little to the strange, spooky, and experimental side of things. Peep their Instagram (@roqlarue) to learn more about current exhibits. (MEGAN SELING)

Seattle Art Museum

DOWNTOWN

No list of local art venues would be complete without a mention of the region’s largest institution devoted to art in all its forms. Compared with older, wealthier museums, Seattle Art Museum might not have the most famous works from art history textbooks, but it has work by a whole lot of artists whose names you’re likely to recognize, and many more you’ll be excited to learn. It also has whole rooms devoted to First Nations art, African art, the ancient Mediterranean, and a handful of contemporary aboriginal Australian paintings that are a must-see. A compelling program of temporary exhibitions and ongoing roster of community events—

many of them kid-friendly—gives you reasons to keep coming back long after you’ve exhausted the permanent collection. SAM’s sister museum, the Asian Art Museum in the gorgeous Art Deco building in Volunteer Park, reopened in 2020 after a $49 million renovation project. It’s also worth a look! (EMILY POTHAST)

WNDR Museum

WATERFRONT

The Seattle outpost of the WNDR Museum features more than 20 interactive, technology-as-art installations including Yayoi Kusama’s oversized and sparkly yellow and black Starry Pumpkin, an immersive light and sound exhibit by Leigh Sachwitz that uses light and sound to replicate a passing thunderstorm, and an interactive infinity room called Hyper Mirror. There’s also a new piece from Seattle’s own Andy Arkley titled You Can Do Most Anything, which visitors can make flash and dance to music via a control panel. (MEGAN SELING)

Immerse yourself in the local art world at thestranger.com! Every Monday we share a new digital cover and an interview with our Artist of the Week.

MARK WOODS

Frye Art Museum

Books

An Itinerary for Literature Lovers and Bibliophiles in Seattle

BY TRICIA ROMANO

Seattle is known for its lively literary scene, and we’ve put together this handy guide that encompasses recommendations on places you might want to read, hear other people reading, shop for books, or just soak up some of Seattle’s immense literary power.

Central Library

DOWNTOWN

It’s gorgeous. Just go look.

Elliott Bay Book Company

CAPITOL HILL

Elliott Bay Book Company echoes biblio-metropolises such as New York City’s the Strand and Portland’s Powell’s Books, but instead of walking around a cold, cosmopolitan warehouse, you get to

walk around a warm, spacious, creaky tree house. Little Oddfellows cafe sits in the back, featuring plenty of outlets and good sandwiches. The basement hosts daily readings from big-time, medium-time, and small-time authors. It’s part marketplace, part cathedral, part kitchen, all home. Other beloved bookstores that host near daily readings: University Book Store, Third Place Books (Ravenna, Lake Forest Park, and Seward Park).

Fantagraphics Bookstore and Gallery

GEORGETOWN

If Seattle is a mecca for comix, then Fantagraphics is our kaaba. Here you will find gorgeous, grotesque, academic, sophomoric, and deeply weird books from the greatest comic artists on the planet. If you only have time to visit one place on this list, then I’d pick this one, even though it’s a half-hour bus ride from downtown. You’re just not going to walk out of this place without something in your hands. Other comics shops worth a gander: Push/Pull, Phoenix Comics & Games.

KELLY O

Central Library

Hugo House

CAPITOL HILL

To borrow a phrase from Dana Ward, Hugo House is one of the many-gendered mothers of Seattle’s books scene. It’s a literary center that hosts innovative readings with touring and local authors and also classes for writers at all levels.

Open Books

PIONEER SQUARE

That a poetry-only bookstore exists in the first place serves as a testament to the strength of the literary communities we have in Seattle. You can find almost everything in this little shop, from first-edition stuff to zines and chapbooks and magazines. Other speciality bookstores worth checking out: Arundel Books (rare, antiquarian), Left Bank (anarchist), Ada’s Technical Books (science), Book Larder (cooking), Estelita’s Library (social justice library).

Silent Reading Party

FIRST HILL

Invented by a former editor at The Stranger , the reading party takes place every first and third Wednesday of the month at 6 pm. That’s when the Fireside Room at the Sorrento Hotel goes quiet and fills with people. By 6:15 pm, you often can’t get a seat. Everyone brings whatever they feel like reading and sits

Suzzallo Library

there and reads, silently, to themselves, while waiters bring them things and Paul Matthew Moore plays piano softly and exquisitely. He’s amazing. The music goes until 8 pm. This party is all-ages and it’s free.

Suzzallo Library

UNIVERSITY DISTRICT

You have to be a University of Washington student to check out books, but no one will stop you from walking through UW’s historic Red Square, climbing the stairs to the library’s giant doors, walking up the Grand Staircase, and entering the glory of the Reading Room. Light filtered through 35-foot-tall stained-glass windows dapples good oak tables and book-lined walls. Iron chandeliers hang from timber-vaulted ceilings. If there was a god, it would read here. Plus: Only a few blocks away is University Book Store, which, as mentioned, hosts readings all the time, and Magus Books, my favorite used bookstore in the city and a good place to find leather-bound tomes and weird maps.

Note: Seattle is one of the most literary cities in the country, with free readings and talks every night of the year. To see who’s reading tonight, go to The Stranger’s calendar, EverOut

CELINE LITYO

Music

The Best Places for Live Music and Dancing

BY STRANGER STAFF

Seattle is renowned for its fruitful and incredibly diverse music scene, which has birthed the likes of Pearl Jam, Jimi Hendrix, Modest Mouse, Brandi Carlile, Macklemore, Odesza, Nirvana, Chastity Belt, and Fleet Foxes, among others. And not only is the scene here exciting and vibrant, but there’s an abundance of venues in all shapes and sizes hosting concerts on the reg by both local and national talents, not to mention a range of bars that serve drinks and live music, and numerous clubs where you can dance the night away.

BARS AND VENUES

Blue Moon

UNIVERSITY DISTRICT

With us since 1934, the Blue Moon is dingy but well-loved, and pretty much everyone is welcome on its bar stools (Richard Hugo and Allen Ginsberg have even been on them). The place hosts a wide variety of local talent, from stand-up comedians to live music, almost every night of the week.

Central Saloon

PIONEER SQUARE

This is Seattle’s oldest bar, and it knows how to party. Famous for being where Nirvana played their first-ever Seattle show.

Chop Suey

CAPITOL HILL

Chop Suey is a confusingly decorated music venue that has pinball machines, a photo booth, and a kitchen window from which to buy chicken and other fried delights. The venue also hosts an eclectic array of live music, from hiphop to metal to singer-songwriter types, almost every night of the week.

Clock-Out Lounge

BEACON HILL

The Clock-Out Lounge is a bar-restaurant-club-venue hybrid and an absolute treasure in South Seattle. They book both

local and touring acts in just about every genre, and they also have weekly drag shows and comedy and trivia nights.

Crocodile

BELLTOWN

The new and improved Crocodile is a 30,000-square-foot complex that includes three venues: the revamped 750-capacity Crocodile itself, the 300-capacity Madame Lou’s venue, and Here-After, a 100-seat comedy club and movie theater. There’s also a daytime cafe and cocktail bar, the Society, and the 17room Hotel Crocodile. (JAS KEIMIG)

El Corazón and the Funhouse

EASTLAKE

Focused on hardcore, punk, screamo, and metal, El Corazón (“The Heart,” a reference to the fact that the space has been a live music venue, bar, or club since 1910) has a show nearly every single night. The beloved punk dive Funhouse has been resurrected in a second room and features more “intimate” head-banging bills.

Jazz Alley

DOWNTOWN

This famous joint dispenses dinner service, cocktails, and world-renowned jazz and fusion acts for all who wander there. Hot tip: It’s also all ages, all the time (just not in the bar, sorry).

Nectar

FREMONT

Offering a strange brew of live music, Nectar was built in 2004 and tends toward reggae, hiphop, bluegrass, and EDM in a nice, airy space, including a patio and multiple levels indoors.

Neumos and Barboza

CAPITOL HILL

Neumos is one of the hubs around which Capitol Hill rotates. Its main showroom is invariably packed to capacity as people dance or sway to the latest mega-hyped act to roll through town. Located in the Neumos basement, Barboza is a sweaty, intimate little shoebox-shaped room that hosts a wide range of up-and-coming local and touring talent.

The Rendezvous

BELLTOWN

Now nearly 100 years old, the Rendezvous oozes character and history. Its decadent glamor is evident in its restored 1926 Jewelbox Theater, the Red Velvet Lounge, and its downstairs

Grotto, thought to be the venue’s original speakeasy. The entertainment schedule includes comedy shows, weird music, karaoke, variety shows, and burlesque.

The Royal Room

COLUMBIA CITY

A wood-bedecked space with great acoustics in Columbia City, the Royal Room made its name on jazz bookings (it is partially the brainchild of musician and composer Wayne Horvitz), but has since expanded into folk, world music, and multimedia events. Music booker Tish Gallow also produces tributes to prominent Black musicians, including A Tribe Called Quest, Prince, Queen, Whitney Houston, and more.

Showbox

DOWNTOWN

The Showbox is a great place to see a show, even when it’s sold out. There’s hardly a bad sight line in the house, it’s got two bars, and the room has the classic charm of an old theater. In 2019 it was granted landmark status by Seattle’s Landmarks Preservation Board.

COURTESY

Neumos

Skylark Cafe and Club

WEST SEATTLE

Serving up plenty of traditional American food, weekend brunch, drinks, and rock ‘n’ roll. Their calendar also features trivia and drag bingo, and many events are all ages!

Slim’s Last Chance Chili Shack & Watering Hole

GEORGETOWN

Slim’s has a great country-time roadhouse vibe. In the summertime, Americana, punk, and rock groups play on a covered outdoor stage in the big backyard while happy people lounge at picnic tables.

Sunset Tavern and Tractor Tavern

BALLARD

Dropping in on a quality live music set is easy in central Ballard, with the Sunset and Tractor down the street from each other.

The Sunset is a former Chinese restaurant that’s now a fun, divey rock ‘n’ roll bar with live music across all popular genres, a photo booth, and friendly bartenders. The Tractor holds court just two blocks away, with gritty saloon-esque decor, tallboys aplenty, and the best selection of live local and national rock, pop, alt-folk, and blues in town.

The Triple Door

DOWNTOWN

The Triple Door is the swankiest sitdown live music venue in Seattle—lush darkness and twinkling lights, an antique gold-framed stage with plush red curtains, and great semi-circular booths with table service from the Asian-fusion Wild Ginger restaurant. Upstairs, there’s the Musicquarium Lounge, a soothing grotto of a room with a giant fish tank, a great happy hour, and free live music or DJs nightly.

The Vera Project

SEATTLE CENTER

Seattle’s “premier” all-ages venue, the Vera Project is a mostly volunteer-run, cathedral-ceilinged hall next to the Seattle Center that plays host to local hotshots as well as nationally touring acts.

DANCE CLUBS

Century Ballroom

CAPITOL HILL

Century Ballroom is a big, beautiful performance hall that hosts an array of dance nights, covering everything from swing and salsa to tango and bachata. Don’t know

the moves but still want to party? They offer free or cheap 30-minute lessons before most events!

Havana

CAPITOL HILL

With its high ceilings, mirrored bar, and vintage Cuban decor, Havana is airy and elegant, and they serve mojitos for as long as you want them. Every night has a different DJ, usually a good one, and themes include old-school 1990s on Tuesdays and house and party music on Wednesdays.

Monkey Loft

SODO

Monkey Loft is a surprisingly intimate cocktail bar and DJ venue, with an attempted industrial aesthetic and a destination vibe for dance music enthusiasts. Placing them above the competition is their “Deck,” an outdoor, after-hours patio with a fireplace, several seating areas, and pretty incredible skyline views.

Q Nightclub

CAPITOL HILL

Q’s interior is sort of like where you’d expect the cast of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine to party—a wavy collection of pillars and rounded walls in a cavernous but beautifully lit space with lights and a huge wall for visual projections. They also host world-renowned DJs, local house music talent, and have an all-around solid crew of resident spinners.

Supernova Seattle

SODO

Just a five-minute walk down First Avenue from the aforementioned Monkey Loft is Supernova Seattle, a warehouse-sized dance club with dazzling decor and a calendar full of appearances from both up-and-coming and big-name DJs, drag queens, and the occasional surprise celeb guest. (Snoop Dogg stopped by in December and brought with him Warren motherfucking G!) DJs spin from inside an oversized mirror ball, aerial dancers hang from the ceiling, and balloons and confetti fill the air, and that’s just an average Saturday night. Even the entryway is exciting, lined with super Instagrammable mirrors and flashing lights. Worth noting: It’s only open 9 pm-4 am Friday and Saturday, with the occasional Thursday night party.

See even more dance club options in the Queer section on page 55.

Queer

The Best Gay Clubs, Shops, and Bars

BY CHRISTOPHER FRIZZELLE AND EVEROUT STAFFF

Though there are gay people and gay businesses throughout Seattle, Capitol Hill is traditionally the gay neighborhood, and it’s where you’ll find most of the gay bars, the city’s only lesbian bar, and a few zany crosswalks painted the colors of the rainbow.

BARS

Pony

CAPITOL HILL

Pony has an outdoor fire pit, fantastic bartenders, clever DJs, and vintage gay porn (i.e., huge dicks) wheat-pasted to the walls. Plus, there’s a photo booth. Plus, a glory hole in the bathroom. Once I showed up on a Tuesday for karaoke, and the entire cast of a touring production of The Book of Mormon was there, singing their hearts out.

Madison Pub

CAPITOL HILL

A sports bar for men who like men, with TVs, darts, pool, video games, and pull tabs. It’s popular, crowded, and unpretentious.

Diesel

CAPITOL HILL

Just steps away from Madison Pub and Pony, this bar caters to bears and the cubs who love them.

Wildrose

CAPITOL HILL

The only bar in the city for women who date women has bingo, trivia, and queer songwriter showcases every week.

Queer/Bar

CAPITOL HILL

This bar is trying to do something unique

by being a bar for the entire queer community—including trans folks, nonbinary people, lesbians, and good-old-fashioned gay men. They also have regular drag performances on the weekends.

The Cuff

CAPITOL HILL

A leather bar that’s frequently crowded with kinksters, jocks, pups, poz socials, and subs willing to shine your shoes, it also has a large outdoor patio. Seattle Men in Leather meet at the Cuff, and lots of gay sports teams have their social functions there. There are several different areas to hang out in, which makes hiding from your ex much easier.

The Eagle

CAPITOL HILL

They have underwear parties on Saturdays, a urinal trough, video projections, an outdoor patio, and screamingly fun parties.

Neighbours

CAPITOL HILL

This is where the dancing happens. Raised platforms, disco lights, etc. Once a stalwart testament to enduring gayness, Neighbours these days welcomes more and more bachelorette parties. But with more than 30 years under its belt—the place is older than most of its clientele—Neighbours still hosts plenty of queer nights.

CC’s Seattle

CAPITOL HILL

The best night to visit CC’s is the first Saturday of the month—kink night. Guys dress up in the most amazing stuff (or sometimes almost nothing at all). On other nights, go for the slide show of naked men on the TVs, the pool table, and the darts.

Union

CAPITOL HILL

This gay bar and cocktail lounge features outdoor seating and a menu of appetizers, flatbread pizzas, paninis, burgers, salads,

and sandwiches, along with spirits, wines, and beer on tap. (EVEROUT STAFF)

Kremwerk, the Timbre Room, and Cherry Nightclub

DOWNTOWN

Kremwerk, located downstairs, is sometimes like a Berlin techno club and sometimes like a punk drag performance venue. Go on the drag nights—but be prepared to get a little blood on you if you sit in the front row. Upstairs is the tiny, fun Timbre Room, and there’s also Cherry on the ground level, which culture writer Jas Keimig called the “most spacious and femme-iest club of the bunch.”

Changes

WALLINGFORD

This is North Seattle’s gay bar and the closest gay bar to the University of Washington. They have pool, darts, Seahawks parties, and karaoke multiple nights a week.

The Lumber Yard Bar

WHITE CENTER

This White Center gay bar is lumber-jackthemed. They’ve got tacos and trivia on Tuesdays, lesbian karaoke on Wednesdays, and kink night on the first Monday of every month.

SHOPS

Babeland

CAPITOL HILL

Vibrators on display, classes on everything from rope bondage to strap-ons to erotic massage, and a friendly staff, Babeland is perfectly suited to women who date women—but gay guys, straight couples, and folks across the spectrum are also welcome.

Doghouse Leathers

CAPITOL HILL

This place has handmade leather apparel, pup supplies, bondage toys galore, dirty magazines, and a sexy staff.

PUBLIC SEX & BATHHOUSES

Most people who want sex right now just get it through their smartphone. Nevertheless, if you want to tromp around an outdoor setting making eye contact with strangers for old time’s sake, Volunteer Park is your best bet. (Note: Being naked in Seattle is not illegal, but “lewd conduct”—touching yourself or someone else who is naked—is.) For sanctioned public indoor sex, there are two bathhouses in town: Steamworks caters to a slightly younger crowd than Club Z, but both are for filthy men and the filthy men who love them.

JACK CATON

Weed Where to Buy Weed in (Almost) Every Neighborhood

BY STRANGER STAFF

Canna West Seattle

WEST SEATTLE

Maryam Mirnateghi’s pot shop Canna West Seattle is housed in a 1920s Craftsman-style home on California Avenue Southwest, and it is worlds away from those impersonal pot shops. Before the shop opened in 2016, Mirnateghi spoke about her vision of the place: “It’s going to be clean and classy, but it’s not going to be pretentious. It’s going to be really cozy and very different from the other stores we have in the city.” (ANA SOFIA KNAUF)

Cannabis City

SODO

Ah, Cannabis City, Seattle’s first pot shop. Or, as they’ve dubbed themselves, “the pot shop heard around the world.” Dr. James Lathrop, the shop’s owner, is whip-crack smart when it comes to cannabis. He’s a doctor of nursing practice, and I’d argue that he’s more knowledgeable about pot and its various medicinal applications than a traditional allopathic practitioner. They have more than 100 varieties of pre-roll, and they are located a mere one block from the Sodo light rail station. (TOBIAS COUGHLIN-BOGUE)

Dockside Cannabis

SODO

Dockside’s Sodo shop is emblematic of the new direction in pot retailing brought on by legalization: big, open floor plans, lots of light, and classy decor. Dockside’s got all that, and a cannabis museum to boot. That’s right: An entire corner of their store is devoted to the history and science of cannabis, including selections from the Wirtshafter collection, Ohio cannabis activist Don Wirtshafter’s hoard of vintage cannabis medicine bottles. It sounds bland when I put it that way, but it’s awesome, a fascinating physical reminder that pot used to be both legal and benign. There are also locations in Ballard, Green Lake, and Shoreline. (TOBIAS COUGHLIN-BOGUE)

Have a Heart

DOWNTOWN/BELLTOWN

Patrons are greeted with an enormous, LED-lit joint sculpture upon entering, as well as a chandelier with a quarter pound of Grandaddy Kush encased in glass. If that’s not enough to awe you, there’s the 50-foot “Wall of Weed.” It’s also close to Pike Place Market—nothing beats smoking a pre-roll on the waterfront (just don’t let cops see you),

watching the ferries roll in for a bit, and then noshing your way through the market’s vast array of edible offerings. There are locations in Greenwood and Fremont, too. (TOBIAS COUGHLIN-BOGUE)

Lux Pot Shop

BALLARD, LAKE CITY, BELLTOWN

Lux unofficially bills itself as the “Nordstrom of pot shops.” Officially, their tagline is “Community. Culture. Cannabis.” Their store is objectively gorgeous, and the service is definitely Nordstrom-esque. The budtenders, many of whom are transplants from more traditional service-industry jobs, all seem genuinely happy to be here, and genuinely excited about pot. Lux is also quite conveniently located next to many of Ballard’s cultural and culinary activities. They have locations in Belltown and Lake City, too. (TOBIAS COUGHLIN-BOGUE)

The Reef Cannabis

CAPITOL HILL

You’ll know you’re at The Reef when you see a glowing building featuring an underwater mural with a giant portrait of Jacque Cousteau on its side. Once you pass through the glass doors, you’ll be hit

with bright lights, the music that the kids are listening to these days, and hundreds of cannabis products, including a wall of prerolls, all kinds of flower, vapes and glassware, oils, edibles, topicals, and more. Real estate investors Adam Simon and Aaron Bennett own the place, and in interviews Simon says he doesn’t just want to sell pot, he wants to give back to the community. To that end, the company says it donates 5% of its profits to one of three nonprofits. You vote on where the money goes at the end of your transaction. Staff here is super friendly and happy to help on your terms, but if you want to cut down on human interactions, then you can order online and/ or on the store’s app. (RICH SMITH)

Ruckus Recreational

CAPITOL HILL AND FREMONT

The space is tiny, but the aesthetics are on point: walls filled with paintings, drawings, old-timey portraits, and collage art, plus cabinets stocked with curios sure to delight and beguile. The cannabis products are in two countertop glass cabinets that look like they used to hold rare butterfly specimens. The space feels almost like a closet filled with magic. But they have everything you need. Not only do they have a nice range of products and price points, there’s always good music playing and the staff is warm and unpretentious, often wearing plaid, unlike the uniforms you find at some other stores. (TOBIAS COUGHLIN-BOGUE)

Shawn Kemp’s Cannabis

BELLTOWN AND SODO

Seattle’s first Black-owned dispensary, which officially opened on October 30, 2020, is helmed by six-time NBA All-Star and legendary Seattle Supersonics power forward Shawn “Reign Man” Kemp, along with industry veterans Matt Schoenlein and Ramsey Hamide, two of the co-founders of Main Street Marijuana. In February 2023 Kemp opened his second location in Sodo in a cool old 3,500-square-foot bank building. (EVEROUT STAFF)

COURTESY

Shopping

Treat Yourself to a Locally Made Souvenir or Some Clam-Flavored Candy

BY STRANGER STAFF

Archie McPhee WALLINGFORD

A Seattle staple since 1983, Archie McPhee is the local joke shop that keeps our city weird. It started out as a little hole in the wall in Fremont that sold vintage (unused) medical supplies, rubber snakes, and Whoopee Cushions. It has since become a world of its own. The store, now in a large, slick storefront in Wallingford, is world-renowned for its own line of toys, candy, and knickknacks. Think squirrel-sized underpants, wind-up sloth racers, clam-flavored candy canes, and finger puppets in every imaginable shape and size (glow-inthe-dark tentacles, anyone?). While you’re there, take a stroll through the Rubber Chicken Museum, which proudly displays both the world’s largest and world’s smallest rubber chickens.

Ballard Avenue BALLARD

Downtown Ballard is so sweet and quaint it will make you feel like you just stepped into an episode of Gilmore Girls The historic streets are lined with trees and brick buildings that house bars and restaurants, independently owned stores and boutiques, and art galleries. Lucca Great Finds has a dizzying array of gifts and home accessories as well as a selection of stationary, pens, and pencils that will inspire you to take up letter writing. Sweet Mickey’s is a can’t-miss if you’re traveling with little ones—the old-fashioned candy store carries bulk candy, seasonal sweets, and fudge by the pound. Stroll a little further to Market Avenue and you’ll find one of Seattle’s most iconic record stores, Sonic Boom , and don’t miss nearby Monster , which carries locally made crafts and gifts. The farmers market is also worth a visit. It’s one of the biggest in the city, and it pops up every Sunday 9 am-2 pm.

Pike Place Market

DOWNTOWN

There is plenty to see here that doesn’t involve people throwing fish—although, to be fair, that is totally worth seeing. Fresh flowers, fresh fruit, fresh vegetables, fresh doughnuts—the market has it all. Pro tip: At the bottom of the stairs, behind the market proper, there’s a great little place called JarrBar. (SEAN NELSON)

Scarecrow Video

UNIVERSITY DISTRICT

Scarecrow Video is not a mere video-rental place. It could be more accurately labeled a wacky museum that reflects the eclectic tastes of its employees. You could lose an entire day in the store’s documentary section alone, which houses a number of reality TV and cable access shows from the early aughts. The last time I visited, I discovered documentaries about garlic, Russian-Jewish bathhouses, and Missouri folk art that I never would have found otherwise. (SYDNEY BROWNSTONE)

Uwajimaya

CHINATOWN-INTERNATIONAL DISTRICT

Located in the center of Chinatown-International District is Uwajimaya, one of North America’s largest Asian retailers. (They also have locations in Bellevue, Renton, and Beaverton, Oregon.) Seattle’s store is more than 35,000 square feet, filled with all the usual grocery store delights, yes, but there’s also a full-service service seafood counter, a deli section filled with countless, mouthwatering grab-and-go options, and every imported KitKat flavor you could ever imagine. There’s also a food court with sweet and savory options—Hawaiian sandwich counter Los Costeños, Beard Papa’s Cream Puffs, Dochi Japanese Mochi Donuts, and taiyaki counter Bean Fish—and Kinokuniya Bookstore.

West Seattle’s Alaska Junction

WEST SEATTLE

A lot of people joke about West Seattle being impossible to get to, but the trip across the Duwamish Waterway really isn’t so bad, especially if you hop on the West Seattle Water Taxi. From there you can explore Alki Beach or grab a shuttle that takes you straight up to the Alaska Junction, a bustling neighborhood core of indie stores, art spaces, and restaurants, bars, and coffee shops. Easy Street Records is one of the best record stores in the city,

and they are always hosting free live performances (they have a great cafe, too), and Husky Ice Cream & Deli has great sandwiches, dozens of flavors of housemade ice cream, and an old-school candy counter that sells confections by the pound. There are several bookstores ( Paper Boat Booksellers , Pegasus Book Exchange ) and gift and home accessory shops ( Northwest Art & Frame , Capers ), and even an antique mall if you feel like digging for treasures. West Seattle Farmers Market is every Sunday from 10 am-2 pm, and the art walk is the second Thursday of every month.

ANTHONY KEO

Archie McPhee’s

WORKERS’ RIGHTS ARE TRANS & QUEER RIGHTS

A union contract is one of the strongest ways for LGBTQIA2+ workers to protect their rights and ensure equity and inclusivity at work – especially as some states actively pass drastic legislation to deny and restrict our humanity.

We are proud to fight alongside Starbucks Workers United and all workers seeking to organize and form unions.

STARBUCKS:

You can’t say you’re pro-queer and be anti-union! It’s time to stop unionbusting. Respect workers’ rights!

Festivals Can’t-Miss Festivals in Seattle This Summer

BY JULIANNE BELL, LINDSAY COSTELLO, JAMIE REED, AND AUDREY VANN

COMMUNITY

Fremont Fair

Celebrate summer at the Fremont Solstice Parade, a Seattle rite of passage known primarily for its elaborately painted (and sometimes just wild ‘n’ free) nude bicyclists—but also offering plenty of stilt walking, giant puppet operating, and twirling around in circles. The procession, organized by the Fremont Arts Council and held on June 17, is the center of the Fremont Fair, a weekend-long event that draws over 100,000 people for shopping, street performances, local bands, a dog parade, and free-spirited, wacky artistic expression. Expect the unexpected. JR Fremont (June 17–18)

Seattle Pride Parade

Seattle’s Pride Parade is a little more than a can’t-miss—it’s a gargantuan gathering of over 200 participating groups, and 300,000 spectators will turn up to show off their sparkle. It’s the biggest Pride parade in the state by a landslide, and it swallows up downtown Seattle like a big, sweaty, rainbow-hued whale. Four hours

of festivities will kick off at Fourth and Pike, at the tippy triangle point of Westlake Park, and end at Second and Denny, at the main entrance to the Pacific Science Center. There, you’ll also find Seattle PrideFest, consisting of food booths, nonprofit orgs, beer gardening, stages, and tons of live performers. If throngs of glittery gays are your thing, this one’s a no-brainer. LC Downtown Seattle (Sun June 25)

Amazon Seafair Summer Fourth

As Meg van Huygen wrote last year, “Seattle’s OG Fourth of July celebration is so popular that they don’t even bother putting ‘July’ in the event name, because everybody knows what’s up.” Seafair’s annual, nationally recognized fireworks show comes complete with pyrotechnics exploding up above Lake Union and “choreographed” to a very loud pre-recorded musical score. Gas Works Park is the traditional spot to watch it from, where you’ll find beer gardens, scads of food vendors, live bands, and a glow-in-the-dark dance party. On the other side of the lake at Lake Union Park, you’ll find a slightly more laid-

RICHARD TRAN

Fremont Fair

back vibe with food trucks, a bar, and a DJ, plus a darker sky view of the fireworks— though they’ll still be choreographed to the music. You can also watch it from the lake, if you’re lucky enough to have access to a boat! JR

Gas Works Park & Lake Union Park (Tues July 4)

West Seattle Summer Fest

Whether you live in the neighborhood or you need an excuse to make the trek, West Seattle Summer Fest is a giant block party-style festival for everyone. Spend some time dancing to live music, shopping, drinking in beer gardens, and enjoying other summery activities. As always, the festival will highlight local talent with performances from electronic hip-hop producer/rapper Jarv Dee, beachy indie pop trio Warren Dunes, psych-rock band Acid Tongue, long-running indie folk ensemble the Cave Singers, and many others. The best part? There’s no charge to get in! AV West Seattle (July 14–16)

Seafair Weekend Festival

Every year, Seafair—the iconic summer festival that started in 1950—puts on dozens of community festivals throughout Seattle all summer long. It all wraps up in August with this three-day extravaganza of signature outdoor activities like Blue Angels air shows and hydroplane racing along the shores of Lake Washington. The noise and military spectacle that come with demonstration war planes flying over the city for the weekend are somewhat controversial, and you might choose to get out of the city the first weekend of August for just that reason. But it’s still quite the sight to behold and, as Seafair describes it, “the most

anticipated event of the summer” and “an unofficial Puget Sound holiday.” JR Genesee Park (Aug 4–6)

The Washington Midsummer Renaissance

Faire

August brings heat, summer malaise, and the annual Washington Midsummer Renaissance Faire. This time-honored tradition beckons city folk to squeeze into tights and bustiers before making their way to a park that, for a brief moment, becomes the English town of Merriwick. Over three weekends, Ren Faire-goers are living in a time where pirates, elves, and fairies delight and terrorize humans; turkey legs are the most delicious things on Earth; and men stake their egos on jousting. You can get lit off of mead at alehouses like your ancestors might’ve in the olden times and tip your hat at Queen Elizabeth herself, who’ll grace Merriwick with her presence. There’s also an artisan marketplace, where you can tipsily buy a necklace or a hat that you’ll literally never wear again. Go drink and be merry and forget about the plagues afflicting our society for but a moment. By former Stranger staff writer Jas Keimig Sky Meadows Park, Snohomish (Aug 5–20)

PAX

West

Back in 2021, former Stranger staffer Matt Baume wrote, “One of my very favorite things about living in Seattle—one of the things that convinced me to move here, in fact—is PAX, the giant video game convention held every Septemberish at the Convention Center, a sprawling throng of fandoms and beep-boop screens and clattering dice.” This year, the gargantuan convention will be bigger than ever before, taking over the recently expanded

EXPLORE SEATTLE SHOP &

600 Pine St, 1st Floor Inside Pacific Place

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PAX West

UPCOMING FEATURED

Seattle Convention Center and adding on Nintendo Live 2023, an “all-ages Nintendo celebration with Switch gameplay, stage performances, tournaments, photo ops, and more.” Get your Zelda cosplay ready. JR Seattle Convention Center (Sept 1–4)

Washington State Fair

What’s summer without beer-fueled outdoor concerts, quilt and flower displays, impressive vegetables, baby bunnies, and a “SillyVille” farm experience, complete with animatronic chickens?! Close out the sunny season in the most all-American way possible at the Washington State Fair in Puyallup, where you’ll find everything from produce contests to a real-deal cowboy rodeo. Dad rock legends Chicago will perform on September 1; you can also catch Kehlani, the Temptations, Babyface, Styx, and other household names throughout the month. LC

Washington State Fair Events Center, Puyallup (Sept 1–24)

LIVE MUSIC

Marymoor Live

Pack up your picnic gear and head over to King County’s oldest (and largest) park this summer for Marymoor’s annual outdoor concert series. Big names like Grammy-winning trumpeter Chris Botti (June 17), LA punk icons -X- (July 14), and Philly indie rockers Mt. Joy (July 21) will grace the spacious tree-framed lawn. If the names themselves aren’t enough to get you to drive to Redmond, know that

these shows are typically accompanied by gorgeous sunsets and the occasional bald eagle sighting. I, for one, can’t wait to see indie folk ensemble Big Thief (Aug 5), who will co-headline with the one and only Lucinda Williams. They are precisely the combination that will make me sob through the night (in a good way). AV

Marymoor Park, Redmond (through Sept 16)

Chateau Ste. Michelle Summer Concert Series

Every year, Chateau Ste. Michelle lays out a full summer season of music legends and cultural luminaries to grace their beautiful landscape of flowing wine. From the Barenaked Ladies (June 18) to Sheryl Crow (July 20) to Regina Spektor (Aug 5), this stacked lineup occurs in single shows every few days from June to September. So head over to Woodinville, do a free tour and tasting (hell, you’re already there!), and buy tickets to see some of America’s pop culture greats. AV

Chateau Ste. Michelle, Woodinville (through Sept 22)

BECU ZooTunes

ZooTunes is a 40-plus-year summer tradition that brings big-name artists to the Woodland Park Zoo’s bucolic North Meadow to raise money for the zoo’s animal care, conservation programs, and education. This year’s highlights include folk double-feature Indigo Girls with Neko Case (June 28–29), punk poet/all-around national treasure Patti Smith (Aug 16), indie-pop sisters Tegan and Sara (Aug 17),

KEVIN CRUFF

Chateau Ste. Michelle Summer Concert Series

and indie-rock phenoms Japanese Breakfast with Built To Spill (Aug 20). Plus, this is a kid-friendly event! In fact, one of my earliest memories is gnawing on a licorice rope while watching Aimee Mann perform at ZooTunes. If you’re attending without kids, lucky you—there will be two beer gardens and plenty of kettle corn. AV Woodland Park Zoo (June 28–Aug 23)

Capitol Hill Block Party

This year, CHBP offers a treasure trove of Gen-Z favorites. Droves of festival-goers will crowd the streets of Capitol Hill to see headliners like TikTok phenom PinkPantheress (you’ve probably heard “Boy’s a Liar Pt. 2,” her viral collab with Ice Spice), electro-pop duo Sofi Tukker, innovative Florida rapper Denzel Curry, and electronic music group Louis the Child. This isn’t your typical lounge-in-the-grass-type music festival, but rather, a bustling party that involves nine stages—both indoors and outdoors—that are nestled within the city streets. Aside from PinkPantheress, I am most excited to see the indie rock trio MUNA, whose infectious hit single “Silk Chiffon (ft. Phoebe Bridgers)” is the sapphic summer anthem that the girls and the gays deserve. I also can’t wait to see the ethereal electronic gem Empress Of, meme-turned-hyperpop star Rebecca Black, and BFF pop duo Coco & Clair Clair. If you can’t tell, this lineup exudes femme pop power. AV Capitol Hill (July 21–23)

Timber! Outdoor Music Festival

Produced by the PNW culture-makers at Artist Home, this popular outdoor music

festival provides a very full weekend of crowd-friendly folk, rock, and pop performances, as well as all-ages activities like camping, kayaking, and stargazing. This year’s lineup includes Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy, dance-punk band Guerilla Toss, La Conner, Washington-based singer-songwriter Black Belt Eagle Scout, country folk troubadour Nick Shoulders, and plenty more. AV Tolt-MacDonald Park, Carnation (July 27–29)

Day In Day Out

In my past life working the counter of a local record store, Leon Bridges’ Coming Home and Bon Iver’s For Emma, Forever Ago unfailingly stayed on our bestseller list. Both artists have the unique ability to defy genres with their fanbases sprawled across demographics. For that reason, it’s a smart move to have them headline the Fisher Pavilion’s second annual Day In Day Out festival. Artists with broad appeal are threaded throughout the lineup, with beloved acts like legitimately talented nepo baby WILLOW, post-rock quartet Explosions in the Sky, psychedelic jazz ensemble BADBADNOTGOOD, and gothic pop singer-songwriter Ethel Cain. All performances will take place on a single outdoor stage in the heart of Seattle with access to food trucks, vendors, and views of the Space Needle. There really is something for everyone. AV Fisher Pavilion (Aug 12–13)

THING

With the exception of peak pandemic years, Port Townsend’s music and arts

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festival THING has filled the Sasquatch!shaped void in Washington State ever since the festival ended in 2018. This year’s lineup shines with PNW favorites like the harmonizing indie folk band Fleet Foxes, legendary jazz-rap trio Digable Planets, and rising indie pop artist SYML. Other big-name acts like Lil Yachty, Sylvan Esso, Thundercat, and Cigarettes After Sex make this festival grander than your average small-town arts fest. There are also plenty of bright spots in the comedy portion of the lineup with body horror specialist/SNL cast member Sarah Sherman, surrealist comedian/actress Kate Berlant, and stand-up star Jacqueline Novak. If you need a break from the crowds, there are also beautiful beaches and trails nearby for independent exploration. AV Fort Worden State Park (Aug 25–27)

Bumbershoot

After a four-year hiatus due to financial problems, low attendance numbers, and production shakeups, local collective New Rising Sun and nonprofit arts/education organization Third Stone have refreshed Seattle’s most iconic festival with lower ticket prices and an eclectic lineup that expands the definition of “artist.” With promised attractions like a cat circus, robots, nail art, and witches, this year’s 50th anniversary event is reminiscent of Bumbershoot 2008, when I saw a sex-positive paper bag puppet show

right after being trampled at the main stage while Paramore performed “Misery Business.” Ah, the good old days! Get ready for two days of local and national artists spread out across Seattle Center’s lush grounds, including PNW’s own Sleater-Kinney—who first played the festival in 1997!—the Revivalists, Jawbreaker, AFI, Brittany Howard, Sunny Day Real Estate, and Phantogram. AV Seattle Center (Sept 2–3)

ARTS

Seattle Outdoor Theater Festival

Marking the kickoff of the city’s outdoor theater season, the Seattle Outdoor Theater Festival will return for another round of Shakespearean shenanigans in sunny Volunteer Park’s new amphitheater, which opened last summer. You’ll find a variety of approaches to the Bard’s dramatics, so pack a picnic and sit back for two packed days of up to 18 shows from 10 local theater companies. If you miss out, presenting company GreenStage will also be putting on shows like Romeo & Juliet and Comedy of Errors at different parks around town through August—for free! LC Volunteer Park (July 8–9)

Seattle Art Fair

Returning to Lumen Field for the seventh year, Seattle Art Fair will continue to offer Seattleites the opportunity to see cool, cutting-edge contemporary artwork from

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Seattle Art Fair

all over the world without leaving town. Plenty of local institutions and artists get involved as well, and there are generally satellite events at other venues around the city, making for a jam-packed weekend of incredible art-viewing opportunities—I’m stoked to see artists like Catalina Ouyang, whose experimental furniture navigates themes of language, space, and power dynamics, get attention this year. The fair’s projects and events haven’t yet been revealed, but if it’s anything like last year’s, it’ll be a hectic weekend of avant-garde, artsy goodness that rivals its pre-pandemic days. LC

Lumen Field Event Center (July 27–30)

Urban Craft Uprising Summer Show

Urban Craft Uprising has blossomed from its humble, 50-booth beginnings in 2005, now billing itself as the largest indie craft event in Seattle and the Pacific Northwest. (Judging by the show’s consistently strong turnouts, it ain’t lying.) This year, they’ll bring a two-day summer show back to Magnuson Park Hangar 30, where you can hide from the sun for a couple of hours while snatching up crafty wares by indie artists and bites from on-site food trucks. Serving up a thoughtful alternative to mass-marketed trinkets and big box stores, the show promises all the resin earrings and chunky ceramics my heart desires—I have a gut feeling you’ll find something nifty, too. LC Magnuson Park Hangar 30 (July 29–30)

Seattle Tattoo Expo

Peep impressive tattoo displays, shop counterculture vendors, and engage in a little lighthearted flesh adornment at this three-day celebration of permanently decorated bodies. Hidden Hand Tattoo hosts the expo, which has brought enthusiasts and professional ink-givers together for over 20 years; attendees can thrill their eyeballs at a tattooed burlesque revue or enter contests for best color tats, blackand-white designs, and more. On Saturday at 5 pm, there’ll be a competition for the worst tattoo, so roll up your sleeves and whip out your blurry anchors and tributes to Mom. LC Seattle Center (Aug 18–20)

Local Sightings Film Festival

Back in 2015, Stranger senior staff writer Charles Mudede wrote, “What is this city becoming? What have we lost in the rush and thrust of all these new developments? To whom does this growing city belong? The brilliant Local Sightings film festival will show films that reveal the answers to these questions, through features, shorts, and animation that are born here or hereabouts. There’s much to see and much to talk about.” The premise of the hybrid festival hasn’t changed much since then—Local Sightings will return for its 26th anniversary this year, offering up another round of curated screenings and transforming the city into a hub for indie filmmakers who forgo New York or LA for

DAVID CORRY

Seattle Tattoo Expo

the Pacific Northwest’s endearing eccentricity. The always-great, hyper-local film festival also offers opportunities for regional filmmakers, emotional storytellers, and documentarians to meet-cute at the festival’s events. LC

Northwest Film Forum (Sept 15–24)

FOOD & DRINK

Ballard SeafoodFest

Originally started as a celebration of the neighborhood’s fishing industry in 1974, this festival has expanded over the years to include a salmon barbecue dinner, a crab shack, a beer garden replete with local craft brews, food and artisan craft vendors, a skateboarding competition, and live music from amazing local bands. This year’s killer lineup includes “rock ‘n’ roll twins” the Black Tones, dreamy indie rockers La Fonda, the garage band Linda From Work, soulful singer-songwriter Shaina Shepherd, the funk group Eldridge Gravy & the Court Supreme, and way more. Gluttons for punishment can enroll in the lutefisk eating contest, an annual competition to see who can scarf the most of the salty, gelatinous fish. JB Ballard (July 14–16)

Bite of Seattle

Seattle boasts plenty of food and drink festivals year-round, but Bite of Seattle is the OG, having been in business since 1982—and, after a three-year hiatus, it’s finally back and better than ever. Now owned by the “mobile-ordering and social-gifting app” CHEQ, the event will be entirely cashless and will feature over

200 vendors from all over the city, slinging ice cream, poke, pizza, dumplings, Korean barbecue, and more—not to mention three beer gardens and a wine garden. They’ve also beefed up their music component substantially this year, with over 50 performances across three stages and heavy-hitting headliners like Sir Mix-a-Lot, the groovy eight-piece ensemble Polyrhythmics, and the '80s new wave tribute band Nite Wave, as well as local favorites like Tomo Nakayama, Linda From Work, Grizzled Mighty, and Grace Love. JB Seattle Center (July 21–23)

Fremont Oktoberfest

Break out the dirndls and lederhosen in celebration of “Seattle’s largest beer festival,” where you can taste over 100 German and domestic craft beers (excuse us, “biers”) and feast on Bavarian-style food like bratwust and warm pretzels, in addition to a lineup of food trucks such as Dumpling Tzar, Woodshop BBQ, Fremont Mischief, and Pike Place Nuts. You’ll also find games like stein hoisting and “Texas chainsaw pumpkin carving,” pups in costumes during the special Dogtoberfest day (Sunday), a DJ tower with a dance floor, a “street scramble” scavenger hunt, and more throughout the streets of Fremont. JB Fremont (Sept 22–24)

That’s just a taste! Find our comprehensive guide to summer events at everout.com/seattle

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Ballard SeafoodFest