Seattle's most popular tourist destination, this continuously operated public farmers' markets famous for employees throwing three-foot salmon and other fish to each other rather than passing them by hand is one of the oldest in the United States
General Information
- Open Daily
- Most of the Market is active from 9am to 6pm with some of our restaurants staying open until midnight for indoor or outdoor dining, takeout and delivery.
- Produce stands are open daily from 9am to 5pm
- Fish Markets are open daily from 9am to 4pm
- The DownUnder (the lower levels of the Market) is open daily. Monday to Wednesday from 9am to 6pm, Thursday to Sunday from 9am to 7pm
- The Crafts Market is open daily from 10am to 5pm
- Farm Tables are open daily from 9am to 5pm
- No entrance fees
- Parking:
- Pike Place Market maintains two parking garages with over 800 parking stalls that can be accessed on Western Ave. and Alaskan Way.
- Early Bird Rate Flat $10.00: Enter one of the below garage entrances by 9am and exit any time before 9pm.
- Evening Rate Flat $5.00: Enter one of the below garage entrances after 5pm and exit by 2am.
- Low Hourly Rate: $4.00 per hour up to the first 4 hours.
Head southwest on Madison St toward 4th Ave. Turn right onto 1st Ave. Turn left onto Stewart St
Pike Place Market is a public market in Seattle, Washington. It opened on August 17, 1907, and is one of the oldest continuously operated public farmers' markets in the United States. Overlooking the Elliott Bay waterfront on Puget Sound, it serves as a place of business for many small farmers, craftspeople and merchants. Named after the central street, Pike Place runs northwest from Pike Street to Virginia Street. Pike Place Market is Seattle's most popular tourist destination, with more than 10 million annual visitors.
The Market is built on the edge of a steep hill and consists of several lower levels located below the main level. Each features a variety of unique shops such as antique dealers, comic book and collectible shops, small family-owned restaurants, and one of the oldest head shops in Seattle. The upper street level contains fish markets, fresh produce stands and craft stalls operating in the covered arcades. Local farmers and craftspeople sell year-round in the arcades from tables they rent from the Market on a daily basis, in accordance with the Market's mission and founding goal: allowing consumers to "Meet the Producer".
One of the Market's major attractions is Pike Place Fish Market, where employees throw three-foot salmon and other fish to each other rather than passing them by hand. When a customer orders a fish, an employee at the Fish Market's ice-covered fish table picks up the fish and hurls it over the countertop, where another employee catches it and preps it for sale.
According to the employees, this tradition started when the merchants got tired of having to walk out to the Market's fish table to retrieve a salmon each time someone ordered one. Eventually, the owner realized it was easier to station an employee at the table, to throw the fish over the counter. The flying fish have appeared in an episode of the sitcom Frasier and have been featured on The Learning Channel (TLC) and was also in the opening credits of MTV's The Real World: Seattle. This attraction has also appeared on numerous prime-time installments of NFL games when the Seahawks host games at nearby CenturyLink Field.
Pike Place Market's unofficial mascot, Rachel, a bronze cast piggy bank that weighs 550 pounds (250 kg), has been located since 1986 at the corner of Pike Place under the "Public Market Center" sign. Rachel was designed by local artist Georgia Gerber and modeled after a pig (also named Rachel) that lived on Whidbey Island and was the 1977 Island County prize-winner. Rachel receives roughly $6,000.00 to $9,000.00 annually in just about every type of world currency, which is collected by the Market Foundation to fund the Market's social services.
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "Pike Place Market", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.
