DESTINATIONS — THE US
flavours
From farmers’ markets to valleys of vineyards, Anna Hart tastes the best of Washington State
Strong
in America; it is the food market that proved farmers’ markets could be sexy – fun, social, desirable and popular,” shouts Nick, our guide, thrusting me a hot cinnamon and sugar doughnut while I gawk at apron-clad fishmongers hurling huge Atlantic salmon across the fish market. “Today, there are 10,000 farmers’ markets in America, but Pike Place is the template, the one that showed them how it’s done.” It’s 9am on my first morning in Seattle and I’m getting breakfast on the go, in 17 bite- sized chunks to be precise. Given the quality of the produce on offer at Seattle’s Pike Place Public Market, overlooking the Elliott Bay waterfront, I’d be happy to get my breakfast like this every morning, watching 500 artisan producers and restaurants preparing to open their doors to the daily stream of 30,000 visitors.
“P
ike Place isn’t just one of the oldest public markets
On our £35 VIP Early Access tour with Nick Setten of Savor Seattle, we sample vanilla lattes, smoked salmon jerky, handmade cheese, sugar-dusted madeleines, salted caramel chocolate and parmesan crumpets, with blatant disregard for savoury-before-sweet conventions. A former history student and lifelong foodie, there’s nothing (and nobody) on Seattle’s booming food scene that Nick doesn’t know. Of the six foodie jaunts that Savor Seattle offers around the city, the ‘early doors’ 9am ticket is the swiftest way to get right to the heart of the city.
l SOUL FOOD Visitors to Seattle will want to visit the classic landmark of the Space Needle (adults £12) – a Jetsons-esque 1962 observation tower – and should definitely be pointed towards Chihuly Garden and Glass Museum (adults £12). Tacoma boy, Dale Chihuly, has had his trippy, blown-glass sculptures exhibited worldwide (one work
still adorns the entry hall of London’s V&A) and, as of 2012, his enchanting body of work found a permanent home in a dedicated museum at the Seattle Center. However, if clients want to find Seattle’s soul, they’ll discover it through their stomachs – while Seattle in the 1990s was famous for grunge, today it is famous for food. Cooking really is the new rock’n’roll here, with chefs
like Tom Douglas treated as rock royalty. As Nick says: “If you look at the history of Seattle’s food scene, it has long been marked by a delicious sense of competition because of the sheer quality of produce we get at the market. If you’re going to head out to a haute restaurant, it needs to be delivering something way better than you can make at home.” Douglas owns a string of hot
Pike Place Public Market
22 January 2015 —
travelweekly.co.uk • 59
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PICTURES: ISTOCK; GPOST
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