Seafood and You Smile
On August 17th of 1907, eight farmers showed up to downtown Seattle to sell their goods. An amazing 10,000 people showed up to buy from them, and on that day, Pike’s Place Market, also known as “The Soul of Seattle,” was born. Well over a hundred years later, the market has grown to fill nine acres of land with every food product imaginable. In fact, the market is even the home of the original Starbucks that attracts coffee lovers from all over the globe.
Other than Starbucks, one of the two or three key tourist attractions at the market is Pike Place Fish. The bustling fish market joined the other vendors at Pikes Place in 1930, but was purchased from the original owners by one of the employees, John Yokoyama, in 1965. As the story goes, John had recently purchased a new vehicle, but was having a hard time making ends meet to make the payments on the car. He decided that it would be easier to make the payments as the owner of the fish monger business, and the new and improved Pikes Place Fish was born. At some point in John’s tenure, he decided to update their marketing, adding a new level of entertainment to the process of buying fish from them, and it has made all the difference as the fish market went from struggling to highly successful through the 1980s.
I remember my first visit to Pikes Place Fish and watching them throw the fish back and forth while chanting and yelling to one another. I’m a mostly shy person at first, so I stood back to watch the show they performed, an event that would be worth an admission price should they decide to charge one (they, of course, don’t). The employees at Pikes Place mix together vast knowledge of the product they sell with the theatrics of chanting, fish throwing, posing for pictures, handing out stickers, and providing oyster shooters with the clientele (the glass they will wrap up for you to take home as a souvenir).
If you make it to Pikes Place Market, stop by Pikes Place Fish, enjoy the show, test their product knowledge, try the smoked salmon, and have some fish shipped to your home.
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