Shopping Map: 18 Seattle Essentials
Summer’s here, you’ve got out-of-towners on the pullout couch, and they want to shop. Go!
Posted by: Laura Cassidy on Jun 20, 2011 at 08:00AM
3 Comments
In thinking of your summer guests and mine, smart travelers from other smart cities who want to know where and how to see Seattle style in action, I thought I’d make a list of 12 must-shop spots in town.
Once I got started, I thought, Okay, well, 15. And then I panicked, feeling I couldn’t do it in less than 25. And “essential” has such an edited, discriminating ring to it, doesn’t it? Twenty-five wouldn’t do. I settled myself with this mapped list of 18 Essential Seattle Shops, and figured we’d do another list later in this season, for that second wave of friends-and-family tourism. Deal? Deal.
For now, you might be wondering what makes a store essential to our city’s landscape.
In some cases—say, Curtis Steiner, Palm Room, Kobo, and Far 4—it’s a sense of you-won’t-find-this-anywhere-else. With, for example, Essenza (where exquisite his-and-her scents mingle with locally and internationally crafted jewelry and the sweetest selection of items for baby), it’s a matter of worldliness; the sense that you and your out-of-towners might find it similar to the little discovery you made in Paris, Barcelona, San Francisco.
And then there are shops like Field House, REI, and Filson, that practically draw a portrait of the nature-loving Northwest spirit; and Elliott Bay Books, Uwajimaya, Sur La Table and Baby & Co, because they’ve been here for a long time, too, and they illustrate a different side of our pioneering spirit.
You and your mother-in-law from Montreal will find all these and more on the shopping map linked here.
Tags: Filson
Hello
I enjoy your posts. I am new to Seattle and find them helpful. However I was disappointed to not find descriptive information for each of the jobs on your map.
Wrenhi there Wren, thanks for writing – we’re glad you’re enjoying the blog. I’m not entirely sure what you mean about the jobs … perhaps you intended to write shops? There are actually descriptions of each of the 18 stores on the map. When you click on each entry on the list, it first gives you the location and contact info, and from there you are able to decide if you want to see more info. The second click gets you a description of what the store is. Does that help?
Don’t like the map. Would rather them listed or presented as a slideshow…
Awesome idea though and would love to know what the 18 essential shops are and a blurb as to why you think they are essential.