Expect more of this pastel-hued delight in West Seattle.
Image: Charles Koh
Pike Place Market’s nostalgia-tinged ice cream and soda fountain is expanding to West Seattle. Shug’s Soda Fountain and Ice Cream owners Paul Dormann and Colleen Wilkie originally scouted the spot at 3800 California Ave SW thinking it could be a place to store their event-friendly ice cream cart, and perhaps function as an office space as well. But once the couple took in the western exposure, and bank of windows that fill the small space with light, they knew: They needed to scoop ice cream here.
They’ve dubbed the space Shug’s Mini, which is to say it’s significantly smaller than the Pike Place Market mothership. This new Shug’s will have maybe half the number of flavors, still from Lopez Island Creamery, and some of the more popular sundaes. The s’more sundae seems a likely candidate, says Wilkie. “I’m a big Dixie Split fan,” she says of the banana concoction that gets bruleed before your eyes. “So maybe that one, too.”
Dormann and Wilkie hope to open in time for warm weather, ideally spring or summer 2019. For now, though, they’re deciding what definitive aspects of Shug’s, besides ice cream and copious amounts of natural light, to replicate in their new location. The two live close by; Dormann is adamant Shug’s Mini fill the neighborhood need for coffee after 6pm. To my mind, the thing that defines Shug’s is the 12-foot vintage soda fountain, trucked here from New Hampshire back in 2015. The couple is definitely on the hunt, says Wilkie. “You can’t fit a 12-foot soda fountain in here, but you could most certainly could fit an eight-foot one.”
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