Vegan food - Plum Bistro & Life on Mars are both in Capitol Hill near good thrifting. Cafe Flora is in Madison Valley which is more of a sleepy neighborhood but Kamp across the street is cute for drinks too. Near the arboretum. These are all kind of bougie - going out to eat in Seattle is $$$ p much no matter where you go sadly!!
Thrifting - we have the biggest Goodwill in the nation (on dearborn) but tbh I’d skip it. Lifelong Thrift & Out of the Closet are the BEST thrift stores.
Parks - The arboretum is free and really beautiful. Volunteer park has a lot of flowers rn and a water tower with skyline views. Seward park is an old growth forest that can give you a lil taste of the PNW woods in the city. Kubota Japanese Garden is free and gorgeous. Volunteer Park Gas Works is made of an old power plant and has views of the lake. Cal Anderson is in the middle of Capitol Hill and isn’t as pretty as the other parks but there’s always a lot of people and dogs around to watch.
Things to do - Kremwerk complex is good for dancing, there’s a lot of good independent movie theaters in Seattle like the Beacon, Northwest Film Forum, and Grand Illusion that play interesting stuff. Itsumono in the international district is my favorite bar, one of the few bars in the city where strangers will actually talk to each other.
Hope you enjoy your time here!!
Related Recs
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If you’re into touristy stuff:
• Pike‘s Place Market
• Seattle Aquarium
• The gum wall (There’s a good anarchist book store nearby called Leftbank Books)
If you’re into parks/the outdoors:
• UW Botanic Gardens and Arboretum - very impressive botanical collection
• Discovery Park - great hikes
• Gasworks Park - amazing view of the Seattle Skyline
• Alki beach - I haven’t actually been here but everyone has good things to say
If you’re into museums:
• National Nordic Museum in Ballard
• Frye Art Museum
• Seattle Art Museum
Food/drinks:
• JarrBar (downtown) - good cocktails and tinned fish
• Chop Suey (capitol hill area) - fun late night spot with dive bar vibes
• Bar Sabine (Ballard) - best brunch place I’ve ever been to probably
• Cafe Flora (central district) - very yummy vegetarian spot
• Pho Bac - delicious pho spot, I think there’s two locations
6d ago
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Free stuff: Frye Art Museum, Arboretum, Kubota Gardens, Gas Works Park, Kerry Park has the best view of the city
Places to eat: Itsumono, Kedai Makan, Taurus Ox, many many hot pot places
Lifelong thrift is the best thrift store, the monorail & the ferries are cute, Foreign National best bougie drinks, Scarecrow Video is the biggest video store left in the US!
6d ago
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food:
- un bien in ballard, make caribbean sandwiches (#1 sandwich in washington, #2 in the states) if you do nothing else eat here
- teriyaki, spots are a dime a dozen and are all pretty similar but it started here and is pretty delicious. j kenji lopez alt has been running around seattle eating at all of them recording shorts
- bangrak market, sit-down thai in belltown. good eats good ambience good music
(honorable mentions: pink door near pike place market if you like italian / seafood, dick’s drive in if you’re sloshed and need something to soak up booze for cheap - dick’s is a seattle institution)
parks: weather’s already nice as hell so going to a park with a joint is a go to if you don’t wanna spend any money but wanna kill some time. my top two:
- gasworks. retired gas plant turned into public art display on lake union. best park in seattle imo
- cal anderson. it’s on the hill so it’s usually active, has a skate park if you wanna watch people do tricks, lot of people bring their dogs off leash, sometimes there’s volleyball or live music, just a real happening spot where a lot of people congregate in when it’s warm
(honorable mentions: green lake park, kerry park, volunteer park, jefferson park)
clubs: seattle nightlife is a toss-up sometimes (i tend to prefer events to venues personally) but kremwerk is reliable. i don’t drink so i don’t have a lot for you by way of bars but i’ve heard great things about comet tavern, still liquor largely depends on the night but can be cool, six arms is inoffensive, and sugar hill has a second floor bar where they spin a lot of music from the bay area
indie: by far seattle’s bread and butter is just cool small businesses. a lot of ’em close earlier but my personal favorites:
- bookstores: left bank books in pike place, elliot bay books on the hill
- record stores: al’s records and games, neptune records in the udistrict. jive time in fremont, empire records in columbia city
- vintage: late night market on the hill, fremont vintage mall in fremont (for volume; prices are gonna be out the ass bc both places are curators. still fun to pop in and look around)
- coffee: station on beacon hill, coffeeholic in columbia city, espresso vivace, overcast coffee on the hill, armistice in roosevelt
- barcades: jupiter bar in belltown, raygun lounge on the hill. a lot grungier / hometown feeling than say, a dave and busters or something comparable
(a lot of these recs are in / accessible from the city center so they’re predominantly white neighborhoods - if you’ve got time to venture farther out i feel like columbia city is def worth the trip - show some love to geraldine’s, island soul, emma’s bbq.)
(also, do tourist-y stuff - skip the space needle and go to columbia center instead, it’s cheaper and taller. pike place is dope and has a lot of really old businesses like holy cow records, golden age collectibles which was the first comic book store in the states, and the gum wall)
Apr 2, 2024
Top Recs from @lobster
I have a very demanding cat who is far too smart for his own good and knows how to manipulate me into doing whatever he wants. And you know what? I love every minute of it. It is an honor to serve 🫡
Feb 11, 2025
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Every time I look something up on Google images, more and more of the results are AI slop. It’s lit a fire under me to collect more books - been looking at the art & fashion sections of used book stores and building up my library. It‘s also nice to have a finite source to seek inspiration from rather than getting caught in an infinite scroll.
Jan 24, 2025
I love hot pot so much that I bought a zojirushi one for home. Perfect for having friends over or for group trips, everyone brings their favorite veggies & meats and you cook and yap the night away.
Jul 9, 2024