STRANGERCROMBIE WINNER! This article was bought-and-paid-for in The Stranger’s annual charity auction—which this year raised more than $50,000 for the Seattle nonprofit Treehouse, helping foster kids since 1988. Thank you, everybody!

Do not let anyone tell you Lowell’s in Pike Place Market is for
tourists. Lowell’s—aka “the living room of the Market”—is
absolutely tourist-friendly, but it is also for locals and rock stars
and everyone from the Market and you, whoever you are. Pretty much
everybody loves Lowell’s, and Lowell’s loves every-
body back,
pretty much unconditionally.

In the tourist category, no less than the travel section of the
New York Times has recognized Lowell’s goodness, back in
2005:

“There may be no place in Seattle better to eat before 8:00 a.m. than
the second story of Lowell’s, a restaurant nestled into the Pike Place
Market and overlooking Elliott Bay. Its interior owes nothing to
fashion and much to wood stain and the large windows that overlook the
ferry terminal far below…. As the Seattle architect Fred Bassetti
once said of the Market itself, it is ‘an honest place in a phony
time.’ The coffee is rich and flavorful, the waitresses kind, and the
salmon scramble—comprising hot-smoked salmon with eggs and green
onion, accompanied by thick, buttery sourdough bread—is as
perfect an entrance drug as anyone hoping to tempt addiction to West
Coast salmon could devise.”

While the Times may be forgiven for waxing rhapsodic,
Lowell’s is not the kind of place where you’re likely to hear the word
“comprising.” It is indeed an honest place, an unpretentious landmark
that also happens to have a sense of humor. Its slogan, printed on the
front of the scuffed menus, is “ALMOST CLASSY,” a summation of Lowell’s
spirit that came to general manager Mark Monroe when he was shooting
the breeze with some of the staff. Also on the front of the menu, for
no particular reason, is a wrench. The staff’s been known to gather on
the second story, interior side, to mess with passers-by in the Market
below by flashing a laser pointer on specific pieces of fruit.

Monroe’s the best kind of motormouth, full of funny stories and
no-bullshit observations, and, underneath it all, clearly more than a
little bit in love with Lowell’s. He’s run the place for 10 years, but
to hear him tell it, he’s just letting it be itself. His managerial
philosophy: “Don’t fuck it up.” He elaborates: “It’s been around
forever, so leave it alone.”

“Forever” is approximately correct—Lowell’s is now more than a
century old. In the beginning, it was a coffee- and nut-roaster with a
cafeteria. The sepia-toned old-timey photos you’ll find on the walls
are actually of Lowell’s; the wait station on the second level is an
antique walnut bureau because it’s always been there, not because
someone thought it looked quaint. (“That thing’s held together with
spit and gum!” Monroe says.)

So many rock stars have hid out at Lowell’s that Monroe finds it
hard to remember them. Artists playing at the nearby Showbox often come
by; Steve Earle and Lucinda Williams were in recently. Eric Clapton was
able to dine a month or so ago unpestered. (“I did buy his breakfast,”
Monroe says. “He got me through some really tough times in my life, sad
and listening to Cream in my room.”)

A regular named Skip has been coming in every day since 1975; the
Market’s famous fish throwers hang out here, as do other vendors.
Monroe gets as close to reverence as he can go when he talks about his
neighbors: Harry, who’s sold seafood at Pure Food Fish Market two doors
down every day (save four days in August) since he came back from the
Vietnam War; Lina of Lina’s, who runs the produce stand across from
Lowell’s and who works nonstop except for church on Sundays. As far as
Lowell’s staff: Brandi, one of the bartenders, makes organic
bacon–infused vodka for the Lowell’s Hangtown Mary, a specialty
that she and Monroe invented after a few drinks. It’s got a raw oyster
in it, and it’s a lifesaver. Brandi, daytime bartender Kittie, the
waitstaff, the four cooks—Juan, Juan, Hugo, and Alex—these
are the real rock stars of Lowell’s.

People love the big-ass breakfasts, the excellent clam chowder, the
Famous Fish & Chips, the crab cakes (from the recipe of Tom
Douglas, who comes in sometimes), the Big Fresh Market Salads (topped
with blackened wild Alaskan king salmon or Dungeness crab or any number
of other deliciousnesses). The prices are notable only insofar as
there’s no whopping tourist tax: A bowl of soup’s $5.95, a ground
sirloin cheeseburger’s nine bucks. The first and third floor are
order-at-the-counter, then your food is brought to you; the second
floor—the place to be, per the NYT—is table service
and home to the beloved bar.

When it comes to lavish praise like that of the Times, Monroe
demurs: “It’s not really that it’s the best—it’s just fresh, with
a view you can’t beat.” The fish comes from Harry, two doors down; the
produce comes from Lina, six steps or so away. The view comes from, if
not heaven, someplace very much like it—the slate gray or
sparkling Sound with its ridiculously picturesque ferries; the islands
and ridges covered in dark firs; on a clear day, the distant, noble
mountains. That Lowell’s remains, almost classy and entirely itself a
hundred years on, is pretty much a miracle. recommended

24 replies on “Better Than Classy”

  3. I don’t get it. This was an “auction winner” so it was paid for? So who wrote it the restaurant? Shouldn’t that be more clear? What a piece of garbage, why are you wasting our time with fake restaurant reviews???

  4. I hate, hate, hated the drink after one sip and politely asked to exhange it for another – the waitress was rude and condescending in her refusal to help me out. I won’t go back.

  6. Ahh!! If I wanted to read an advertisement for the restaurant I would have checked their own page, not here!

    “People love the big-ass breakfasts, the excellent clam chowder…”

    Who loves these things? Why? What are they like? The point of a review is to describe the food and experience that you had, and that one can therefore expect to have should they decide to go there, not just promote the place without any explanations. Next week print a real review that might actually help and inform people!

  9. Yet again, a restaurant review where some people hate the food, and others love it. Thanks for nothing, people. Now I don’t know if I should go or not.

  12. I don’t get it. This was an “auction winner” so it was paid for?
    Yes it’s The Stranger’s annual charity auction

    So who wrote it the restaurant? No

    Shouldn’t that be more clear? No it is clear who wrote the article.
    Better Than Classy
    Lowell’s Rules the World by Bethany Jean Clement

  16. I love Lowell’s. Had a friend who ate their Caesar salad every workday for five years. She was clearly addicted – but their Caesars are really good (and there are so many bad ones around).

    On the other hand, my sister was visiting and accidentally spilled her wine after taking it upstairs. The staff person said, “Let me get you another.” My sister said, “Thank you!” But we were charged for it. Would it have killed their bottom line to have given her a replacement glass gratis?

  17. used to have cheap coffee

    view is teriffic

    tons of men to cruise – food is OK, but, well priced

    have been there hundreds of times over the years, just a part of shopping in the market

    now to go make my leek soup, yes, market produce

  19. As somebody who has worked there, just don’t bother. It’s enticing for the view and the old-diner feel but it’s the antithesis to Market food. There’s one item on the menu that’s fresh from the market normally and the rest of the food comes from fucking Sysco, which is some of the nastiest shit I’ve seen in all of my stints in food service. It should be illegal to grill a frozen precooked low grade chicken breast and sell it for 10 bucks on a sandwich, no matter how high the overhead is.

    That, and Mark (the manager) is a total dick.

  21. I was once a Lowell’s regular and on behalf of regulars everywhere, we don’t want you fucks in or critiquing our space anyway. So go home and keep your whine-ass bitching to yourself. Go stand somewhere and bob your head to death cab, fuckin’ emo-pussies.

  22. Geez, lotta haters out there, eh? These guys gave some money to charity and the stranger gave them some honest press (from our experience) its not like it was a glowing blowjob! You negative people are either pissed at someone there, jealous or just pricky people to begin with. Lowell’s does a great job at what they do and they dont treat it like a Red Robin or the other end of the spectrum… a yuppie-sell-hole.

  24. Once again Kip Schoning feels compelled to post a negative comment. He is 4 for 4. Apparently nothing is good enough for his refined palate.

    Want a real laugh? Google Kip Schoning. You will see that he is even a much bigger ass whip that he seems.

    If I was in the financial mess he is in. 20 foreclosures this year and almost 40 more coming up, I would stop blogging get a real job and pay my bills!!!

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