Don't ask me to choose my favorite Market restaurant and bar. I can't. But here's a list of 10 places I absolutely love.
Café Campagne
1600 Post Alley, 206-728-2233
Fancy French Campagne's little sister sits along Post Alley, where sidewalk tables are the hot-seats in summer and cassoulet makes winter so much bearable. Here's the place for petit dejeuner, an afternoon pâté or les entrees like steak frites or buttery truite aux amandes.
Chez Shea/Shea's Lounge
94 Pike St., Suite 34, 206-467-9990
Sitting side-by-side, this dynamic Corner Market duo is both a casual lounge act and a romantic sophisticate whose various menus couple Pacific Northwest seasonality with a French sensibility.
Jack's Fish Spot
1514 Pike Place, 206-467-0514
What you see (fresh local fish in the retail case) is what you get at the counter bar (raw, steamed, fried or soupified). Beer-battered shellfish and freshest finfish — with "chips" cut to order — don't get much better than these.
Le Pichet
1933 First Ave., 206-256-1499
By day I'll commune with a cup of coffee and gateau au foie de volaille (that's fancy French-speak for the world's best chicken liver schmear). And I'm always willing to share — and wait a full hour for — a just-roasted chicken-for-two.
Matt's in the Market
94 Pike St. # 32, 206-467-7909
Fans (count me among them) can hardly wait for the grand (re)opening of this newly expanded Corner Market hidey-hole, where more tables and — yes! — cocktails await. It will still be small, but they're broadening the menu (keeping my old favorites like the oyster sandwich and clams piri piri), extending hours (weekend brunch!) and increasing our Market view. Thanks, Matt!
Oriental Kitchenette
1506 Pike Place, 206-622-8488
"Aunties" Lila and Joy keep their customers satisfied at this Filipino fast-food kitchen construct, where the house specialty is chicken adobo and and my standing order is a bowlful of bone-y salmon soup with mustard greens.
Place Pigalle
81 Pike St., 206-624-1756
The bar at this little hideaway with a big view is my idea of the perfect place for a romantic tryst: with a Mariana cocktail, a warm scarlet-beet salad and something seductive (scallops? salmon?) from the sea.
Steelhead Diner
95 Pine St., 206-625-0129
Who needs pie in the sky when I can sit in front of chef Kevin Davis and start with a slice of his caviar pie (the ultimate appetizer), finish with pecan pie (with a big fluff of bourbon whipped cream) and spoon some glorious gumbo in-between.
The Whitehorse Trading Co.
1908 Post Alley, 206-441-7767
Isn't that Harry Potter playing cribbage in the corner with Bill Sykes? Could be. Joe the publican has a novelist's nose for drama and sets his magical British stage accordingly at this book-centric barman's boite. Find him here pouring imported beer and concocting his version of a wine-soaked "Pimm's."
Zig Zag Café
1501 Western Ave., #202, 206-625-1146
Before dinner out, or after, this Hillclimb extraordinaire gets the cocktail hour right — regardless of the hour. Seattle's sensational barkeep, Murray Stenson, oversees the action most nights, down below the Market-proper.
For more information about restaurants and bars, see the dining and shopping guide from Pike Place Market PDA.