By Christopher Howard
Most of us eat at home more than we eat out. And, with better weather and more hours of sun upon us, now is a good time to turn to where to go to stock up on specialty items we might use for entertaining. This month we checked out a number of local specialty food shops, some new, most well established but not always widely known.
Every place we visited provided friendly and helpful service. We expected there to be some significant variety in prices, but when we priced a few specific items that were common to many of them we found price was not usually a big differentiator. (For example, four of these stores carried Kozlik’s “Really Hot” Canadian mustard and the prices were all within pennies of each other.) So, for the most part, go to one of these stores when you have something rare and specific you need that falls in their niche, or for an education. We found each of these places willing to educate, at least within their areas of specialty.
In Belltown
This topic was inspired by our dropping into Mixed Pantry, 2233 1st Ave., Seattle, https://mixedpantry.market, while we were exploring restaurants in Belltown. We were drawn in by the sign outside advertising soy sauce tastings and we were greeted by the friendly and enthusiastic owner. Mixed Pantry is a newer market with a bright and airy interior specializing in Asian sauces and products, many of which are locally sourced. They also use their space to feature artwork.
Mixed Pantry features tastings and culinary events of various themes, including custom events you might request. There is a charge for the soy sauce tasting that drew us in, and specialty tastings are clearly part of their business model. But the owner set up the chili crisp tasting for us without charge. We sampled (and took home) locally sourced product from Seattle and Spokane.
Mixed Pantry was a friendly, fun and educational stop and is worth a visit if you are looking for locally sourced Asian ingredients, or if you want to view the works of whichever local artist they are currently featuring (check their web page for that).
The Mandatory Trip to the Market
It may not be possible to cover specialty food shops in Seattle without
mentioning Delaurenti Food & Wine, 1435 1st Ave., 206.622.0141, https://delaurenti.com/. Right at the main entrance to the Market, Delaurenti’s has long been a go to source for specialty ingredients one might need for entertaining. They have a large selection of meats and cheeses cut to order, and probably the largest selection of prosciutto in town. (And, yes, there is a significant difference in the various options for this aged Italian ham.) Their shelves include large selections of mustards, tomato and pasta sauces, and balsamic vinegars — the last of which being something we have frequented this venue for before.
Like almost all of the specialty shops we visited, Delaurenti’s has a good wine selection including both domestic and imported and some hard to find wines.
Delaurenti’s was bustling with tourists when we visited, and they do a healthy on-line business. We ran into some tourists who indicated they came to Seattle every year and always stopped at DeLaurenti’s (to buy a specific cheese they could not find elsewhere). There also is a small area in front where one can get a sandwich or panini for lunch to eat there or to go.
Half a block North from Delaurenti’s, Truffle Queen, 1524 Pike Place, 206.292.5555,
https://trufflequeen.com, is a small store right on the main street of the market devoted to all things truffle, and wine. They even carry fresh Italian truffles when in season, but we missed that by a week (and you do not want to know the price). If you are not in the market for truffle oil or a similar product, they host wine tastings and also have wine slushies on tap. The slushie choices when we visited were sangria (dark red and fruity) and blood orange rose. We tried the blood orange rose and found it refreshing and surprisingly strong. The slushie is served “sealed” so that it is legal to take it out of the shop (not that we are suggesting you should unseal it as you walk through the market — seek your own legal advice on that).
Around the corner from Truffle Queen, right where Post
Alley joins Pike Place, sits El Mercado Latino, 1514 Pike Place, 206.623.4230, https://pikeplacelatinmerchant.com/, specializing in Caribbean, South American, Spanish, and Creole Foods. They carry a large selection of hot sauces, packaged foods (Goya brands and others) and pre-measured packages of spices, herbs, salts, etc., the latter also being offered online. This is the place to go for the standardized shelf products marketed in Latin America (even if Goya is headquartered in New Jersey). The packages of spices, etc., may be convenient if you need to pick up a small amount while you are in the area, but other bulk suppliers, such as Big John’s PFI and even PCC, will be less expensive with much of the same selection.
On Western, just below the market we found the Paris Grocery, also known as the Paris Madrid Grocery, 1418 Western Ave., 206.682.0679, https://parismadridgrocery.com/. This establishment specializes in food, wine, cooking supplies and utensils (think Paia pans) from France, Spain, and Portugal, and from nowhere else. The store closed January 31 when the prior owner retired but it is now reopened as of late March with new ownership.
Paris Grocery has a large selection of cheeses, pate, charcuterie, chorizo, etc. No prosciutto, that is Italian, but a good selection of French and Spanish cured meats including Serano ham. And, of course, about half the shop is wine, including ports and sherries.
The new ownership also owns the Harvest Vine Restaurant, a Basque restaurant in Madison Valley. They plan to change the name of the store to Harvest Vine Market in the foreseeable future, and this is already mentioned on their Facebook page, but the market sill will feature imports from the same three countries.
South of Town
Another of the well-established niche shops has been Big John’s PFI which we found at its new (about four years) location, 1608 Dearborn St., Seattle, 206.324.6670, https://www.bigjohnspfi.com/. If you ever shopped at the old PFI on 6th South, you will not recognize this new location as the same store. It is brightly lit new construction with lots of windows — close to the opposite of the old location’s cave-like (some people said “scary”) atmosphere.
PFI is one of the better sources for a wide selection of imported, mostly European, food and ingredients, and for the wide variety of ingredients in bulk, including some that can be hard to find somewhere else. We come here mostly for the latter, the bulk items including Szechuan pepper, crushed nora flakes, bulk dry beans, and bulk polenta. We were tasked by a friend to find lupini (or lupin) beans, an ancient Mediterranean bean known to be part of the diet of ancient Egyptians and Romans. We found both in bulk and packaged in water at PFI (and we did not easily find them elsewhere).
In addition to the bulk items, PFI’s cheese counter is quite large, bigger than Delaurenti’s, and mostly imported. We always check out the cans, bottles, and dry goods for imported condiments and staples. And, of course, they have a wine section. Not everything is bargain priced, but, with an ever changing selection, there are bargains to be found.
Inter-Bay and on to Ballard
We headed North from downtown with our first stop at ChefShop, 1425 W. Elliott Ave., 206.286.9988, https://www.facebook.com/chefshop/, noticeable as a bright yellow building on the West side of Elliott just South of the Magnolia Bridge. This store has a very eclectic mix of specialty items, including a wide selection of “single blossom” honeys, nougat, bitters, fish sauces, and koji. The store has a wholesale operation supplying restaurants with certain Asian products, but that is only a small part of the interesting products they carry.
After a brief chat with the owner, it became clear that the distinguishing feature of ChefShop is that the owner has tasted everything they carry in the store. This is a store where the shopper can get an education about the products and the alternatives. And the recommendation was not always for the more expensive alternative. This is definitely a shop where one can come in for one item and come out with three or four.
Further along Elliott, after it crosses the Ballard Bride and becomes 15th N.W., we came to Scandinavian Specialties, 6719 15th Avenue N.W. (across the street from Ballard High School), 206.784.7020, https://www.scanspecialties.com/. This was a bit of nostalgia for those of us who can remember a time when one could hear Norwegian or Swedish spoken on the streets of Ballard; there was once a multitude of Scandinavian stores, bakeries, and restaurants in Ballard, but now, Scandinavian Specialties may be the last one, celebrating its 60th year in business.
They have Danish cheeses, a large selection of fish cakes and other fish products, all things Lingonberry (jam, juice, candies), and a surprisingly large candy selection to which we fell prey. This is also the place to go for Scandinavian clothing and jewelry items (think Norwegian flag earrings).
Scandinavian Specialties has a café area. We tried the salmon quiche. It was good enough that we will get it again, possibly to go, on a future trip to Ballard. And the Swedish Mints we bought disappeared within a day, so we are planning a return trip.
We hope you have enjoyed this non-restaurant issue (for Dining In, so to speak).
Dining Out is coordinated by Christopher Howard, who, together with friends and family, is out to explore new gastronomic options around Seattle and on the road. Please send comments and suggestions to him at chh@f2t.com or 206.669.5956.
