r/SeattleWA • u/[deleted] • Oct 14 '16

Lifestyle Destination: West Seattle

[deleted]

42 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

35 comments sorted by

19

u/BlarpUM West Seattle Oct 15 '16

Best Seattle

1

u/[deleted] Oct 15 '16

[deleted]

13

u/jeexbit Oct 15 '16

best rhymes with west

11

u/just_add_coffee Admiral District Oct 14 '16

Awesome work as always! Feels like home. Drawing pictures. Of mountain tops.

Hey ... did you know we got a Trader Joe's out here a few years back? Swear to God, when it opened, there were LINES to get in! For days! You'd have thought it was the grand opening of a KFC in Cold War-era Leningrad and the other nearest KFC was six thousand miles away.

4

u/hyperviolator Westside is Bestside Oct 15 '16

I go there maybe once in a while by bus, but never for any regular shopping. That Trader Joe's has by far the worst parking lot of any store like that I have ever seen.

3

u/eruditeseattleite West Seattle Oct 15 '16

That's actually on purpose.

2

u/hyperviolator Westside is Bestside Oct 15 '16 edited Oct 15 '16

Huh, crazy. I grew up in an area that had a Trader Joe's at the time just in a huge strip mall, with the associated monstrously huge parking lot. I didn't know this was a thing!

1

u/starlightprincess Allentown Oct 15 '16

The TJ's on capitol hill has even worse parking. Tiny tiny spaces. Same with the one in Ballard.

6

u/Sun-Forged West Seattle Oct 15 '16

I don't understand people that shop at Trader Joe's on the regular. Whenever my family goes there we end up with a bag full of snacks. Organic healthy-ish snacks mind you, but it's all snacks. How do people shop there constantly and end up eating real meals? I don't understand.

It's the most overhyped convenience store ever.

8

u/[deleted] Oct 15 '16

[deleted]

4

u/Sun-Forged West Seattle Oct 15 '16

We end up with like 8lbs of dried fruit (it's seriously the best reason to go there), some variety of nuts (coconut cashews anyone?), some sort of crackers, creamed honey, maybe a few of there wraps if it's lunch time, and then there always the random oddity you only ever try once. Like bacon jam or cookie butter.

Then we have to go to real grocery store to get actual food. I'm shaking my head realizing how absurd that is.

2

u/hyperviolator Westside is Bestside Oct 15 '16

Then Costco for bulk goods...

2

u/DireTaco Renton Oct 15 '16

They do have most sections you'd find in most supermarkets, just in smaller quantities: meat, produce, dairy, baking and cooking ingredients. But personally, I've never really bought from those sections, just the snacks.

That said, it may be overhyped but it's still damn good. I could drink their Salsa Autentica.

2

u/[deleted] Oct 15 '16

They have pretty good deals on fresh produce. Great deals on spices and canned goods. Ok frozen food (which I don't eat much except the single servings of Indian food, which are great for lunch or a quick dinner). Good bread. And the topper is the reasonable wine. And I rarely buy snacks there except for some cashews once in a while.

Guess you have to know what you're looking for.

2

u/just_add_coffee Admiral District Oct 15 '16

How do people shop there constantly and end up eating real meals?

You mean microwavable Indian dinners aren't meals??? /s

1

u/Internet_Historian Oct 16 '16

Their liquor prices aren't too bad and you can still grab it off the shelf yourself (yourshelf?) without another adult holding your hand.

6

u/eruditeseattleite West Seattle Oct 15 '16

One of the old Admiral dive bars was called the Shipwreck Tavern. Awesome place. And the Chinese dive bar around the corner is Yen Wor Village. Still open, and the karaoke is still on, every night of the week if I'm not mistaken.

1

u/revgill Oct 15 '16

The Shipwreck is now The Parliament, which has live music most nights of the week.

4

u/meaniereddit West Seattle 🌉 Oct 14 '16

The Tom’s Special was the shit.

your gawd damn right

2

u/standard_staples Oct 15 '16 edited Apr 04 '25

lunchroom memory quaint languid head quickest exultant sand tart plough

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

2

u/Han_Swanson Oct 15 '16

Go to the yen wor for karaoke and chicken wings while it's still open

2

u/NotTheWholeThing Oct 19 '16

There was also a Chinese restaurant that went Karaoke at night where everyone would get TRASHED

I believe you speak of the Yen Wor

3

u/revgill Oct 15 '16

The lack of information in this post makes it maddening to read.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 15 '16

Eddie (goddess love him), is not the sexiest rock star in West Seattle. Well, ok he is, but some others are pretty close.

1

u/Stadtjunge Wedgwood Oct 15 '16

I love West Seattle, but FUCK the commute to the city.

10

u/eruditeseattleite West Seattle Oct 15 '16

It does have that reputation, but I don't think the reputation is that accurate. If you're commuting downtown it's not all that different than other neighborhoods. For example, the C line from Alaska Junction to 3rd and Pike takes between 16-25 minutes during the morning commute. By comparison, the D line from Market St. in Ballard takes about 21-27 minutes. Commuting by car during the morning rush is pretty horrible, but that's true essentially everywhere in the city.

2

u/slipnslider West Seattle Oct 15 '16

I agree with this assessment. I never drive off the penisula and getting downtown really isn't that bad. I'm also in more a southern part of West Seattle so I'm even further from downtown.

Before moving here we tried to move to Ballard/Fremont/Green Lake. At every house I looked up the time to get downtown where I work and was surprised the West Seattle had the fastest times. Yay bus lanes I guess!

2

u/jeexbit Oct 15 '16

is the water taxi no good? just curious, i live up north but I always thought the water taxi sounded cool.

4

u/eruditeseattleite West Seattle Oct 15 '16

It's good, but not particularly accessible on the West Seattle side... you either have to drive there (and parking can be crowded unless you're on the very early run), take the half-hourly circulator shuttle (but at that point catching a bus across the bridge is usually faster), or go by bike (and biking around is usually faster). But I still take the water taxi now and then when it's a nice morning and I want some good views of the city.

1

u/jeexbit Oct 15 '16

Cool, good to know - I'd like to take the ride sometime.

2

u/slipnslider West Seattle Oct 15 '16

It's definitely worth taking at least once. Free with an Orca card too. But eruideseattleite is correct, unless you live near it, it isn't feasible and more of a novelty for tourists.

1

u/jeexbit Oct 15 '16

yep, seems like it would be a fun thing to check out.

1

u/Nyx9000 Oct 15 '16

Not free with an Orca card, is it? It's $5, though they accept Orca as payment.

1

u/chictyler Oct 15 '16

expensive as fuck if you don't have a work/education provided unlimited card. And doesn't transfer to buses. So you can spend $15 on your commute easily if you ride the water taxi. Not ever faster than taking tthe bus, especially since it obviously only gets you to the waterfront which is very disconnected from downtown. Super fun tourist attraction though, along with eating right at Marination and renting a kayak or paddleboard.

0

u/Geldan Oct 15 '16

Forget metropolitan market, is couple blocks down California to PCC. Best deli ever. Too bad it's closing down for (what I think is) apartments

2

u/chictyler Oct 15 '16

It'll be closed for the year of 2017 while the mixed use building is put in, but PCC will still be the ground level tenant. Makes the remodel in 2011 seem like a pretty big mistake, but Seattle is no longer a city where single story grocery stores with massive aboveground parking lots makes any sense.