Pike Place Starbucks Store

After lunch at Seafood City, Val drove Danny and I to the historic Pike Place Market in the downtown core of Seattle, Washington,.  Once parked, we walked towards the Pike Place Starbucks Store (also known as the Original Starbucks), the first Starbucks store in the world.

Check out “Pikes Place Market“

The store front

A known tourist attraction, it was hosting crowds during our visit. In fact, they say there was never a day without The Line which winds out the door and stretches down the street but it also keeps on moving as the baristas there are said to be as good as any on the planet.

However, many people, just like us, didn’t come to 1912 Pike for a cup of coffee. Instead, we came to experience the place where it all began. Founded in 1971, the store was opened by Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl and Gordon Bowker, three partners who were inspired by Alfred Peet of Peet’s Coffee to open the store and sell high-quality, freshly roasted coffee beans, tea and spices from around the world to take home as well as coffee making equipment and accessories.

The store interior

The name was inspired by the  Moby Dick, the 1851 classic tale of Herman Melville, which evoked the romance of the high seas and seafaring tradition of early coffee traders.  The name of the store was originally going to be called Cargo House or Pequod (Captain Ahab”s hip in the book), but the brand consultant (who also designed the chain’s logo , produced from an old 1800s map), but decided on Starbuck, the first mate and no-nonsense crew member on the Perquod. Starbos is also the name of a mining town which features in the book.

Everything in the entire store, truly one of a kind, is original, from the floors, the fixtures, the counters, etc.  They also still proudly display the brass labels that were on their bulk coffee bins in 1971.  However, while it commonly referred to as the first Starbucks location, the current address is the second for the Pike Place store as, for five years, the first restaurant was located at 2000 Western Avenue. In 1977, it moved one block away to 1912 Pike Place where it has been in continuous operation ever since.

Val Salgado, the author and Danny Macaventa outside the store

The sign outside this branch, unlike others, features the original logo – a seductive, bare-breasted siren that was modeled after a 15th-century Norse woodcut. It also features a pig statue called “Pork’n Beans,” a sculpture created locally for the 2001 Pigs on Parade competition that raised money for the Pike Place Market Foundation.

Starbucks logo from 1971 to 1987

Pike Place Starbucks Store: 1912 Pike Place, Seattle 98101, Washington .  Tel: +1 206-448-8762. Coordinates: 47.609899°N 122.342441°W.