Original Starbucks - A Famous Coffee Line

Photo: Gareth Wyn Jones, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)

A stop on Seattle Pike Place and Downtown, a free self-guided tour.

Walk north along Pike Place and you'll probably spot a line outside this narrow storefront at 1912 Pike Place. It's known as the original Starbucks, though it's really the company's first shop in its second home. Three friends, Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl and Gordon Bowker, opened their first store on March 30, 1971, a short walk away on Western Avenue, selling whole coffee beans rather than lattes. About five years later the shop moved here, and it has stayed ever since.

Look up at the sign. It still shows the early brown version of the company's logo, a twin-tailed siren, and the shop keeps an old-fashioned look with worn wooden counters.

You don't need to wait in line to enjoy the scene. This north end of the market is packed with food: bakeries, cheese makers, chowder and dumpling counters, and fruit stands that sometimes hand out samples. Grab a snack here, because the next stop is a perfect picnic spot.

Getting here: Walk north on Pike Place about a block and a half past the main arcade. The store is on the right, on the side away from the water.

Did you know?: The company is named after Starbuck, the first mate in Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick.

Photo op: Cross to the arcade side of Pike Place to fit the whole storefront and its brown sign in the frame above the line.

More on Wikipedia: Original Starbucks · Starbucks

Original Starbucks - A Famous Coffee Line

Stops on this tour