Today’s excerpts from the 2nd edition of FORKING SEATTLE, just released, sketch businesses in the Pike Place Market. Have you already bought your copy? I’d be thrilled if you’d write a quick review on Amazon.com. Thanks!
In 1933, 19-year-old Max Hofstatter arrives in Seattle from his native Munich, carrying a small suitcase and big plans. He’d already apprenticed to a sausage-maker in Germany, so he finds work right away. Then, in 1961, he pulls family recipes out of the suitcase and opens Bavarian Meats in the Pike Place Market: authentic Wieners, Knackwurst, Braunschweiger, and a mildly spicy Bavarian loaf made from pork, veal, and chopped eggs. Today his twin granddaughters, Lynn Hofstatter and Lyla Ridgeway, run the store.
In 1992, at the end of the Cold War in 1989, baker Vladimir Kotelnikov and his family emigrate from Estonia. Three years later, he opens Piroshky Piroshky in the Pike Place Market. The tiny stand sells savory, hand-held Russian pastries (stuffed with meat, cheese, potatoes, and smoked salmon), and is wildly successful. (There’s also a popular Kringle for the holidays.) His son Oliver contributes his $2,000 savings (from moving lawns). After Vladimir retires, Oliver runs the company until 2017, when his ex-wife, Olga Sagan, buys him out.
In 1995, Amanda Bevill opens World Spice Merchants on Western Avenue below the Pike Place Market. With over 200 spices and seasonings, it is a modern day spice bazaar, vibrant and diverse, exploding with flavors from around the globe. There’s garam masala for a carrot cake, Arabic baharatfor a rib-eye, bezar for pork chops, cascaba chili oil for Brussels sprouts, African grains of paradise for a creamy peanut soup. If you don’t have a grinder at home, the staff will grind small quantities for you. Note: in 2017 the Spice of the Year was turmeric. What’s next? Fenugreek? Saffron?
Forking Seattle 
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