What Time Does Pike Place Market Open? Here’s What You Need to Know

Updated: July 10, 2025

Though we start our tours at 10 AM at the Pike Place Market, many people ask us what time the Pike Place Market is open. One can see vendors arriving as early as 6 AM, especially for the Fish Mongers at Pike Place Fish. They get an early start so they can start chopping ice, which is a tougher job than you might think. Their hands are cut up from the day before getting up early and chopping ice. You can usually start making your purchase at the fish and produce stalls at 7 AM.

Pure Food Fish Market – This is our favorite place to get smoked salmon, so if you need something to grab and go in the morning, this might be the perfect place to get an early morning treat. They also have one of the best websites for any business in the market with a great blog and recipes for seafood.

Pure Foods Fish in Seattle

One can get an early breakfast at the market as early as 6:00 am. For a few early morning restaurants,7 AM you might want to check out the following.

Starbucks – The original Starbucks store keeps to its roots and only serves coffee and espresso, but you can purchase food at many of the local vendors in the Pike Place Market.

6 am – 8 pm

Storyville Coffee Company – This is our favorite coffee shop within the market. They also have Gluten free pastries available. They have a beautiful interior and nice view overlooking Pike Place so you can watch all the early morning market activity

7:59 AM to 4 PM, every day

La Panier – Billed as a “Very French Bakery” this is a wonderful location to start your day off. Here are just a few tasty items you can enjoy there.

Viennoiseries:

Croissant au beurre – always, only with butter.

Pain au chocolat – French chocolate, of course.

A l’abricot – filled with apricot preserves.

Amandine – crème d’amande.

A la framboise – filled with raspberry preserves.

Chocolatine – chocolate with crème d’amande.

Roulé aux noix – croissant with walnuts.

Brioche- buttery egg bread. Tresse & Brioche Nantaise on weekends.

Pain aux raisins – croissant with sugared raisins. Croissant aux fruits – pastry cream topped with apples or apricots.

Everyday 7:00am to 6:00pm

The Athenian – Reasonable prices, great breakfast menu and an icon in the market since 1909. The Athenian was also on the big screen where a scene with Tom Hanks and Rob Reiner was filmed. Plaques were installed to denote the exact location where filming took place. This is the corner of the restaurant’s counter, right near the main entrance.

Monday – Saturday 11 am – 7 pm

Sunday 11 am – 4 pm

Lowell’s Restaurant & Bar – They have a great breakfast menu here and have some great seafood choices for breakfast including House Cured Wild Salmon Lox and a Northwest Dungeness Crab Eggs Benedict.

Sunday – Thursday from 8 am until 4 pm

Friday – Saturday from 8 am until 4:30 pm

Once you get your day started in the market, you can expect most places to be open until 6 PM. After this it’s mostly the restaurants and bars in the market that continue operation until the above last call at 1:30 and closing at 2 AM. Technically the Market is open 19.5 hours a day, 362 days a year.

As a general guideline with above-mentioned locations

Merchants on main arcade level:
Monday thru Saturday, 9 am to 6 pm
Sunday 9 am to 5 pm

Stores on lower levels:
Monday thru Sunday, 11 am to 5 pm

The Pike Place Market is closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day.

What to See and Do in the Pike Place Market

Pike Place Market in Seattle

The Pike Place Market is the heart and soul of the city. Starting in 1907 on the corner of First and Pike Place, the market has been continuously running ever since. With over 10 million visitors per year, tourists and locals love this place.

Between the summers of 1906 and 1907, food prices rose sharply in Seattle. Onions that had been ten cents a pound were now a $1 (keep in mind John Nordstrom sold a pair of new shoes for $2 a pair). The boom in prices followed the increase in lumber prices following the San Francisco earthquake and fire in April of 1906. But also because the middlemen were gouging the consumer. Due to this frustration, the Seattle City Council passed an ordinance for Pike Place as a site for a farmer’s market and the Pike Place Market was born.

The first day only seven farmers showed up to sell their produce. Rumors from threatening boycotts by middlemen to death threats made its way around the city. This didn’t stop over 10,000 people from showing up that day. The first day was such a success that the next Saturday, over 70 farmers made their way to the market with just as many waiting customers.

Continue reading →