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City Cast Seattle

Keep It Local by City Cast Seattle spotlights local businesses we love and provides personal, curated, and neighborly recommendations that will help you live your best Seattle life. So, if you’re ready to ditch the national chains, e-commerce giants, and big box stores,

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Harry Cheadle

More than 20 years ago, Chris Weimer was working as a “book scout,” someone who bought books at garage sales and thrift shops and flipped them to used bookstores. One day he walked into the University District’s 

, one of his favorite shops, and they told him, “We're not buying books right now. The store's for sale. Do you want to buy a bookstore?”

Turns out he and his wife, Hanna McElroy, did want to buy a bookstore, and in 2004 they took over Magus. By then it was already a 

; the building had housed a bookstore since the 1930s. At one time it was called the Bookworm, then it was an anarchist shop called the Id, then it settled into its current identity as Magus in the 1970s. By the time Weimer and McElroy bought the store, it was known for its great selection of academic nonfiction.

They’ve kept that focus, while also keeping up with the times — they have plenty of romance and graphic novels these days, despite the couple not personally having much of an affinity for those genres. “As long as they're opening a book and actually reading, I personally don't care that much what they're reading,” McElroy says.

You might think that in the age of tiny screens, a resolutely analog shop like Magus would be struggling — but the couple says it’s doing better than ever. At least five times as many books are coming in as there were when the couple bought the shop, McElroy says, since used book sellers have fewer bookstores to go to. They’ve also seen an upswing in customers since the pandemic, and opened the Wallingford Magus “annex” in 2022.

“Our business increased precipitously because people were so sick of staring at their screens, and people were so sick of being isolated and stuck in their houses, and everything's on Zoom,” says McElroy. “Analog, in a lot of ways, has made a huge comeback.”

The couple is getting older and thinking about selling the store — neither of their children wants to take over the business, and McElroy doesn’t see herself as “a little old lady with a cane walking around the store.” But when they do decide to move on from Magus, they’ll leave behind a healthy business and hope that whoever buys it will continue the legacy that stretches back nearly 100 years.

“It's really important that it survives,” McElroy says. “There's no way that there can't be a Magus.”

Magus Books is one of Seattle’s oldest and largest independent used bookstores. Meet the owners and the legacy they hope to leave behind.

Inside Magus Books in Seattle, Washington

Inside the Oldest Used Bookstore on the Ave

Keep It Local

If we left off your favorite bookstore from this list, 

 — we want more used bookstores to visit!

 sure is. It cultivates an eclectic vibe by stocking a ton of old books about the Pacific Northwest, Chinese history, and, as its website puts it, a “dog's breakfast of arcane subjects.” It’s one of the best browsing experiences you can find.

Wednesdays to Sundays, Long Brothers has a bar that serves beer, wine, and pizza, giving you even more reason to check this place out. It gets pretty crowded during First Thursday Art Walks.

 and a local landmark on Capitol Hill thanks to its iconic neon cat sign. Do yourself a favor and say hello to the six store cats and proprietor Jamie Lutton, who is a 

. The store used to be open all night on Fridays so Capitol Hill partiers would have a place to go after the bars. It’s not as anarchic as it was back then, but it’s still a Seattle institution.

 for cat photos plus videos of Lutton talking about books.

🐴 This longtime West Seattle bookstore sells both used and new books, but it really is an exchange. According to its website, Pegasus doesn’t 

, but instead offers store credit and a discount, and that credit goes further when you’re buying used books. This makes Pegasus a great place to trade your old books for some 

Pegasus is open during the West Seattle Farmers Market, but note that it doesn’t accept books for trade then.

‼️ Unlike the other shops on this list, this 

 who swarm the famous market. This means its selection caters a bit more to generalist or popular tastes. It’s still one of the coolest places to hang out when you’re at Pike Place.

BLMF is one of the few Black-owned used bookstores around, and sometimes customers believe the name has something to do with Black Lives Matter. Actually, it stands for Books Like a Mother F**ker.

Bookstores are a portal to other worlds, and there's just something extra special about used bookstores. Check out this guide to Seattle's most iconic and unique shops.

Best Used Bookstores in Seattle, Washington

Our Favorite Used Bookstores in Seattle

The first thing you may notice about the chocolate bars made by 

, a Seattle-based chocolate maker, is that they are typically about $11, sometimes more, for two ounces of chocolate. Cue the complaints about inflation and everything costing too much in Seattle. It’s undeniable that Spinnaker, like many other fancy chocolate producers, sells expensive stuff — their bars aren’t everyday purchases for most people, and some people don’t have enough money to ever contemplate spending that much on a treat.

But my eyes were open to that price tag being worth it a few years ago, when I visited Spinnaker’s old factory in Bryant a few years ago. “Factory” may be the wrong word, since it was a single room where brothers Kelly and Chris Van Arsdale and their team used some custom-made equipment to shell and sort cacao nibs before roasting them and turning them into chocolate. But the small business had already been racking up the awards and accolades, so I was 

Spinnaker, like many small, artisanal chocolate companies, makes “single-origin” chocolate, in which all the cacao in a given product comes from the same place — it’s similar to single-origin coffee, where all the beans in a bag originated from the same country. And just as an Ethiopian coffee tastes different from Costa Rican coffee, chocolate hailing from Uganda has a different flavor profile from chocolate from Belize.

Spinnaker recently moved its production facility to Stone Way in Wallingford, where members of the public can tour the factory or sit and have some drinking chocolate in the cafe. But the star attraction there may be the tables in the front where there are free samples of the chocolate alongside descriptions of tasting notes. If you try one varietal of chocolate after another, it’s a magic trick: The bar made from cacao from Belize (a big award-winner for Spinnaker) has some dark berry sweetness to it, while the Tanzanian chocolate has a mellower, mango-esque aftertaste. I didn’t get any of the lemon zest notes that the Indian bar supposedly had (blame my palate), but I did get honey. If you’re accustomed to eating chocolate that is flavored by adding other elements to it — mint or caramel or fruit — this is a revelation. Just like wine tastes different depending on where the grapes come from, chocolate gets its flavors from the cacao. Instead of drowning out the cacao’s characteristics by adding other stuff to the chocolate, producers like Spinnaker highlight the sometimes subtle, delicate distinctions between regions.

Just like not everyone cares about wine, not everyone is going to care about chocolate. But single-origin chocolate makers have been quietly making the case that chocolate deserves the same kind of respect we give wine — chocolate doesn’t have to be an affordable jolt of sugar, something you cram in between marshmallow and graham cracker. It can be a luxury, something you savor and focus on, something that opens your eyes.

How I Talked Myself Into Loving Fancy Chocolate

 has it all — not only is it a working chocolate factory and cafe, but thanks to its location at the top of Overlook Walk, it has some incredible views. Get a mocha, stay a while, and grab some small-batch, artisanal bars to take home.

Indi offers classes if you want to make your own chocolate. Some of the 

 links are a bit old, so just call for more information: (425) 243-2089.

🎁 This is where you go when you need to get a gift for the adult chocolate fan in your life. Industry legend Fran Bigelow opened her first chocolatier business in 1982 in Madison Valley, and today 

 is inside the Four Seasons Hotel downtown, selling a wide range of truffles, caramels, bonbons, and more.

If you browse Fran’s website, you can find some really knock-em-dead luxury gifts, like a 

 inside a box wrapped in hand-printed washi paper, which costs $195 and looks sick as hell.

🎶 Former Theo’s employee Aaron Lindstrom went out on his own last year to open this combination 

, but it books all sorts of acts, and hosts open mics most Sunday afternoons.

When there isn’t music playing, it makes a fine remote work spot; the cafe serves Vita coffee.

🥭 This small chocolate maker has some 

, including white chocolate (which not a ton of chocolate makers specialize in), plus mango and ginger dipped in chocolate. It even has single-origin chocolate milk infused with botanicals ranging from cinnamon to fennel.

Unlike the other businesses on this list, Bellflower is not generally open to the public, though it sometimes has limited-edition milks (or gelato) that it sells out of its Queen Anne location. Follow Bellflower on 

There are lots of places to buy chocolate in Seattle. This list is places around town that make it. Either they are chocolate makers — meaning they make chocolate out of cacao — or they are chocolatiers, meaning they turn chocolate into truffles and other delicacies.

Some of Seattle's Best Chocolate

Where To Get Some Premium Seattle-Made Chocolate

If you’re a Seahawks fan, you probably have a reliable hat or jersey for game days, but also, if you’re a Seahawks fan, the Super Bowl got you pumped full of endorphins, a chemical that tells your brain to buy

. So here’s where you can fulfill that command.

🌲 If you want new Seahawks gear and don’t want to go to one of the team-run stores on the Eastside or the stadium, 

 — with locations downtown, at Pier 54, and in University Village — should be your go-to. All the stores have great selections of retro and current hats, sweaters, and T-shirts.

Simply Seattle carries a ton of stuff from all Seattle-based teams (plus the WSU Cougs), so there’s something here for every sports fan.

 caters to the fellas. The men’s section (helpfully color-coded) is on the ground floor, and there are a ton of jerseys to pick from — this is the place to go if you want a jersey and don’t want to pay $150 for a new one.

The other thing Breakaway has is a ton of pennants from all over the sporting world, perfect if you want to give your dorm room a splash of color.

🛍️ Head down the stairs to this retro, charmingly ramshackle 

 that has everything, from comics to records to, yes, at least a few pieces of Seahawks memorabilia. If I had $200 to drop on something, I’d consider the signed Kenny Easley jersey or the very choice vintage ‘80s sweater with art by Jack Davis.

Parking in the heart of Fremont is pretty much impossible, so I’d take the bus.

 sells everything you can think of, and that includes a sprinkling of Seahawks gear mixed in with other sports stuff.

The Lemon Grove doesn’t just sell clothes — if you’re here, check out the speakers and other audio equipment on offer.

If you’re a Seahawks fan, you probably have a reliable hat or jersey for game days, but also, if you’re a Seahawks fan, the Super Bowl got you pumped full of endorphins, a chemical that tells your brain to buy something. So here’s where you can fulfill that command.

City Cast's Guide on where to buy Seahawks Gear

Where To Score Great Seahawks Gear

, a shop that sells vintage sports merchandise and clothing, the vintage boom hadn’t really begun yet. It was 2008, and not as many people were trawling thrift stores for hidden treasures to resell. Estolas would hit shops “from Olympia to Bellingham,” he says, and leave with shopping carts full of gold. Now, on a typical trip to a thrift store, he’s lucky to leave with one item worth putting up for sale at Throwbacks.

There’s a lot more competition these days. It seems everyone is a vintage reseller — if not in a brick-and-mortar store, then online. But Estolas established his niche early. If you want vintage jerseys, shirts, hats, and other merch associated with Seattle sports teams, you 

to start your search at Throwbacks. Other stores dabble in that stuff, but Estolas specializes in it. If you come to the Capitol Hill store or the new Throwbacks NW Stadium Collective — on Second Avenue, just steps away from the entrance to Lumen Field — you can score classic ‘90s Sonics T-shirts, vintage Seahawks buttons and hats, and everything you need to relive the glory years when the Mariners were relevant, and the Sonics were in Seattle.

Estolas is so well established in the vintage sports game that he gets a lot of calls from people whose recently departed relatives have left behind collections. People will say, “Oh, my uncle just passed away, but we found this crazy collection that's been sitting in his attic for 40 years. You want to take a look at it?” Estolas says. “That's my favorite type of way to find stuff.”

When I stopped by the Stadium Collective this week, Estolas showed me some of the prized items hanging from the wall, including a couple of vintage World Cup 1994 varsity jackets designed by Jeff Hamilton — if you know who that is, you’ll know why those are on display. But there’s plenty of stuff here for the non-obsessive collector, the person who doesn’t occasionally spend $500 or more on a jacket. I walked away with a $7 Seahawks pin feeling pretty good about the upcoming season.

When Rialto “Rio” Estolas started Throwbacks NW, a shop that sells vintage sports merchandise and clothing, the vintage boom hadn’t really begun yet. It was 2008, and not as many people were trawling thrift stores for hidden treasures to resell. Estolas would hit shops “from Olympia to Bellingham,” he says, and leave with shopping carts full of gold. Now, on a typical trip to a thrift store, he’s lucky to leave with one item worth putting up for sale at Throwbacks. 

A Look Into Vintage Sports Store Throwbacks NW

Throwbacks NW Is a Seattle Sports Fan’s Paradise

, in Pioneer Square, is a small store; if there are 10 people browsing the shelves of notebooks and pens, it feels crowded. But owner Santiago Uribe Montoya still decided to devote a chunk of floor space to a table where customers can test out an array of pens and paper. “We really want people to get a feel for the writing instruments,” says Montoya. You can buy products online from the Outpost, but how a particular pen feels when you hold it, the texture and weight of paper as you write on it — these are things you can’t understand unless you’re in the shop.

In that spirit, I’m here to see what kind of notebook is right for me. I juggle my schedule using a weekly planner, but I also sometimes carry around a reporter’s notebook to scrawl my terrible shorthand into. I’m a little bit particular about these. The typical “reporter’s notebooks” are too big to comfortably fit into a pocket, but the cheapo small notebooks that you can get at pharmacies aren’t durable enough for everyday use. So I asked Montoya for help.

When talking about notebooks with someone, Montoya’s first question is: “What are you going to use the notebook for?” Everything else is downstream of basic function. In my case, I want a small notebook that comfortably fits into my hand, opens vertically to enable quick page-flipping, and is compact enough to fit into a back pocket. Montoya takes me over to the “Shire Shelf,” where the 

 keeps its smaller notebooks. The one that catches my eye immediately is the Rhodia Reporter’s Pad, which is big (but not too big), with a durable, colorful cover and firm paper — I don’t want flimsy paper that can tear if I’m handling it roughly. That paper, Montoya informs me, is 90 grams per square meter, GSM being the typical way a paper’s weight is measured. At 90 GSM, paper feels sturdy but lighter than most construction paper; Montoya gets out some 52 GSM paper as a comparison, and it feels flimsy, almost gossamer-like. I have an instinctive revulsion to it — but that’s why you want to come to a stationery store in person, to see how all these products feel in your hands.

Ultimately, I don’t get the Rhodia notebook, because I don’t have the kind of budget where I can spend $23 on a notebook. But there are lots of more affordable options, including some $5 small notebooks. (On the other end of the spectrum, the Outpost offers some notebooks like one from the Japanese company Hot Cool Tokyo that features a stylized tiger illustration on the front and costs $45.) And even in just a short trip to the Outpost, I feel like I’ve learned something about paper, and something about how to value everyday materials. I’m definitely going to be back to try out some pens.

The Outpost, in Pioneer Square, is a small store; if there are 10 people browsing the shelves of notebooks and pens, it feels crowded. But owner Santiago Uribe Montoya still decided to devote a chunk of floor space to a table where customers can test out an array of pens and paper.

Find Stationery Items from The Outpost

Finding My Forever Notebook at The Outpost

You can get great paper products at many art stores and gift shops around the city, but for this list I’m focusing on places that specialize in stationery.

📚 I feel like everyone would get mad at me if this 

 wasn’t on this list. Kinokuniya is mostly a place to buy manga (in Japanese and English) along with manga-related merch, but if you head upstairs, you’ll find a cornucopia of pens and notebooks. When you’ve read so much manga you want to draw your own, this is where you go.

You can get up to two hours of parking in the Uwajimaya lot provided you spend at least $20 at Uwajimaya, Kinokuniya, or another Uwajimaya Village merchant. Alternatively, the light rail is right next door.

 serves as a printmaking studio for owner Mandolin Brassaw. But it also sells a curated selection of notebooks, pens, scissors, and stamps. It feels like a temple devoted to the arts and crafts of a previous age.

This weekend (Friday to Sunday), Grapheme is hosting an event for the Kaweco DIY Sport, a fountain pen that you can’t buy online but instead assemble yourself at participating stationery stores. It’s walk-in only, but you can let the shop know you’re coming by RSVPing 

🐦‍⬛ Lucca is one of a half-dozen shops along Ballard Avenue that defy categorization and just sell cool stuff. 

 cool stuff is sort of woodland creature-coded, by which I mean that if we lived in a children’s book where all the people were bunnies, mice, etc., the most stylish mice would shop here. The back room is where you’ll find Lucca’s line of greeting cards alongside a ton of paper products and pencils, the ideal place to find a gift for the bookish mouse in your life.

, but everything else has to be purchased in-person. This is the kind of place where you want to go there yourself anyway.

 near Pike Place Market is “all about the cute and functional.” Beyond paper and pens, it sells a ton of pouches, containers, and photo albums — anyone who loves organizational projects, this is your jam.

MochiThings gives away a little paper fan to every customer, and if you spend more than $50 right now, you’ll get a free planner (while supplies last).

Some of the Stationery Shops According to Us

Where To Go on a Stationery Journey in Seattle

Most of South Lake Union, with its shiny high-rises, is literally in the future — AI giant Anthropic just leased 

 of office space here, inside of which it’ll do whatever AI companies do. But right next to the 

 is a pathway that leads to a dock, a cheerful, windworn boathouse, and a fleet of wooden boats — rowboats, canoes, sailboats, and a single small antique steam-powered boat. This is the 

, a nonprofit devoted to preserving the arts of sailing and boat-building.

Wooden boats are “easy, in a sense,” says livery manager Kathleen Lothrop (“livery” just means “boat rental place”). The techniques for building and maintaining these boats have not changed all that much over the years — unlike a lot of pieces of disposable technology, they can be repaired pretty much indefinitely.

“You can literally replace plank after plank, rib after rib, thwart after thwart, knee after knee,” says Lothrop. “Does it cost money? Of course it does. Does it take time? Yes. But is the practice of it going to hold up the integrity of that boat? Yes. And can we continue to do it forever? Absolutely. It's never going to change, and you'll always be able to do it.”

The Center was founded by Dick and Colleen Wagner, a married couple who started renting boats from their houseboat in the late ‘60s, an endeavor that eventually became the livery and museum it is today. The Center offers classes in sailing, maritime first aid, boatbuilding, and a variety of programs for children. You can come here to rent or charter boats, or get a free hour on a small “peapod” rowboat. Once a month, there’s a “

” where anyone can show up to take a ride on one of the Center’s many boats, including a two-masted schooner and the 

, that steam-powered boat. (The next public sail is on August 30.) These programs, Lothrop says, are intended to help Seattleites of all types and all income levels get access to the waterfront. People can learn to sail here, they can take their children out in a rowboat for a blissful hour, they can volunteer, they can fall in love with the water.

“It's funny how many people come down here, and they say, ‘I've lived here for X amount of time, and I didn't know this existed,’” says Lothrop.

Most of South Lake Union, with its shiny high-rises, is literally in the future — AI giant Anthropic just leased 113,00 square feet of office space here, inside of which it’ll do whatever AI companies do. But right next to the Museum of History and Industry is a pathway that leads to a dock, a cheerful, windworn boathouse, and a fleet of wooden boats — rowboats, canoes, sailboats, and a single small antique steam-powered boat. This is the Center for Wooden Boats, a nonprofit devoted to preserving the arts of sailing and boat-building.

Learn About Boats at the Center For Wooden Boats

The Center for Wooden Boats Is a Gateway to Another World

There are rental spots all over Seattle’s various waterfronts — consider this a sampling of what’s available. Walk-ins are welcome at most of these locations, but reservations are recommended.

 offers classes in everything from kayaking on the sea to whitewater trips. You can also buy all sorts of gear and get your suits and kayaks repaired. If you’re just getting into kayaking, though, you can come here to rent boats and explore Lake Union.

The hours here shift depending on the season; it closes earlier as the sun sets earlier. Consult the website for more 

🏃 Tired of running around Green Lake? Go across it instead. This 

 offers pedal boats, kayaks, row boats, and paddle boards, ideal for low-key or family outings.

If you need a little pick-me-up, they also sell coffee and breakfast sandwiches here.

🌊 If you want a more guided boating experience, 

 — located next to the West Seattle Water Taxi stop — offers tours across Elliott Bay to the Alki Lighthouse and sunset tours around the mouth of the Duwamish River. Check the 

 for more information about timing and which tours are available when.

🌲 A great way to explore the southern half of Lake Washington is to grab a paddle board or kayak from the Adams Street location of 

, not far from Seward Park. Lake Washington Boulevard has a gorgeous view, why not get 

 but cars can still drive onto the Adams Street boat launch — just look out for cyclists and pedestrians as you cross Lake Washington Boulevard.

🔥 You may have seen these hot tub boats around Lake Union. They are what they sound like — boats that double as hot tubs, so you’re soaking in warm water while you float around in the colder lake water. (These boats, made in the Netherlands, are wood-fired.) It’s the kind of thing you get for anniversaries or bachelor/bachelorette parties, though if you are bringing drinks onboard, be advised you can’t take glass containers.

This is quite a bit more expensive than renting a kayak, for obvious reasons — prices start at $400 for one boat on a weekday. (Weekends start at $450)