Wednesday nights, the bounty of Vashon Island and the fertile Skagit Valley is delivered to Capitol Hill. CHS stopped through the first ever Chophouse Row night market last week. You can now enjoy the new Capitol Hill farmers market every week, rain or shine.
“It’s mellow but that’s to be expected,” flower vendor Brita Fisher told CHS during our visit to the 11th Ave courtyard of the restaurant and office development just off E Pike.
“Especially in this part of the city where people are coming home from work, a lot of people live around here. It’s great,” another vendor selling apples said.
Vendors said you can probably expect some expanded offerings as the farmers and crafts people get a better sense of how many shoppers come out to the new weekly Capitol Hill event.
CHS first wrote about the new project from Upper Bar Ferdinand owner and Seattle restaurateur Matt Dillon to bring goods from his Vashon Old Chaser Farm and “seasonal produce and other fresh farm products” from the Puget Sound Food Hub farmers cooperative to the weekly Capitol Hill market. According to the announcement, Bar Ferdinand purchases products directly from PSFH, “the organization representing a membership of independent family farms” and participating farms “will have presence at the weekly market.”
Last week, CHS found Fisher and a handful of vendors as well as tables from Chophouse businesses like Amandine Bakeshop which had buttermilk cake with huckleberries and chocolate swirl bars for sale. The market also plans to regularly feature fresh baked bread from Dillon’s Pioneer Square market and restaurant, The London Plane.
You will also find the occasional “nice little surprise” as Fisher put it — last Wednesday, one highlight was baked goods from Mckenzie Hart of the much-loved Peloton bike cafe.
The new event joins the Capitol Hill Farmers Market currently held along Broadway on the Seattle Central campus every Sunday in bringing an alternative, farm-direct food shopping option to the neighborhood.
The Chophouse Row night market is planned to run from 4 to 8 PM on Wednesdays in the courtyard and alleys of Liz Dunn’s Chophouse Row project. Hang around afterward for a wine tasting at Upper Bar Ferdinand hosted by co-owner and sommelier Marc Papineau.
