Savor Seattle Tour Part 1

Savor Seattle Tour Part 1 Julie: A variety store that takes place in the market. I’m going to meet up with Savor, Seattle. Hi, are you Angela? Angela: You must be Julie? Julie: Hi, nice to meet you. Angela: Nice to meet you. So, we’re about to get started here on the Savor, Seattle pike tour. Julie: Great, I’m ready. Angela: Before we get too far, make sure you have with you this pretty bag. Julie: Oh, what’s in my bag? Angela: So, in there, you’ve got a map of the market with all the fabulous eating sandwich we have here. Inside the market as well as all the tasting locations are we going to go to and napkins. Julie: Oh, no. Okay, that is good to know. Angela: A bottle of water and your pads along the way. So, let’s get started. Julie: Where to? Angela: We are going to roam about in the market. So if you looked out there’s a fabulous green sign that’s above the market that says “I meet the producers. So back in 1907, the market started of the stinky onion. Julie: The stinky onion? Angela: Yeah, like some onions. So the price of onions got skyrocketed from a dime a pound to a dollar a pound which for comparison sake— Julie: A pair of shoes cost $2.00, so pretty expensive. Angela: And today’s dollars, that’s $20.00 a pound for onions so our consumers were outraged and rightfully so. Farmers were just making pennies. Price gauging middleman where making a fortune ripping off what’s for farmers. So August 17, 1907, eight farmers pulled their wagons right here to the corner of first in Pike and by 11 o’ clock that morning, they are overwhelmed by 10, 000 customers, first weekend. So what I do was to really meet the producer which is a foundation of this market, put out that awful middleman and let consumers meet the producers directly. So that’s still the foundation today. So 100 years later, we just celebrated our centennial and we’re still going strong all because of one stinky onion. Julie: That’s a great way to begin something on a tour. Angela: Yeah. So, if you want a head out and get started on the rest of the tour? Julie: Sure. Where are we off to first? Angela: We are going to go ahead inside and go to Market Spice, which is one of the oldest businesses here inside of the public market. Julie: Sure, which way is it? Angela: Just right this way. Follow me. Alright, so we’re here at Market Spice and market space is one of the oldest businesses here in Seattle’s public market. As I was telling you earlier, the market started here back in 1907, Market Spice opened in 1911 so any guess who started the business? Julie: Market Spice? Angela: Fast pace. Julie: I don’t know. Angela: Your guess should be as good as mine because— Julie: There’s no record? Angela: There’s no record of that. There are executives who are going t to cover it up says I have no idea who actually started the business back in 1911. Julie: So someone just took it over and someone took it over and— Angela: Exactly! They do know that that someone that took it over of most fame, her name was Ruby. And now Ruby was very well loved here in the market, famous. Many of the vendors here knew her back in the day rather and they could attest to how eccentric of a character she was but she spend many years hand mixing and developing for criteria spice ones here for the store. She was also very famous for her huge selection of tea as she carried over a 150 varieties of tea in her store. It still does today but of course, where we had dark, dirty scandalous secret. Julie: Really? Can you share our secret? Angela: She hated the taste of tea. It's like being so famous for something that you absolutely can't stand. Julie: That’s interesting. Maybe she had some unique ability to judge it based on the fact that— Julie: She’s such a great sales person. I have no idea but she immediately started to work on this because she was entirely proud of this so, she end up stealing a trick out of her husband’s bag of tricks. He was a pharmacist and he would add flavored essential oils to his prescriptions to make them taste more powerful. So, she kind of acquainted tea with medicine and added some of those flavor essentials to her tea and voila, that is how Market Spice signature tea was born. So this one tea is anonymously referred to here in Seattle as the Seattle tea and as you know of course, here in Seattle coffee place are pretty insignificant role in our culture but this tea has a very loyal following all over the world so we’re going to go inside and give that a try. Angela: Oh, that sounds fabulous. Let's go in.