Seattle - Washington, Oregon and the Pacific Northwest - page 143

dustry once housed the science pavilion of the World's Fair. Today the center features
virtual-reality exhibits, a tropical butterfly house, laser shows, holograms and other won-
ders of science, many with hands-on demonstrations. Also on the premises is the vaulted-
screen Imax Theater , a laserium and a planetarium.
LOCAL KNOWLEDGE
STARBUCKS - IT STARTED HERE (ALMOST)
It's practically impossible to walk through the door of Starbucks MAP
GOOGLE MAP (1912 Pike Pl; 6am-9pm) in Pike Place Market without appearing in
someone's Facebook photo, so dense is the tourist traffic. But, while this hallowed
business might be the world's oldest surviving Starbucks store, it is not - as many
assume - the world's first Starbucks location, nor is it Seattle's oldest espresso
bar. The original Starbucks opened in 1971 at 2000 Western Ave (at the northern
end of Western Ave). It moved to its current location, a block away, in 1976. The
honor of Seattle's oldest continuously running coffee bar goes to Café Allegro in
the U District, which opened in 1975. Until the early 1980s Starbucks operated
purely as a retail store that sold coffee beans and equipment (plus the odd taster
cup). The company didn't open up its first espresso bar until 1984, after CEO
Howard Shultz returned from an epiphanic trip to Italy. The Pike Place cafe is
unique in that, in keeping with the traditional unbranded ethos of the market, it
doesn't sell food or baked goods - just coffee.
Other interesting Starbucks facilities in Seattle include the cafe on the 40th floor
of the Columbia Center (Seattle's tallest building); the company's first Leadership
in Energy & Environmental Design-certified cafe, which opened downtown on the
corner of Pike St and 1st Ave in 2009 and sports the original brown logo, and Roy
Street Coffee & Tea in Capitol Hill. The latter is sometimes known as a 'Stealth
Starbucks' as, despite being run by the company, it goes under a different name
and is used as a testing ground for new ideas and products.
Lake Union & Queen Anne
Salubrious Queen Anne, high on its eponymous hill, hoards old money in beautiful fin de
siècle mansions. In the melee down below, Lake Union's southern shores are changing
quicker than the fresh-faced influx of techies can tweet about them, with celebrity chefs,
a traffic-lightening streetcar and the sprawling new offices of Amazon.com .
Museum of History & Industry MUSEUM