Exploring Seattle

A pedestrian crosses Pine Street a block from Seattle’s landmark neon sign for the Pike Place Market. Visiting today’s Seattle, you have to dig deeper to get to the grunge | On the hunt for food, fashion and sights in Olivia Kim’s Seattle (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

March 21, 2015 4:55 AM PT

Phil McCall, left, with his wife Dale Fox and their daughter Rose McCall, age 8, dine at Lowell’s Restaurant & Bar at Pike Place Market with its view of the Seattle Great Wheel and the waterfront. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

Scott Smith, a fishmonger at Pike Place Fish Market, engages in the tradition of throwing a customer’s fish from the display to the counter. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

“Razzberries,” blueberries, Rainer cherries, Jazz apples and jumbo Sumo tangerines are some of the fresh fruit available on a Saturday at Pike Place Market. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

Pianist Jonny Hahn has been part of Seattle’s Pike Place Market scene for 28 years. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

A visitor studies the work of artist Dale Chihuly at the Chihuly Garden and Glass museum in the Seattle Center. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

The Space Needle towers over the Chihuly Garden and Glass museum in the Seattle Center. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

Space Needle visitors take in the panoramic view of downtown and the waterfront on Puget Sound. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

Twilight settles over Seattle and its waterfront in a view from the Space Needle. Ferry boats from Pier 50 cross Puget Sound to Bainbridge Island. The Seattle Ferris Wheel is on Pier 57. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

Ferry boat crosses Puget Sound en route to Bainbridge Island in Seattle. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

Seattle Art Museum Olympic Sculpture Park. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

Hotel Max is at 620 Stewart St. in downtown Seattle. The Beaux Arts Classical Eclecticism-style building first opened in 1926 as the Vance Hotel. Its name was changed in 2005. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

The fifth floor of the Hotel Max is dedicated to Sub Pop. All the guest room doors feature blown-up concert photos by photographer Charles Peterson. At left is “Pearl Jam, Spain, 1996” and at far right is “Soundgarden, Berkeley, CA, 1989”. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

A fifth floor room in the Hotel Max has a working record player and a small selection of vinyl to play. All fifth floor rooms are decorated in celebration of Seattle’s grunge rock history and the Sub Pop Records label. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

Nordstrom’s flagship store in downtown Seattle. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

Starbucks Coffee Roastery & Tasting Room at 1124 Pike Place in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. Starbucks’ flagship retail outlet has pneumatic copper tubes on the ceiling which deliver coffee beans from the roaster ovens to the barista bar. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)