What's the food culture in Seattle?

Seattle eats early and casual. Breakfast happens between 7 and 9am at places like Biscuit Bitch on 1st Avenue, where buttermilk biscuits the size of your fist come smothered in pepper gravy for $9-12. Lunch is teriyaki. Seattle has roughly 200 teriyaki shops across King County, a tradition built by Japanese-American cooks in the 1970s who grilled chicken thighs over charcoal and glazed them in soy-mirin sauce reduced until it blistered and caramelized. The chicken arrives over white rice with a mayonnaise-dressed cabbage salad on the side. Toshi's Teriyaki on Rainier Avenue South is the one most locals name first, and a chicken plate runs about $11. Dinner tends to land between 6 and 9pm. Reservations at Canlis, Altura, or the Walrus and the Carpenter need 2-4 weeks of lead time on weekends, but walk-ins work fine at most neighborhood spots on a Tuesday.

Pike Place Market has been open since 1907, and yes, it draws crowds. That said, the food at Pike Place is legitimate if you know where to look. Beecher's Handmade Cheese makes its flagship cheddar in a glass-walled kitchen right on Pike Place. You can watch the curds being cut while you wait for a $7 cup of their tomato soup with a grilled-cheese sandwich made from 15-month aged curd. The fish counters smell like cold salt water, not fish, which tells you everything about freshness. Pike Place Fish Co. sells whole sockeye for $15-20 per pound in season, roughly late June through September. Downstairs, Pike Place Chowder serves smoked-salmon chowder thick enough to stand a spoon in, $9 a cup. Mind you, the market gets shoulder-to-shoulder by 11am on Saturdays. Go at 8 and the produce vendors are still stacking Yakima Valley cherries and Walla Walla sweet onions in relative quiet.

The International District sits a 10-minute walk south of Pike Place, and it's where Seattle's eating shifts register. Jade Garden on 7th Avenue South does dim sum from 9am, with carts of har gow and char siu bao at $5-7 per plate. Pho Bac on South King Street has been serving pho since the early 1980s. The broth has that low, steady warmth of star anise and charred onion, the kind that only comes from 12-plus hours of simmering beef bones. Uwajimaya, the Japanese-American grocery on 6th Avenue South, is worth an hour for its seafood counter alone. Head north to Ballard and the character changes again. The Walrus and the Carpenter on Ballard Avenue shucks 10-15 oyster varieties nightly, most from Puget Sound or Hood Canal, at $3-4 each. Capitol Hill runs younger and later. Taco Chukis on Broadway sells $2.50 al pastor tacos until midnight, and the line on a Friday still moves fast.

Skip the original Starbucks at 1912 Pike Place. The line wraps around the block, and it's the same coffee you'd get at any location. Elm Coffee Roasters in Pioneer Square pulls espresso from single-origin Ethiopian and Guatemalan beans in a concrete-floored space that smells like toasted caramel. Victrola on Capitol Hill roasts on-site, and a pour-over runs $5-6. For seafood beyond the market, Taylor Shellfish Oyster Bar on Melrose Avenue sells geoduck from their own beds in Samish Bay, sliced thin and served with ponzu for $18. Worth noting, Seattle's food scene has a gap after 10pm. Outside Capitol Hill and parts of the University District, kitchens close early. Canlis on Aurora Avenue North, open since 1950, is the city's longest-running fine-dining room. Four courses run about $175 per person, the dining room faces Lake Union, and the dress code still means no sneakers. The best late-night fallback might be Dick's Drive-In on Broadway, where a Deluxe burger still runs under $5.