Fremont

The story

Fremont's shopping core sits just north of the Fremont Bridge, the blue-and-orange drawbridge that opens an average of 35 times a day. Shops line Fremont Ave N and Fremont Pl N from N 34th St to N 36th St and spill along N 35th and N 36th streets west to Phinney Ave N. Up the hill on Fremont Ave N are a record store and a cookbook shop, and on Stone Way N at the east edge are two outdoor and running stores. King County Metro Routes 31, 32, 40 and 62 serve the core.

Records, Books and Instruments

Jive Time Records sells used rock, jazz and soul at a wide range of prices, including $1 and $3 bins, and keeps more bargain bins at Fremont Vintage Mall. Next door, Ophelia's Books (3504), open since 1997, packs its shelves tight, keeps horror in the basement and buys clean paperbacks of popular fiction and nonfiction. Charlie's Queer Books, opened in 2023, stocks queer fiction, poetry and children's books plus zines and totes. Dusty Strings, open since 1979, sells harps, hammered dulcimers, guitars, banjos and ukuleles, with a repair shop and lessons.

Up the hill, Daybreak Records is a used-vinyl shop in a former garage, strong in metal, punk, reggae and dub. Book Larder, a cookbook and food-writing store, runs cooking classes, cookbook launches, signings and knife-sharpening days around its central kitchen island.

Vintage, Gifts and Clothes

Fremont Vintage Mall is a basement of dozens of vendor booths: band tees, leather jackets, vintage Levi's, furniture, records and collectibles. Portage Bay Goods sells cards, puzzles, paint-by-number kits and Seattle souvenirs and features a different local artist each month. Sfingiday is a gallery and gift shop for small-production ceramics, textiles and jewelry. Les Amis, founded in 1996 in a wisteria-covered cottage, carries women's clothing from designers in Japan, Europe and the US. West along the Ship Canal, Blue Owl Workshop sells Japanese and American heritage denim and hems on site.

Stone Way

evo Seattle sells ski, snowboard, skate and bike gear, with walk-up boot fitting daily, rentals, tuning, an art gallery and the indoor All Together Skatepark. Brooks Trailhead, at Brooks Running's headquarters, has the newest running, trail and walking shoes, select shoe trials and a run club. evo's back lot is closed; use the Stone 34 garage across the street or the U-Park lot at 1059 N Northlake Way.

Eating and When to Go

Lucky's Pho and Esters Enoteca (3416), a mostly gluten-free Italian wine bar, sit side by side near Dusty Strings. Triangle Spirits does fried chicken sandwiches and a patty melt, Local Tide a Dungeness crab roll and shrimp toast, and Stampede Cocktail Club pairs cocktails with dumplings. Dreamland Bar & Diner has a burger and a patio, Tivoli sells thin-crust pizza near the canal, and Kamonegi makes handmade soba a few blocks north.

Come on a Sunday. The Fremont Sunday Market, running since 1990, has more than 150 vendors selling crafts, clothing, art, vintage and food, Sundays 10am–4pm year-round, rain or shine. Most shops open late morning and close around 6–7pm. Ophelia's is open daily noon–7pm, Blue Owl daily 11am–6pm, and Daybreak to 9pm Monday to Saturday, but Dusty Strings is open only Tuesday to Saturday. Jive Time, Charlie's, Sfingiday, Les Amis and Book Larder don't post hours, so call ahead. Theo Chocolate's Fremont flagship closed in February 2025.