Visit Seattle’s “Rubber Chicken Museum” at Archie McPhee’s in Seattle's Wallingford Neighborhood

The Archie McPhee store in Seattle, Washington has the world's only Rubber Chicken Museum in the world, and it's helping to Keep Seattle Weird!

The museum is located inside the store, which also sells other novelties such as the Famous Yodeling Pickle, Emergency Google Eyes and the Meditating Bigfoot. It features the world's largest and smallest rubber chickens, and also provides information about rubber chickens. The museum is open every day from 11 AM to 6 PM, and admission is free!  The store also sells such favorites as 12 Itty-Bitty Rubber chickens, Racing Rubber Chickens and a Rubber Chicken Emergency Clucker!

Archie McPhee's is located at 1300 N. 45th Street in Seattle.  Phone: 206-297-0240.

Bakke Coffee Museum in Ballard

Seattle's long awaited Bakke Coffee Museum is finally here, a collection of espresso and coffee machines documenting the complete history of coffee. Coffee, according to the curator, is that one thing many cannot live without, that is shared, that makes or breaks a day. An everyday pleasure with more than everyday potential. Apparently, coffee can change your life! Learn more about the story of coffee and share your story at the Bakke Coffee Museum. 

The museum is plumb full of amazing vintage and fancy coffee and espresso machines from around the world. 

Best Seattle Dive Bars

Anyone can make a list of the fancy places in town. But here at Keep Seattle Weird, we love the older places with character (and characters!), good bourban and beer and great burgers. 

 As Adam Michelson once said, "A dive bar is where you're worried about being stabbed, and a dive-themed bar is where you want to stab everyone". 

Pop Culture Grocery Store in South Seattle

Tired of the same old grocery aisle and looking to shake it up a bit?  You’ll find the Shake and Bake right by the hip-shaking Elvis adorning the end-cap at this Grocery Outlet in Skyway in South Seattle, resplendent with pop culture icons, musical statuary, historical representations and vintage kitsch. 

I know, I know.... you think I am exaggerating, why would anyone go out of their way to visit a Grocery Outlet?  Well, these owners have let their freak flag fly.  You'll find canned goods down by the giant statues of Laurel and Hardy and dried fruit near the miniature fire trucks.  None of it makes any sense, but I guess that is its charm. 

Address:  11656 68th Ave. S., Seattle WA 98178

Seattle Grocery Outlet pays homage to Pop Culture

Breakfast in a Record Shop

 

Easy Street Records is the best little record store, cafe and cocktail lounge in West Seattle and it's almost single-handedly doing its best to keep Seattle weird!

East Street is an independent record store that opened in 1988 and they're a super-favorite here at Keep Seattle Weird.  They opened a small cafe inside and then later, an upstairs "speakeasy" cocktail lounge.  They are so beloved, when West 5 Bar and Restaurant closed up the street, they gave their beloved Mai-Tai recipe to the folks at Easy Street. They have record release parties, in-store performances and it serves as a mini-townhall of sorts for local residents.

Ivar's Dancing Clams

On a muggy misty day at the beach, Ivar's Dancing Clams run wild and free.

Ivar Haglund was a true Seattle character and icon. He was known as an entertainer, folksinger, restaurateur and ultimately the "King," "Mayor," or "Patriarch" of the waterfront. The story of Ivar's Seafood Restaurants began in 1938 when 33-year old Seattle native Ivar Haglund opened his city's first aquarium on Seattle's Pier 54. Droves of people lined up and paid a nickel to view the sea life that Ivar had collected from the surrounding Puget Sound. Noticing that his patrons often came with an appetite, Haglund began to sell red clam chowder and fish n' chips from the site—an instant success that began his career as a restaurateur.  You can still visit Ivar's today, still helping to Keep Seattle Weird!  

Ivars Hoax Ivar's Restaurants

Poop Walk - Waterworks Gardens wastewater treatment art installation

If you want to get out of the city and have a fun and educational walk, go visit Lorna Jordan's Waterworks Garden a few minutes outside Seattle, near beautiful downtown Renton. Lorna's design for Waterworks Gardens combined classical garden design, wastewater treatment infrastructure and habitat restoration. The garden is a great place to stroll and get out doors, while enjoying an art installation and understanding how nature cleans dirty water to provide us with clean drinking water. The artist was inspired by her study of Italian gardens and the sense of theater that she observed there. The Grotto was hand made from stone and concrete and, with its flowing water, pools, native plantings, mosaic, and stone seating, remains a favorite gathering place for visitors to the site.

Seattle's Big Top Curiosity Shop is closing - Go to the last big sale

To the Staff at Keep Seattle Weird's utter sadness and despair, Big Top Curiosity Shop is closing.  

Their sad loss is your happy gain, however. 

Big Closing SALE this weekend! March 23rd-24th & 30th, 12-6pm.

Saturday 25% off of Everything!
Sunday Red Tag Sale!
Everything with a red tag is 50% off!
Saturday March 30th, last sale ever!
50% entire store!

Vintage, Collectibles & Oddities! Large selection of Velvet Paintings, Restaurant / Advertising Memorabilia, Beer Signs, Neon Signs, Collectible Toys: Hot Wheels, Star Trek, Star Wars, Batman, E.T. Animal Skulls, Taxidermy, Nautical, Clown & Halloween costumes, Cassette Tapes, Vintage Bikes, Street Signs, Knick Knacks, Circus Posters, Automobilia, Store Display items & more!

BIG TOP CURIOSITY SHOP:  8507 14th Ave South, Seattle, WA

Weird, Wonderful, and Worrisome Objects in Washington State's Museums - Appearance and Talk by Harriet Baskas

*Free Event courtesy of Humanities Washington!

Register at: https://www.wrvmuseum.org/.../weird-wonderful-and...

Most museums display no more than 10 percent of their holdings, often citing “not enough space” as the reason. But there are also a wide range of cultural, philosophical, political, environmental, historic, and even superstitious reasons why museums keep some objects from public view.

In this talk, explore a wide range of hidden objects found in the back rooms of museums in our state and around the country. Examples include a Spokane institution that holds Bing Crosby’s toupées and a museum in Lynden that’s home to a 150-year-old pickle. When possible, we will have local museum curators on hand to answer questions, participate in our discussions, and unbox a few hidden treasures.

Harriet Baskas is the author of nine books, including 111 Places in Seattle That You Must Not Miss and Hidden Treasures: What Museums Can’t or Won’t Show You. She writes about airports, museums, travel, and a variety of other topics for outlets such as NBC News, The Points Guy, and her own site, StuckatTheAirport.com. She produced a radio series on hidden museum artifacts that aired on National Public Radio. Baskas has a master’s in communications from the University of Washington.

"Cindy's Bedroom" - a Bumbershoot exhibit

In 1962, Elvis came to the Seattle World's Fair and made a film "It Happened at the Fair". For the 50th Anniversary of the Seattle World's Fair, Elvis came back to the Seattle Center in the form of an art exhibit entitled Elvistravaganza. One of the exhibits was Cindy's Bedroom, a re-creation of an Elvis fan's bedroom, as imagined in 1962.