Pacific Northwest town between Portland, Ore., and Seattle does its own thing.
Olympia, Wash., isn’t just a city between Portland and Seattle
“Keep Portland in Portland. Keep Seattle in Seattle,” said Ned Hayes, founder of Oly Arts, a cultural publication. “We want to do our own thing.”
Despite the city’s location between two Pacific Northwest juggernauts, Olympia, Wash., does not suffer from middle child syndrome. The city has a distinct identity that is more convivial than angsty, although both can exist under one roof. At Encore Chocolates and Teas, coowner Dean Jones informed me that I was standing in the spot where drummer Dave Grohl first performed with Nirvana. Then, he pressed a square of artisanal chocolate into my palm and sent me on my way.
A few doors down, Rainy Day Records general manager Adam Hardaway proudly pointed out the children’s play area among the vinyl records and DVD rentals. “We have toys so that little kids will think this place is cool,” he said.
Apparently, coloring books are a bigger draw than Kurt Cobain, who once shopped here.
Over several days, I gained an appreciation for Olympia’s community spirit, which appeared around every corner — at the farmers market and in oyster bars, at breweries and coffee roasters, on the capital campus and along the boardwalk at Percival Landing.
The Billy Frank Jr. Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge fills every inch of landscape — riparian forest, estuary, wetlands — with critters. The nature reserve is the permanent or temporary residence of birds (more than 250 species), fish (95), amphibians (seven), insects (60) and mammals both clawed and visionimpaired (Townsend’s mole), and flippered and Betty Daviseyed (Steller sea lion).
Arbutus Folk School is more than Etsy 101. Stacey Watermanhoey, a former specialist on climate and energy policy, founded the training arts center in 2013 to help wean residents from their dependency on manufactured goods.
“Communities should know how to make and do things for themselves,” she said.
So, instead of hitting up Williamssonoma or Guitar Center, you can sign up for a class and learn to make a maple wood serving spoon, a creamer and sugar bowl set or a ukulele. Or pick up a skill with no bigbox counterpart, such as wool bootfelting or bowandarrow construction (with one instinctive shooting lesson included). During a “Play With Clay” session, held Friday nights, the instructor showed us how to turn a slab into planters and soap dishes, thereby saving us a trip to Bed, Bath and Beyond.
If you can’t remember Washington’s state number, count the (42) steps to the Capitol Building. The free 50minute tour covers local and state history, architecture, government operations and obscured geography.
“Olympia was named after the mountain you can’t see because that building is blocking it,” our guide said of the Olympic Mountains, which the Temple of Justice shielded from view. Inside the Capitol, we learned that the structure contains one of the world’s largest collections of Tiffany lights (originally 489 fixtures) and that guns are permitted in most public areas, though metal detectors are not.
To tap into the unofficial Oly tagline, “It’s the water,” go to the source: the Schmidt House and Tumwater Falls Park. In 1904, Olympia Brewery owner Leopold Schmidt and his wife, Johanna, built the threestory, eightbathroom hilltop mansion, which is open for tours.
By the front door, history manager Don Trosper or alternate guide Bob Crim — who worked for the family for 60 years — will point out the company logo embedded in the wall. (Pay attention to the image of the waterfalls.)
A few original pieces remain, such as a buffet, a file cabinet and a velvet hat worn by Clara, wife of the Schmidts’ eldest son. At the park, a short drive from the house, a halfmile trail loops around the Deschutes River and falls, which once supported a power station and a paper mill. On the walk, you can see the tower of the old brewery that turned artesian spring water into potable gold. From midseptember through midoctober, watch the salmon swim upstream and navigate the fish ladders like ninja warriors.
After Olympia Brewery closed in 2003, the hops torch was passed down to Fish Brewing Co., open since 1993, and its Fish Tale Brewpub, the city’s oldest joint of its kind. In 1996, the beermaking operation moved across the street, but you can still drink to the old days in the Fishbowl, the diminutive taproom that features several India pale ales and Spire Mountain ciders on tap.
The menu plays matchmaker with its food and drink: It recommends the Organic Amber with the Fish Tale tacos, for instance, and the Mudshark porter with the bangers and mash. To meet the Fish loyalists, snag an invite to the Mug Club room, an alcove lined with members’ drinking vessels engraved with such personal truths as “Beer Me Up! and “I Drink I Swim.”
Warning: Dillinger’s Cocktails & Kitchen, which was named after the Depressionera gangster and occupies a former 1920s bank, might abscond with your fusty drinking habits. Instead of the sameold Fashioned, try the bar’s Oaxaca version, a mix of tequila, mezcal, agave, bitters and flamed orange oil. You can also expand your cocktail repertoire at the 100bottle rum bar, which adjoins the speakeasy.
Oyster neophytes do not slurp unsupervised at the Chelsea Farms Oyster Bar; the staff is on hand to offer advice, support — and a dozen, when you’re ready to commit.
“The Bonita is an oystereater’s oyster. It is savory, kelpy and very beachy,” thengeneral manager Cody Goodwin explained. “The Gem is snappy and more vegetal, and the Olympia is very intense.”
Yes, you heard that right: The restaurant, which runs a shellfish pipeline from its nearby farm, serves the coveted Puget Sound oyster, which once hovered on the brink of extinction. The chef prepares oysters myriad ways, including fried or baked, in ceviche, with a lime and pepper granita or simply raw.
Obviously, Dumpster Values sells flannel; the outdoorsy fabricgonegrunge makes sense in the Pacific Northwest. But the secondhandclothing store, which counted Cobain among its patrons, goes beyond lumberjack couture. You can shop for basics, such as jeans and Tshirts, or by country (India, Japan, Uganda), era (1950s, ’60s, ’70s) or military branch (Army camo, Navy peacoats).
Gallery Boom injects the antiques mall model with some youth serum. “I call us a lowerg gallery,” said Christine Malek, the ownerartist. “I have people who make knit hats, and then there are choppedup baby dolls.” Malek rents space to about 125 regional artists, who sell their creations for on average less than $100.