Ghost Alley Espresso facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Ghost Alley Espresso |
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The coffee shop in 2022
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| Restaurant information | |
| Current owner(s) | Michael Buchwald |
| Previous owner(s) | Mercedes Carrabba |
| Food type | Coffee |
| Street address | 1499 Post Alley |
| City | Seattle |
| County | King |
| State | Washington |
| Postal/ZIP code | 98101 |
| Country | United States |
| Coordinates | 47°36′31″N 122°20′26″W / 47.6086°N 122.3406°W |
Ghost Alley Espresso is a coffee shop at Seattle's Pike Place Market, in the U.S. state of Washington. The business operates on Post Alley in a former service room for bathroom attendants, a few steps away from the Gum Wall. Current owner Michael Buchwald purchased the business from Mercedes Carrabba, who used the shop as a starting location for ghost tours. The space is reportedly haunted by the ghost of Arthur Goodwin, a former manager of Pike Place Market.
Description
Located at Pike Place Market in Seattle's Central Waterfront, Ghost Alley Espresso operates under an arch on Post Alley. The space previously served as a bathroom attendants' room. In 2015, Rosemary Behan of The National described Ghost Alley Espresso as a "gorgeous, almost miniature-sized one-off coffee shop that uses the high-tech Modbar system – allowing it to mimic any espresso machine in the world by changing the settings". The Los Angeles Times has called the business a "hole-in-the-wall coffee joint".
Ghost Alley Espresso serves coffee drinks with an emphasis on unusual flavors such as "salty nut" and tumeric mochas. The shop has a small counter with a few stools, and has served as a starting point for ghost tours. In Leslie Budewitz's 2013 fiction book Peppermint Barked: A Spice Shop Mystery, the shop is described as a "hidey-hole carved from a former storage and rest station for Market vendors".
History
Michael Buchwald is the owner of Ghost Alley Espresso. Previously, Mercedes Carrabba owned both Ghost Alley Espresso and Market Ghost Tours. In 2014, Christopher Reynolds of the Los Angeles Times credited Carrabba for converting "a 147-square-foot closet into this snug caffeine haven and tour-guide headquarters".
In 2020, Carrabba read excerpts from her book Market Ghost Stories at Ghost Alley Espresso and other reportedly haunted locations at Pike Place Market. Rachael Jones of Seattle Refined has said of the haunt:
According to Ghost Alley Espresso's website, Arthur Goodwin, one of the Market's first managers and a designer of the buildings, kept his office closest to Ghost Alley Espresso. And he's known as their resident ghost. Goodwin is the spirit that makes himself the most known, with baristas at the shop claiming to have felt the presence of a man in the shop. With one barista stating they saw the apparition of a tall man wearing a hat and standing in the doorway.
In 2013, Ghost Alley Espresso participated in the Post Alley Hooley, a "neighborhood party" presented by the business and resident group Post Alley Project. The coffee shop was one of two in Seattle with a Modbar system, as of 2015. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the business accepted orders via the front window.
