Seattle’s historic Lockspot Cafe is up on the market, looking for new homeowners

After serving crispy platters of fish and chips to fishermen and city dwellers alike through world wars, natural disasters, and a global pandemic, one of Seattle’s oldest restaurants is up for sale.

Ballard’s Lockspot Cafe has been open in the same location on NW 54th Street near Ballard Locks for over 90 years. It stays true to its no-frills roots and represents the character of “old” Ballard in the fast-growing neighborhood.

“When you walk into the Lockspot Cafe, it’s like coming home. This is a place of generation,” owner Pam Hanson told Seattle PI in 2019. Hanson started working as a bartender in the cafe in 1996 and bought the restaurant in 2012. Hanson found that some of the staff had been working there for nearly two decades.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the restaurant switched to takeout and eventually switched to alfresco dining. Despite the challenges of staying at home orders and restrictions on indoor dining, the restaurant managed to prevail.

In a 1932 postcard, The Lockspot Cafe reveals its original excavations.

Courtesy of the Lockspot Cafe

But now Hanson wants to sell the restaurant so that a new owner can call the next generation of the almost hundred-year-old institution.

“After 25 years here, my husband had some health issues and we decided it was time for him to step in instead of the restaurant first,” Hanson said in a YouTube video announcing the sale on Saturday in good partnership [with the owner of the building] and I don’t foresee that little part of Ballard will go away. “

Lockspot is not only one of the oldest restaurants in Seattle’s competitive food scene, but also has another claim to fame: parts of the TV show “Deadliest Catch” were filmed there with the captains. Hanson also noted that Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll and his wife are also patrons.

Other historic bars and restaurants also went through a change of ownership during the pandemic: the 133-year-old Jules Mae Saloon in Georgetown was temporarily closed in July 2020 before a longtime patron stepped in to keep its legacy alive.