♪♪
-The original shoreline came way into Pioneer Square.
-It has been years in the making.
Pioneer square pedestrian improvements enhance access
to the new Seattle waterfront and Stadium district.
-We'll start off with the Babinka.
-From pop-up to brick-and-mortar,
Musang restaurant showcases Filipino culture
through appetizing cuisine.
Pike Place Market's Eclipse Hat Shop offers
a one-of-a-kind experience in millinery and haberdashery.
-I love this hat.
-These stories and more next on "CityStream."
♪♪
The final touches on Seattle's new waterfront project
are nearing completion.
Pioneer Square has seen some major improvements,
some in preparation for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Welcome to "CityStream" from Occidental Park.
I'm Dennis Bounds.
Here in Pioneer Square, long overdue,
pedestrian-friendly streets and walkways
reconnect the neighborhood to the waterfront and beyond.
Jessica Murphy from Waterfront Seattle gives us a tour.
♪♪
-Pioneer Square is one of the city's oldest neighborhoods.
It's a historic district.
The history of Seattle is in many ways rooted here
in this neighborhood, in the heart of downtown.
The Waterfront Program
has been making improvements in Pioneer Square
to reconnect Pioneer Square to its waterfront,
along with the rest of the waterfront park.
Pedestrian improvements for people walking
and rolling through this neighborhood
on various east-west streets.
So we're standing here on South Washington Street,
and we're looking at the newly created landscaping areas
that were made possible by this narrowing of the road.
We created room for plants
and more -- and places for people to walk.
We've also got these timber salvaged pilings.
This is reminiscent of our 19th century historic waterfront,
all the piers, all the timber structures,
railroad trestles that were built in our waterfront.
And they're charred with a Shou Sugi Ban charring
to represent the great Seattle fire.
So we're trying to both educate,
remind people of the indigenous history, and in particular,
those relationships with plants and the water.
Here we are walking on Habitat Beach,
which was built by the Waterfront Program
and opened in 2023.
That lets people interact with the water
and get a little taste of the waterfront.
But it also serves a really important marine function
for habitat along our shoreline.
The original shoreline came way into Pioneer Square
and this was an intertidal area.
So both here on Washington Street
and a block down on Main Street,
we have this alley paving intended to represent
that historic shoreline and how far it came inland.
So here we're on the -- on the border
between Occidental Park and South Main Street,
and the at-grade crossing we created
between the park and the mall.
So as people walk across Main Street here,
there isn't a curb.
The streets at the same level as the Park.
Lane is very narrow,
making this a really comfortable crossing.
It feels good to gather here.
[ Cheering in distance ]
Seattle is hosting the World Cup in 2026,
and I think everybody down here is excited.
The Railroad Way Plaza are these grand public plazas
that really connect with Pioneer Square
and the waterfront to our stadium districts.
And I think they're going to be great places
for people to enjoy and have team spirit.
We're really thankful to be able to deliver
these improvements in this project.
for the city,
we're into creating public spaces for anyone to enjoy.
Our charge is to create these great places
and the ability for all these things to thrive.
And I think we've done that.
-As a run up to next year's FIFA World Cup,
this summer Seattle will host the FIFA Club Team World Cup.
The Sounders will play three games at Lumen Field,
and the stadium will host six matches in total.
To learn more about the Pioneer Square improvements
and the Seattle Waterfront Project,
check their website,
WaterfrontSeattle.org.
Have you ever had Filipino cuisine?
Beacon Hills' Musang restaurant serves up a memorable taste
of the Philippines.
We'll take you there as "CityStream" continues.
-And we'll throw that pancit noodles on there as well.
That'll be your first course.
-We are the everyday storytellers of this great city.
We are Seattle Channel, a gateway to everything Seattle.
The intersection between government, culture,
news and the ever unfolding story of the city we call home.
So follow your curiosity
and come explore Seattle with us.
Seattle Channel.
♪♪
-Welcome back to "CityStream."
Filipino cuisine, with its bold fusion of flavors,
is gaining traction in Seattle's food scene
thanks to the efforts of local chefs like Melissa Miranda.
She is a three time James Beard Award semifinalist
and the proud owner of Musang and Kilig
restaurants in Seattle,
and she's passionate about promoting the culinary heritage
of the Philippines.
Producers Kathy Tuohey and Valerie Vozza have more.
-Fire one more pancit.
On back, Kiki, you have one Dinuguan.
-Step through the door of the Musang restaurant
in Seattle's Beacon Hill,
and you'll be greeted by the warm
and welcoming aroma of Filipino cooking.
Stay for dinner...
-Ube has a really nice, delicate, like,
almost nutty flavor.
-...and you'll discover the sweet, sour,
and salty flavors this restaurant is known for.
-There's a lot of Filipino roots in Beacon Hill.
A lot of Filipino families that still live in Beacon Hill.
My dad immigrated here, so for me,
there was no other place that we wanted to exist.
-One curry, one fish, tu-tu.
-My dad was an amazing cook and was always like,
you need to know the importance of Filipino food
because you're Filipino.
I had a really good childhood
eating a lot of great Filipino food
with a lot of influence from him and my mom as well.
-And it's going to be our beef short Kare-kare.
It has a savory peanut butter sauce with shrimp paste,
also some vegetables as well.
-During college, I ended up working
in the restaurant industry as like a server,
a hostess, bartender.
I just fell in love with the industry in itself,
the camaraderie.
So I ended up going to culinary school in Florence,
which was an incredible, life-changing experience.
-Next, Melissa had the opportunity to work in New York,
where she gained additional knowledge and experience.
-My family's here, and so I just wanted to come home.
And, you know, I think it was 8 years that I was gone.
-After several years of doing pop-ups around town,
Melissa was ready to take the plunge.
And in 2020, Musang opened right before the pandemic hit.
-We've always said that we weren't just a restaurant space,
but we're a community-driven space.
-So Musang song became a community kitchen,
serving hundreds of meals a day to local residents
before gradually reopening 15 months later.
-Eight birthdays in house tonight,
which is about 30% of our tables.
-It's a home. It's warm.
You know, the kitchen's there, so you see us.
It's just like a special place.
[ Shakers clacking ]
[ Indistinct chatter ]
-The dinner rush is just starting to kick into gear.
-When we first opened,
it was super important to have the menus in Tagalog first.
And it's because we want people to learn our language.
-Can I get a sinigang chips? -Sinigang.
-The lumpiang Shanghai. -Yep.
-I'm really lucky that my team here in the front
and my team in Kilig are so invested in learning
about Filipino food
that in their excitement of learning new knowledge,
they get to share that with the guests.
-We'll start off with the Bibingka,
and then the Kabibi Alavar, the scallops,
and then we'll throw that pancit noodles on there as well.
That'll be your first course.
Everything else will be the second course for you.
-Two things on the menu right now that
are definitely influenced by my dad and my lola.
There's a dish called the Adobong Pusit Pancit,
which is a squid ink adobo dish.
And another dish is our short rib Kare-kare.
Kare-kare is traditionally made with oxtail.
It takes a long time. There's a lot of love.
That one is just, like,
very nostalgic of my -- my lola and my family.
-While Filipino food is gaining the recognition
it so richly deserves, it wasn't always that way.
-Growing up as a Filipino American,
like, being a chef or being in the food industry
isn't necessarily, like, something you can be proud of.
It's like you got to be a doctor.
You got to be an engineer.
-Filipino food wasn't respected either.
It was seen as being a fusion of Chinese, Spanish,
and American influences rather than its own authentic cuisine.
-And so I think for me,
another part of the experience of Musang is --
How do we give value to our food?
How do we help give that kind of pride and value
for our parents to understand
and see their food on this platform?
We have all worked for other chefs, you know,
Italian chefs, French chefs, Japanese chefs.
Why hasn't there been a place for, like, us to come
and hone our craft and share our food
and share our stories?
You know, the restaurant industry is tough,
really tough, and it's hard to find places
that will take care of you and mentor you.
And I think that for me,
it was important to create more opportunities for people
who look like me.
-Her goal of expanding
and being more visible in the community
led Melissa to open a second restaurant, Kilig,
in the Chinatown International District.
It was important to Melissa to be in the CID,
a neighborhood where Filipino Americans'
contributions were historically overshadowed.
-Growing up, I came with my dad a lot,
and we had like Sunday brunches with my whole family
down the street at Hong Kong.
And so when this opportunity came up, it was like,
we have to be representing Filipinos in the ID,
and we just wanted to showcase,
like, another side of the Philippines,
so, like, very bright.
Feels like you're at the beach or hanging out.
The food here is the stuff that's like more comfort.
I just want people to come in, bring their families.
-You want to say hi?
-The thing we really hope for is that people
walk away with a memorable experience,
and that's like what Filipino hospitality is about.
-We're gonna go to table seven.
-Zack, fire one more pancit.
-Yes. Thank you. -It's going good. Welcome in.
-Thank you. -Alright, so I'm Phil.
I'll be your server.
-Whether you're a Filipino cuisine enthusiast
or just Filipino food curious,
head out and give the bright and tangy flavors a try.
You'll not only discover the pride and joy
Filipinos have for their food,
but you'll soon be coming back for more.
A Pike Place Market Hat Shop offers
a personalized sartorial experience for your head.
That story as "CityStream" continues.
♪♪
Just up the street at Pike Place Market,
you'll find Eclipse Hat Shop.
With so many long-standing local businesses closing,
it's nice to know one Seattle business has returned.
Eclipse Hat Shop was open for a half century
when it closed in 1999,
but it reopened its doors in 2021,
providing customers the same
high-quality hats it sold before.
♪♪
-My name is Sharon Hagerty
and I'm the owner and operator of Eclipse Hat Shop.
-I googled, we were just having breakfast upstairs,
and I just googled hat stores and I'm like,
"Look, we can walk there."
-It's quite a routine.
Then some people think it's like a little treasure hunt
and we give them stickers.
Here, Western Avenue shops, you're not there yet.
Good morning. [ Chair clatters ]
[ Sign thumps ]
Hi, friends. Come on in. -Looks good.
-Thank you. Hi. Welcome.
Mostly it's customer service here.
-We're not just trying to sell hats.
We're trying to... -Yeah, look in the mirror.
This way. I'm trying to get the angle.
-...find the right hat for you.
-You look great. -Alrighty.
-It's nice to be able to come in and actually see what you like
and be able to try it,
and then have somebody that understands
that all hats aren't made the same,
and that some of us like to wear them differently.
-I love that. I love what you're doing.
-Oh, the shop is fantastic. She's on top of everything.
She knows hats.
Thank you so much. -You look cute.
-You come in, we greet you,
and we measure your head.
So we measure. And you are long oval.
So yes, you are 22 inches.
We talk about hats.
You divide that by pi and then you get your size.
And even if you know you're not going to buy,
I like educating people on hats.
You always brush a hat counterclockwise.
-That's the thing I love about this job
is just that there's no boring days.
The bow always generally goes in the back
and we go from eyebrows and then pull back.
-It's a very close experience that you have here.
I'm not just sitting at this desk like ringing up hats.
And I appreciate it. -Thank you.
-Have a great day. -Thank you.
[ Steam hissing ]
-Sharon has so much like millinery expertise.
Like, she's been doing this for over 40 years.
-Yeah. It's good. Let's see. No, it's still wavy, so hold on.
I loved Home Ec, so I learned how to sew.
It's looking pretty good.
It's got a good brake line. [ Steam hissing ]
I came across a catalog for a community college,
and the word "millinery" was there.
Millinery, there's a hat making class
at San Francisco Community College.
I blocked my very first hat, and then that was it.
I got to study in New York City at FIT.
In my hat-blocking class,
I met this girl, Sherry Vigdor,
and she invited me to join her at Fiorucci
in Manhattan on 59th Street.
So I had a little booth. So I had a table there.
And then Andy Warhol used to come in
and he asked for my hat for this photo shoot here.
So he picked these hats,
and these are the first hats I ever made.
And then I started working in
the theater industry for Broadway.
So going back and forth from New York to San Francisco,
I was working in San Francisco.
My friend Francesca and I came to Seattle.
We came to the market,
and I found Herman in his original location
at 1517 First Avenue.
So back there is where Eclipse Hat Shop began in 1949,
and I still have the same sign on my shop downstairs.
Herman Hellman,
who was a master hat renovator,
and Herman was my mentor for men's hat work.
Prior to that, I was a milliner,
and milliner and millinery
is the making of women's hats.
Hatter is someone who makes men's hats.
A haberdashery is someone
who sells hats and dry goods.
Herman taught me a lot about hats --
cleaning, and hat restoration.
I had purchased the business from him in 1996, '96-'97,
then also acquired all of his vintage tools with the business.
This is called a foot tolliker.
So this is a conformateur.
This is a tool from, like, the 1850s into the '80s
that measures all the variations
in the circumference of your cranium.
[ Conformateur clicking ]
We lift it up.
Oh, look at my cute little peanut head.
So when we trim that,
and then you set it inside the crown of the hat
to custom size it.
6 and 7/8ths.
I closed the store in 1999,
just two weeks before I had my daughter, Grace.
Once I closed the Eclipse Hatch Shop,
it was just in my house, in my kitchen.
Or I'd have to do these little hatch shows or collections.
I just really wanted a brick and mortar store.
So then the pandemic hit.
And then I had this wonderful coach, Laura,
who we'd talk on the phone and we'd talk about
how Sharon's going to start her hat shop again.
And then so I just went on the Pike Place Market website,
and this shop was the only one that was open.
I applied for it.
Reopened Eclipse April of 2021.
The market is a community
that really holds on to small businesses.
So I started, you know, very small.
I only had 40 hats
and then just built the business up.
Yeah, so then you can also do
kind of Sinatra style with the down.
We also have respect from the brands.
-Sharon put in a lot of work
and a lot of time to make these connections.
-The Borsalinos, the Stetsons.
So this is the Stetson Stratoliner,
little Boeing 307 airplane on it.
Mayser, Christie's of London,
they have been making hats since 1773.
We have fine Panamas, all hand-woven in Ecuador
and finished with different brim sizes.
This is a top hat,
and it's called an opera hat because...
[ Imitates deflating ] [ Hat deflates ]
...when you go to the opera,
you can slip it under your seat.
And there you go. [ Hat pops ]
I carry Laulhère berets.
1840 is when they first started making berets.
They invented it for the French military.
Two thumbs.
Put it on your forehead first
and then put it down the back, there.
Flat caps, pub caps, 8-panel caps.
Then there's City Sport. And I picked the fabrics.
And then they build them for me in Belgium.
Look at it.
I love this.
I really love hats.
And I just think it's a passion
mostly that now I can support myself.
-It scallops really nicely.
So if you wanted to wear like all the way back.
-I have my wonderful assistant Diego
working part time.
-Hats are just a beautiful way to express.
-Two hands.
Smooth it like that.
-Whoever comes in, that's our goal...
-Look at that hat. -...Is to help them out.
-That's your color. -Oh!
-Isn't it beautiful?
-I love this hat.
-They make me happy.
I've just literally loved them all the time.
-It's exactly what I wanted.
Sold! [ Laughs ]
-Alright. Thank you.
-Any time of year,
and especially as we move into the sunnier months,
one of the best ways to protect your head and neck
is always a wide-brimmed hat.
To learn more about Eclipse Hat Shop,
just visit their website EclipseHatShop.com.
♪♪
Across town at the U-District Farmers Market,
One jam maker is preserving the legacy
of her immigrant mother.
Ayako & Family offers a simple favorite --
jam and toast made Japanese style.
As producer Laila Kazmi explains,
it starts with the right ingredients,
add in a healthy dose of patience and family tradition,
and the result is an appetizing experience.
♪♪
-Do you want some jam?
This is a little more tart and herbaceous.
It's really good. You want to try a jar?
-Yeah. -Okay.
My name is Alessandra and I am the owner and operator
of Ayako & Family, which is a family jam business.
We were founded by my mother, Ayako, in 2010.
She was an immigrant who moved here
at 30 years old to start a family
and didn't have community here
and cultivated something so beautiful.
♪♪
Food was a huge part of our daily life.
My mother, just before we got home from school,
she would spend, you know, 4 to 5 hours cooking dinner.
Then my mom would often extend, you know,
invitations to friends and neighbors.
The jam came out of a tradition
of going berry picking every summer
with my mother and my grandmother.
Strawberries and raspberries,
and that was actually the first jams
that she would make at home were berry jams.
And it wasn't until she met this farmer
at the U-District Farmers Market, Katsumi Taki,
that she started producing stone fruit jams.
He also emigrated here and he really missed Japanese produce
and so he started growing that.
They immediately bonded over that,
just being nostalgic for Japanese food.
-Okay, $2.25.
-Okay, two and that's perfect.
-One day he had a couple boxes of seconds,
which are fruit that is slightly blemished,
that couldn't be sold at full price.
And he was like, "Oh, these got damaged on the way over.
I'm going to have to compost these."
And she was like, "Absolutely not.
This is beautiful fruit."
She's like, "Give them to me. I'll see what I can do."
And so I actually remember we went back to my apartment
at the time, a little studio apartment,
and we cooked our first batch of apricot jam
on my electric stove, um, very humble beginnings.
And, um, still use that method and that recipe today.
My mom and I really did enjoy making food together.
She always explained to me that it should be intuitive
and coming from your heart how you cook.
When she became so ill that there just became a point
where she said, "I can't do this anymore.
Do you want to make this jam?"
♪♪
And I came to the realization
that the business was so important to me
because of how important it was to her.
My mother worked so hard
and built something with the intention of just focusing
on her community and her heritage,
and then her ingredients.
Now that she's passed,
I really wanted to continue that for her.
For the last ten years, we've been wholesaling
to various retailers around the city.
I took over a couple of years ago,
at which point we started vending at farmers markets,
and I also started producing
a Japanese style bread called Shokupan.
♪♪
I make the jams at a commercial kitchen space.
It's called Kitchen Sisters on Lower Queen Anne,
and it's a shared space.
We usually get about 50 to 100 pounds of rhubarb
every week while it's in season.
[ Water running ]
The recipe that we'll be using today is a recipe
that I inherited from my mother.
I have the raw rhubarb,
so we'll be washing the rhubarb and then, you know,
basically cutting it into smaller pieces.
And then we will cook the rhubarb with sugar.
And reduce it down until it's ready to be canned.
[ Tops clinking ]
Japanese food is all about simplicity and honesty.
What I really love about what my mom did
was that she took something incredibly humble and simple
and just honed it and honed it and honed it.
That is very uniquely Japanese.
It's like taking something and perfecting it
and just focusing on, you know, the one thing.
[ Utensil clacking ]
It's in our ethos and our mission to source thoughtfully
and sustainably working with primarily,
you know, one Japanese farmer using Asian varieties.
Pink rhubarb and amber.
My favorite part are the farmers markets,
because that's when I get to share this food with people.
-Like, you always take mine.
-Even my mom used to say, you know,
"My favorite part is watching someone take
that first bite of jam."
-That's amazing.
It's a simple act.
It's a really simple food.
But I love being a part of that kind of daily food ritual.
We can cook all day long and sell all the jam in the world,
but it's really nothing
unless we can sort of share in that experience.
And that's why I love the market.
It's, you know, it's a wonderful community
of like-minded individuals
who are producing food around the same values.
Some jam? -Yes.
-Yay! Apricot.
Thank you so much. -I found those for you.
-Yummy. Thank you, Justin. See ya.
I think about my mother all the time
when I'm making jam or when I'm at the market.
She's pretty much always in the forefront of my mind.
She was a very familiar face at the market.
She loved it. That was her dream.
You know, she wanted a place
where people could come and visit her and eat her food.
♪♪
There you are, my dear. Enjoy. Have a good day.
I'll see you soon? -Yeah.
-Okay. I'll see you next week. Bye.
[ Indistinct chatter ]
-Looks delicious.
If you'd like to try it,
you can find Ayako & family jams and breads
at the weekly farmers markets in the new district in Ballard,
and at the Ayako & Family online store.
♪♪
And that wraps up this edition of "CityStream"
from Pioneer Square.
If you'd like to see more outstanding
Seattle Channel programs,
go to our website
SeattleChannel.org and search for "feature shows."
I'm Dennis Bounds.
Thanks for watching.
♪♪