Moms Love Lower Queen Anne

Where to take your special lady 💐

📸: Adam Kubota

Mother’s Day 2023 is around the corner, which might have you stressing about what to do to honor the mommies in your life. Looking for something centrally located in Seattle, with plenty of activities, food, and photo ops?

May I suggest Seattle’s most famous center, located in Lower Queen Anne? The Seattle Center turns out to be a great spot to bring moms no matter the time of year. 

📸: Adam Kubota

1

Start with brunch at Toulouse Petit🍴

⚜️ TOULOUSE PETIT ⚜️
📍601 Queen Anne Ave N, Seattle
Mondays – Fridays: 10 am – 12 am
Saturdays – Sundays: 9 am – 12 am 

Moms love brunch. It’s a chance to look cute, drink before noon, and gobble treats. Start this family date by being a good kid and taking your mom to Toulouse Petit, on the corner of Mercer and Queen Anne Avenue. 

This Creole cuisine spot has mom-friendly witchy vibes with all its wood and candle-covered interiors, and its brunch menu is extensive—literally dozens of dishes. Feast on spicy andouille hash (with tasso, a salty Creole cured ham) or a Dungeness crab and asparagus scramble if you’re feeling fancy. Don’t skip the Toulouse Beignets, which are powdery, sumptuous, puffy triangles of fried dough that’ll make your morning and transport you to the rowdy streets of New Orleans. It’s also worth noting that the cocktails are a respectable $12 before 6 pm. Just sayin’!

🔥 HOT TIP 🔥

Toulouse Petit does brunch every day of the week! If you want to play hooky to avoid the maddening weekend crowds, swing through and get litty on a Wednesday morning. YOLO, as they say.

📸: Adam Kubota

2

Catch a matinee at SIFF Uptown 🎥

🎞️ SIFF UPTOWN 🎞️
📍511 Queen Anne Ave N, Seattle
Check online for showtimes

After you two get stuffed at Toulouse, walk a half block down to SIFF Uptown to watch a matinee movie on one of the theater’s three screens. As one of Seattle International Film Festival’s year-round venues, SIFF Uptown plays new and archival film releases and hosts special events like the SIFF Movie Club. Lucky for us, SIFF 2023 happens during Mother’s Day, an excellent excuse to take your mom to see a movie before it’s released to the general public. Load up on popcorn and see something fresh.

Still have some time to kill before the movie? Stop inside Royal Records, just a block north of Toulouse Petit. Two former Everyday Music employees opened this compact record spot two years ago after the Capitol Hill store closed during the pandemic. It’s got tons of analog treasures. Pick up a cassette tape or vinyl record as a memento of time spent with mom 🙂 

📸: Adam Kubota

3

Stop for coffee at Caffe Vita in KEXP ☕

♨️ VITA @ KEXP ♨️
📍 472 1st Ave N, Seattle
Mondays – Fridays: 7 am – 6 pm
Saturdays – Sundays: 8 am – 6 pm

Whether you just watched a devastating foreign film or an arthouse classic, you will want coffee. Walk one block to Caffe Vita in the KEXP Gathering Space, an airy and public spot for gathering (duh) and listening to KEXP’s world-class DJs. It’s a cute, hip, and very Seattle collaboration between the beloved cafe and radio station. Grab a cup of a locally-roasted espresso with milk of your choosing and have a seat underneath one of the Gathering Space’s many speakers before you launch into the meaning of that Kurosawa movie you just saw. 

📸: Adam Kubota

4

Walk around the Seattle Center grounds 🚶‍♀️

⛲ SEATTLE CENTER ⛲
📍 305 Harrison St, Seattle
Open daily

After feeding your intellect, it’s time to feed the body by walking around the Seattle Center’s grounds. Built for the 1962 World’s Fair, Seattle Center is an often lively cultural center with festivals and crowds heading to catch a game at Climate Pledge Arena or a ballet at McCaw Hall. If it’s a warm day, sit on the rim of the International Fountain to watch jets of water shoot high up in the air (my mom used to take my siblings and me here during the summer when we were kids, so it’s nostalgic for me). If it’s chilly, duck inside the Museum of Popular Culture to marvel at its construction and pick up a Nirvana tee if that’s your thing. 

📸: Adam Kubota

5

Head over to Bad Bar for a nice evening drink 🍸

🍹 BAD BAR 🍹
📍 819 5th Ave N, Seattle
Open daily: 4 pm to 2 am

Not sick of mom just yet? Cap things off at Bad Bar, just a few blocks north of Seattle Center on 5th Ave. This spot is for moms who aren’t afraid of city living and can appreciate cool floor designs, trippy neon-accented bathrooms, and curated music. Sip on a Bad Bar Manhattan while you bond by gossiping about your family.

📸: Adam Kubota

6

Or hop on the monorail to catch the sunset at Pike Place 🚝

💨 SEATTLE MONORAIL 💨
📍 370 Thomas St #200, Seattle
Mondays to Fridays: 7:30 am to 11 pm
Saturdays to Sundays: 8:30 am to 11 pm

If your mom is a transit baddie and took a bus to meet in Queen Anne, keep the good transit vibes going by hopping on the monorail to downtown. Tickets are $3.50 each (you can use your Orca card, by the way), and for the five-minute journey, you both can revel in the alternate reality where Seattle went through on expanding the monorail to cross the entire city. Hop off, think about grabbing a Sushi Burrito, and scurry over to Pike Place to catch the sunset. 

Author

An author pic of Jas Keimig. They have blue braids.

Jas Keimig

Jas Keimig is an arts and culture writer in Seattle. Their work has previously appeared in The Stranger, i-D, Netflix, and Feast Portland. They won a game show once and have a thing for stickers.

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