For our 2025 Neighborhoods challenge, we requested notable Seattleites why their nook of Seattle deserves to be within the metropolis’s prime tier. Right here’s the case for Fremont from Charlie Hunts, as informed to Taylor McKenzie Gerlach.
Earlier than opening Charlie’s, my spouse and I might scout potential neighborhoods by sitting at cafés and simply watching individuals mill round. It didn’t take greater than 10 minutes to see that Fremont is hella homosexual. All the eye is paid to Capitol Hill for being Seattle’s queer neighborhood, however queer persons are unfold out in Seattle. It’s not simply Capitol Hill anymore.
When the idea of a queer bookstore was nonetheless a pop-up cart, my spouse and I might load books into our Subaru (as a result of, you recognize, homosexual) and drive round to totally different markets to check if Seattle needed this, if readers needed this, if the queer group needed it. And it was clear, just about off the bat, that Fremont was the best neighborhood.
Fremont, with its artwork centric mindset, its embrace of individuality and of distinction, speaks to queer of us from a security, comfortability standpoint. And it has stored a few of that kookiness that I feel all of us love about Seattle.
Yeah, Fremont will get overshadowed by Capitol Hill and by Ballard, however I feel that our neighborhood nearly embraces that. We’re not on the lookout for flash and present: Ballard has hipster bars, Fremont has dive bars; Capitol Hill has Capitol Hill Block Social gathering, Fremont has cool, intimate venues like Nectar Lounge and Excessive Dive.
I undoubtedly assume Fremont is slept on, but it surely nearly provides to its mystique. Whenever you get there, you’re feeling such as you’re discovering one thing. Earlier than transferring right here, I had recognized about Fremont principally due to the Troll. However once I visited the Troll, I walked down the hill and acquired to discover all of the retailers, the classic mall, and the Sunday market. So chances are you’ll come for the Troll, however you’ll keep for the artwork and the small companies.
Charlie Hunts opened his very-pink-and-purple Fremont retailer, Charlie’s Queer Books, in November 2023. He’s collaborating with neighborhood booksellers and Seattle Public Library’s Fremont department to craft the Fremont Neighborhood of Books.
