The thick, cream-based New England chowder that Larry Mellum reverse-engineered at his Pike Place Market counter in 2003. Eight national chowder cook-off wins and counting.

Pike Place Chowder is not a Seattle invention so much as a Seattle perfection. Larry Mellum opened the counter in Post Alley in 2003, then carried Pike Place Chowder's New England Clam Chowder to the Great Chowder Cook-Off in Newport, Rhode Island, where it won the people's pick in 2008. The kitchen has now collected eight national championships, including the seafood chowder with smoked salmon and the Manhattan-style with chorizo. The Pike Place Market location at 1530 Post Alley still trades on the cobblestoned chowder queue; the second shop opened at Pacific Place in 2008. The clam used is the local geoduck-adjacent Manila clam, and the bread bowl is a sourdough boule sliced lid-off at the counter. There is no Seattle chowder before this; the Manhattan style at Ivar's predates it by 64 years but never travelled the cook-off circuit.

3 editor picks for Pike Place clam chowder in Seattle, ranked by editorial score. All Seattle signature dishes · Pike Place clam chowder across every city.