The Washington Post highlights Ballard’s Scandinavian roots and cuisine

Meghan Walker Ballard

Ballard is in the national spotlight this week: The Washington Post published an article today highlighting Ballard’s rich Scandinavian heritage.

From the article:

Within the few square miles that define Ballard, the historic epicenter of Seattle’s Scandinavian community, diners can feast on smorgasbords and smørrebrød (open-face sandwiches) and smorkage (glazed butter pastry rolls filled with almond paste and raisins). Shops offer house-pickled herring, house-cured fenalar (lamb leg) or homemade fish pudding, not to mention krukost, a sort of potted cheese made from leftover rinds. Wash down the pastries — including four types of pretzel-shaped Kringle pastries — with drinks from Seattle’s famous coffee culture or opt for your choice of aquavit.

The author, Seattle-based Rebekah Denn, describes some of Ballard’s Scandinavian restaurants, such as the Old Ballard Liquor Co., where people can get lutefisk year-round. Owner Lexi told the Post she aims “to take out the ‘fear factor’ by preparing a lutefisk brandade hand pie, cutting the fish with potatoes and cloaking it in a rye pastry crust.”

Also mentioned in the article is Larsen’s Bakery, Freya Cafe in the Nordic Museum, and the soon-to-open Skal Beer Hall. Freya chef Bob Pennington told the Post that he sees Seattle as the “perfect match for Nordic foods”, and said the farm-to-table, seafood-heavy culture of Seattle food complements Nordic cooking.

To read Dunn’s article in full, click here.

Photo from Freya Cafe

10 thoughts to “The Washington Post highlights Ballard’s Scandinavian roots and cuisine”

  2. “Nordic” is racist. There is no such thing as “Scandinavian Culture”. All people are the same. Diversity at all costs, borders are evil. Washington Post told me so. Buy Amazon. Namaste!

    1. I loved how Mikey pivoted within days from decrying “the atrocity of White supremacy” to celebrating his own ‘Nordic” roots (the “O’Brien” is a dead give-away), to getting kicked out of a gala after the opening of the Nordic Museum. Comedy gold.

  6. Just a few points:

    I don’t think that Finland should be referred to or included as a Scandinavian country. Their language is certainly not Scandinavian – perhaps more like Russian or other similar languages. Finland is a Nordic country however and is included at the Nordic Heritage Museum.

    I find it rather strange that the author, allegedly a Seattleite made no reference to the Leif Erickson Lodge of the Sons of Norway located right in the center of Ballard when she goes into great length about The Swedish Club which is really not in Ballard- as it is more correctly in Queen Anne or west lake union.

    Now the next comment: where can I get gammelost in the area? I could go to Vik I Sogn norway to Tine Dairy, the only place where it is made in the world at this time. FYI, gamely is old and ost is cheese – meaning gammelost is a very ripe cheese that may exceed Limburger cheese for tast and aroma.

    1. Finnish isn’t even an Iindo-European language at all, nothing like Russian, which is a Balto-Slavic and an actual relative of Swedish, Norwegian and Danish, since they’re all Into-European. Finnish is Uralic, related to Hungarian and Samoyedic. The Finns used to be thought of as Finno-Ugric, ultimately descendants of the Mongols, but now they’re seen as a separate northern Asian people. But close contact and inter-migration with their Swedish and other Scandinavian neighbors for a couple thousand years has made them culturally Scandinavian, during which time they were usually in conflict with the Russians and so shared little with them culturally.

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