Food & Drink
Nothing Ordinary About Seattle’s Rank & Style
Proof that Seattle is the place to be
By Rob Smith November 29, 2022
This article originally appeared in the November/December 2022 issue of Seattle magazine.
It wouldn’t be unusual for you to find your favorite millennial sipping beer, eating chocolate or perusing one of Seattle’s 17 farmers markets. Studies say they’re all the rage.
First off, an analysis by scholarship website Scholaroo ranks Washington the 11th best state for millennials based on 52 metrics organized into several key indicators, including affordability, employment, political and social environment, health and personal finance. The state scored highest for quality of life (No. 4), personal finance (No. 5) and health (No. 12). Affordability, unsurprisingly, was near the bottom.
Millennials (roughly defined as those born between 1981 and 1996) make up about 22% of the United States population.
At the same time, those millennials – and everyone else, apparently – enjoy hitting one of the state’s microbreweries. Vacation rental company HomeToGo analyzed the cost of beer and the number of breweries, brewpubs and beer bars to rank the state the fifth-best beer destination in the nation. Washington has 437 breweries with an economic impact of almost $2 billion annually, according to the Beer Institute.
And then there’s chocolate. Lawn care company Lawn Love ranks Seattle the No. 6 city for chocolate lovers (anyone who’s been to Fran’s at the Four Seasons or Theo Chocolate, to name just two favorites, will understand) based on reviews and number of chocolate shops.
Finally, Seattle ranks No. 9 for the quality of its farmers markets. The city has about 15 farmers markets, including the popular Ballard Farmers Market – the city’s first year-round neighborhood market – and the University District Farmers Market, which is held Saturdays year-round and is Seattle’s oldest and largest. And don’t forget about the Fremont Farmers Market, a diverse European-style, canal-side open air market that also runs year-round.
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