
Ivar's is a
seafood
Seafood is any form of Marine life, sea life regarded as food by humans, prominently including Fish as food, fish and shellfish. Shellfish include various species of Mollusca, molluscs (e.g., bivalve molluscs such as clams, oysters, and mussel ...
restaurant
A restaurant is an establishment that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and Delivery (commerce), food delivery services. Restaurants ...
chain based in
Seattle, Washington
Seattle ( ) is the List of municipalities in Washington, most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the List of Unit ...
, United States, with operations in the
Puget Sound
Puget Sound ( ; ) is a complex estuary, estuarine system of interconnected Marine habitat, marine waterways and basins located on the northwest coast of the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. As a part of the Salish Sea, the sound ...
region.
Ivar's also owns the Seattle-based
burger restaurant chain
Kidd Valley.
History
Ivar's was founded in 1938 by Seattle
folk
Folk or Folks may refer to:
Sociology
*Nation
*People
* Folklore
** Folk art
** Folk dance
** Folk hero
** Folk horror
** Folk music
*** Folk metal
*** Folk punk
*** Folk rock
** Folk religion
* Folk taxonomy
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Fo ...
singer
Ivar Haglund. Having built Seattle's first
aquarium
An aquarium (: aquariums or aquaria) is a vivarium of any size having at least one transparent side in which aquatic plants or animals are kept and displayed. fishkeeping, Fishkeepers use aquaria to keep fish, invertebrates, amphibians, aquati ...
on what is now
Pier 54, he decided to add a companion
fish and chips
Fish and chips is a hot dish consisting of batter (cooking), battered and fried fish, served with French fries, chips. Often considered the national dish of the United Kingdom, fish and chips originated in England in the 19th century. Today, ...
bar to feed his visitors. The bar was short-lived, however. On July 22, 1946, Haglund opened a new restaurant, Ivar's Acres of
Clam
Clam is a common name for several kinds of bivalve mollusc. The word is often applied only to those that are deemed edible and live as infauna, spending most of their lives halfway buried in the sand of the sea floor or riverbeds. Clams h ...
s, at the same location. The aquarium closed ten years later, but the restaurant remains.
Ivar's has two other full-service restaurants: Ivar's
Salmon
Salmon (; : salmon) are any of several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the genera ''Salmo'' and ''Oncorhynchus'' of the family (biology), family Salmonidae, native ...
House in Seattle's
Northlake neighborhood, and Ivar's Mukilteo Landing in
Mukilteo, Washington
Mukilteo ( ; ) is a city in Snohomish County, Washington, United States. It is located on Puget Sound between Edmonds, Washington, Edmonds and Everett, Washington, Everett, approximately north of Seattle. The city had a population of 20,254 at ...
, next to the
Washington State Ferries
Washington State Ferries (WSF) is a public ferry system in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. It is a division of the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) and operates 10 routes serving 20 terminals within Puget ...
terminal. There is a fishbar outside of all three full-service restaurants. All its other locations are seafood bars.
Nard Jones remarked in 1972 that Haglund was "not afraid to reflect Puget Sound tradition in the decor of his restaurants, whereas others of his profession seem intent on making their patrons forget where they are." In this respect, he singled out the Salmon House, "an almost exact replica of an old Indian
longhouse
A longhouse or long house is a type of long, proportionately narrow, single-room building for communal dwelling. It has been built in various parts of the world including Asia, Europe, and North America.
Many were built from lumber, timber and ...
."
Every
Independence Day
An independence day is an annual event memorialization, commemorating the anniversary of a nation's independence or Sovereign state, statehood, usually after ceasing to be a group or part of another nation or state, or after the end of a milit ...
from 1964 until 2008, Ivar's sponsored the Fourth of Jul-Ivar's festival and
fireworks
Fireworks are Explosive, low explosive Pyrotechnics, pyrotechnic devices used for aesthetic and entertainment purposes. They are most commonly used in fireworks displays (also called a fireworks show or pyrotechnics), combining a large numbe ...
show at
Downtown Seattle's Myrtle Edwards Park
Myrtle Edwards Park in Seattle, Washington (state), Washington is a public park along the Elliott Bay waterfront north of Belltown, Seattle, in the state of Washington (state), Washington, United States. It features a long bicycle and walki ...
on
Elliott Bay
Elliott Bay is a part of the Central Basin region of Puget Sound. It is in the U.S. state of Washington, extending southeastward between West Point in the north and Alki Point in the south. Seattle was founded on this body of water in the 1850s ...
. Ivar's estimated its attendance at around 300,000 people. On April 3, 2009, Ivar's announced it was no longer sponsoring its Fourth of Jul-Ivar's community fireworks show. Ivar's decided to focus its efforts on feeding families in the Pacific Northwest through its partnership with Northwest Harvest.
In 2021, ''Kettle Classic Clam Chowder with Uncured Bacon'',
sold only at
Costco
Costco Wholesale Corporation is an American multinational corporation which operates a chain of membership-only big-box warehouse club retail stores. As of 2021, Costco is the third-largest retailer in the world, and as of August 2024, Cos ...
, was recalled in 13 states for plastic in the Chowder.
Underwater billboard hoax
Capitalizing on founder Haglund's reputation for eccentric marketing stunts, Ivar's put out a story that Haglund had placed billboards on the bottom of the Sound, related to a proposal he had once made for submarine traffic as a viable mode of transportation. Some documentation was released, including maps of possible sub-aquatic billboard locations. On August 22, 2009 one of the rumored signs was discovered and hoisted out of the water, advertising a cup of Clam Chowder for $0.75. Several other signs followed. The signs were displayed publicly as authentic, with Ivar's saying that for a time they would honor the $0.75 price for chowder.
All of this turned out to be a hoax. The signs were sunk earlier in 2009, and local historian Paul Dorpat had deliberately furthered the hoax. Dorpat, of
HistoryLink
HistoryLink is an online encyclopedia of Washington (state), Washington state history. The site has more than 8,100 entries and attracts 23,000 weekly visitors. It has 500 biographies and more than 14,000 images.
The non-profit historical organi ...
contributes a weekly column to the ''Seattle Times,'' and attempted to hoax that newspaper, whose first story about the billboards cast doubt on their authenticity, stating, "if it was a hoax, a prime suspect would be the Ivar's chain itself." Several minor clues were placed to guarantee that the hoax would eventually unravel. For example, the chowder price wasn't correct for the ostensible date, and the wrong governor's name was on the letterhead from the Department of Fisheries.
[Eric Lacitis]
Ivar's undersea billboards a hoax devised as marketing ploy
, ''Seattle Times'', November 12, 2009. Accessed online 2009-11-13.
See also
*
Fried clams
*''
Ivar Feeding the Gulls'' (1988)
*
List of seafood restaurants
The following is a list of notable seafood restaurants. A seafood restaurant typically specializes in seafood cuisine and seafood dishes, such as Fish (food), fish and shellfish.
Seafood restaurants
Australia
* Doyles on the Beach
Braz ...
*
Rally fries
Notes
External links
Ivar'sKidd Valley
{{Restaurants in Seattle
1938 establishments in Washington (state)
Fast-food chains of the United States
Fast-food seafood restaurants
Regional restaurant chains in the United States
Restaurants established in 1938
Restaurants in Seattle
Seafood restaurants in the United States