FISHTORY

Nighttime scene outside a vintage restaurant called 'SPUD Fish & Chips' with a classic car parked in front and two people standing outside

SPUD on Alki Beach, circa 1945. Photo credit Annie Arnold.

From Alki Beach to Your Basket — The SPUD Story

Fish and chips has always been street food at its finest. For centuries in England, it was the ultimate stand-up-and-eat snack — the hot dog of its day — sold by street vendors and neighborhood chippies, some of them feeding the same streets for a hundred years or more. From Drury Lane to the beaches of Vancouver, B.C., the tradition of crispy battered fish and golden fries has always belonged to the waterfront.

That's exactly what two brothers from Vancouver saw when they looked at Seattle.

Jack and Frank Alger grew up knowing the fish-and-chips stands at English Bay and Kitsilano Beach. England-born Jack had a hunch — if it works on a Canadian beach, why not a Seattle one? In 1935, he opened the very first SPUD Fish & Chips in a small garage-style building on Alki Avenue in West Seattle, and the Pacific Northwest hasn't been the same since.

That original stand is the reason you're here today — whether you're grabbing a basket at the Edmonds Ferry Terminal or watching the sun set over Lake Washington at Juanita Beach in Kirkland. Nearly 90 years later, SPUD is still doing what Jack Alger started: serving wild-caught, fresh fish and crispy fries to people who love the water.

— Inspired by John J. Reddin's original Seattle Times article, February 16, 1962.

Black and white photo of a man in a white shirt and apron standing behind a counter, possibly in a kitchen or food service setting. There is a sign on the wall behind him that reads "FRENCH FRIES TEN CENTS." The man appears to be mid-gesture, with one arm bent and the other resting on the counter.

Roy Buckley in 1938.

A Dime, a Boat of Fries, and a Legacy

In June of 1935 — right in the heart of the Great Depression — English-born brothers Jack and Frank Alger opened SPUD Fish & Chips on Alki Beach in West Seattle. For just 10 cents, you got a paper boat stuffed with fries and two big pieces of breaded cod: a taste of home for anyone who'd ever stood on a British shoreline and dreamed of something crispy and warm.

What the Alger brothers built on that beach turned out to be more influential than anyone could have guessed. In 1938, when a young Ivar Haglund opened his first fish and chips stand at the entrance to his aquarium on Pier 54, his very first employee — Roy Buckley — had learned the craft working at SPUD. Jack, Frank, Ivar, and Roy were all West Seattle kids. The roots of Seattle's entire seafood culture trace back to one little stand on Alki Beach.

After the war, the original building got a serious glow-up: a sleek modern structure with nautical portholes, eventually growing into a two-story landmark that's anchored Alki Beach ever since. The SPUD family kept growing too — spreading to Green Lake and Juanita Beach on Lake Washington, where we've been feeding the Kirkland community since 1969.

The paper boats are still here. The fish is still wild-caught and fresh. And the view is still worth every bite.

Black and white photo of a small restaurant with a sign reading "Spud Fish & Chips" on a corner, with houses and a hill in the background.

SPUD Alki, circa 1961.

Blue graphic with white and light blue text listing a fish and chips recipe tips, including start with good fish and potatoes, hand-slice, batter, fry, stay close to water, and a note since 1935.