Kress brings one-stop grocery shopping to the downtown core

I lived downtown for years and while it was great to have the Pike Place Market in my backyard, there was really no place to shop for regular grocery items like ketchup or aluminum foil.

Nor was there a place to pick up a reasonably priced pre-made dinner from the deli case on those nights when I just didn't feel like cooking or going out to a restaurant. The newly opened Kress IGA Supermarket is out to change all that.

Occupying the basement of the 84-year-old Kress building at the corner of Third Avenue and Pike Street -- it was home to the Kress five and dime store for 50 years -- the Kress IGA Supermarket is downtown Seattle's only full-service grocery store.

Aside from cornering that market, what makes Kress special is that it features locally made and produced items, such as baked goods from Tom Douglas' Dahlia Bakery, chocolates from Chocolati, organic to-go options from Delicious Planet, fresh handmade lasagna from Queen Anne's Sorrentino restaurant and others, many of whom have never partnered with a retail location before.

Some, like the Dahlia Bakery and longtime Pike Place Market vendors Xai Cha's Garden and Piroshky Piroshky, will deliver their stock to the store by foot daily.

Kress is hoping to catch the attention of customers who live and work in the downtown core and has devoted a large part of the store to ready-made items like sandwiches, sushi, soup and barbecue. There's also a taqueria and a hot entrée and salad bar to satisfy any lunch or dinnertime craving.

The Kress IGA Supermarket is located at 1423 Third Ave., just three blocks from the Pike Place Market, and is open daily from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.

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