With its oversaturation of college students, the U District can often be overlooked, intentionally or not, as a great place for holiday shopping. But there are treasures to be found here.
Sure, University Village on the opposite side of the University of Washington campus is an obvious choice for those looking for the conventional holiday feel (twinkling light-lined buildings and trees) and high-end retail (Apple, Microsoft, Williams-Sonoma, Anthropologie). But University Way, colloquially known as The Ave, offers something a little funkier, at times even charming. The bustle of frantic college students battling finals on the cusp of winter break is surprisingly festive. You could even visit the campus on a shopping break to take in that collegiate holiday feel. Think Hogwarts.
Making your way up The Ave from Northeast 43rd Street, you’ll want to hit Heads Up (4305 University Way N.E.) first. This novelty shop is your stop for stocking stuffers: postcards, mugs, lunchboxes, T-shirts, and keychains with everything from the Beatles to My Little Pony on them. It’s Hot Topic without the corporate chain feel and moody teenagers.
Next, Magus Books (1408 N.E. 42nd St., 633-1800) is a must for the bibliophile on your list, filled as it is with used, rare, and out-of-print books. The space is small but packs a huge and expansive inventory; that and a friendly and knowledgeable staff gives this bookstore a charming intimacy. If you don’t have a specific title in mind, this is a great place to browse books on teasingly diverse topics. Along with a great fiction selection, you’ll also find sections on UFOs, chess, and potpourri.
Tucked right behind Magus in the alley between University Way and 15th Avenue Northeast is your rest stop, Cafe Allegro (4214 University Way N.E., 633-3030). Seattle’s oldest and possibly most romantic and rustic coffee shop, this is a great place to grab some coffee or hot chocolate and go.
If you do need specific titles, there’s no going wrong with University Book Store (4326 University Way N.E., 634-3400). The feminist on your list, for example, will treasure a copy of Not That Kind of Girl by Lena Dunham, Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay, or Unspeakable Things by Laurie Penny.
Stay along the Ave for a while and hit Shiga’s Imports
(4306 University Way N.E., 633-2400) for items from the orient; Om Zappy (1409 N.E. 45th St., 661-1762) for free-trade tapestries and clothes from Nepal, Thailand, and India; Moksha (4542 University Way N.E., 632-2622) for edgy fashion; and, of course, Gargoyles Statuary (4550 University Way N.E., 632-4940) for gargoyle statues.
Then finish your day off the Ave on Brooklyn. Down a flight of stairs beneath the Neptune Theatre, the understated exterior of Neptune Music Company (4344 Brooklyn Ave. N.E., 632-0202) hides a cultural bounty. The store is covered wall to wall in music; it even spills out into precarious stacks on the floor. This isn’t a shop you can casually browse, but a place where you carve out an entire afternoon to sift through tons of bins and piles to come across that gem: a rare Smiths single for your brooding nephew or an original-pressing Frank Zappa album for your vinyl-hound sister. E
