Underground Soup Kitchen

This room is not large, and the amount of space taken up by tables, counters, cook pots, and such only makes it seem smaller. Near the door is a rack for coats, umbrellas, and any such that you may or may not have. No matter the time or season there are always a few hanging or propped up against there, most of them ragged and worn, common colors with patches that don't quite match. The majority of the rest of the room is taken up by fold-out tables most of the time (though they are occasionally put up against the walls), all surrounded by folding chairs. None of them are anything special, or particularly nice - but the care with which they are kept from the rigors of the world makes them nearly glow in some less tangible way than the varnish on a fancy oak table. Past the tables is a white counter, half of it covered with glass and fitted with holders and burners for soup and breads - most of which are usually fairly full. The other half is set up as a serving area which usually has a fair sized line running up to it.

Despite the commonness of the decor, and the poverty of the majority of the people who come here, there is a special feeling to this place - a certain relaxed acceptance and peacefulness that is all too hard to find at times in the world of Styrofoam crowns and cracked cement. Here, the conversation at the tables is soft, unhurried and without the sounds of anger or desperation that follow the waking world like phantoms. In the far back of the room is a draped off area - probably only big enough for two or three people to fit in - a small secluded area for when even the easy ways of this place are just too much to bear.

To get to the Underground Soup Kitchen, start from the SeaTac Airport and head north to State Highway 518. Take 5 to Interstate 5, go on north to I-5 (southern downtown). Continue north to I-5 (downtown). Take Yesler to Yesler and 9th. Go northwest to Yesler and James. Here you find Vincent's Apartments. Continue to Pioneer's Square and then into Doc Maynard's. Go underground and you will find the Soup Kitchen.