beyond big box
Old Town Silverdale holds charm and character
Words by David Albright
KettleFish’s Dave Montoure
Old Town Silverdale is just a few blocks from Kitsap Mall, but this cozy neigh borhood with its diminutive storefronts, gridded streets and historic charm feels like a different world compared to the expanses of asphalt and big box stores that typify the rest of the retail core of Silverdale. And that’s just how they like it.
“It’s very cute, quaint, walkable and so close to the water. I think a lot of people don’t even realize that this is here,” explains Dave Montoure, who chose to open his KettleFish fish-n-chips concept in the neighborhood.
In its early days, Silverdale was a center of egg farming, and Old Town was the hub. Farmers would load their delicate cargo onto ferries that would distribute as far away as Chicago. But through the years, the farms made way for retail, and Old Town and its waterfront fell into disrepair. It all came to a head in 2017 when the venerable Old Town Tavern and the apartments above it were shuttered, citing safety concerns in the 106-year-old building.
But today things are looking up for Old Town. The Port of Silverdale has plans to replace the crumbling tavern building with a new Waterfront Recreation Center to draw events and marine activities. Up the street at the site of a former high school, developers are planning a mixed use community with walking paths and public greenspace, bisected by Strawberry Creek. The project will bring improved habitat for both salmon and people while maintaining the historic, log-cabin style Boy Scout Hall.
But Old Town isn’t just waiting around for all this redevelopment. A variety of salons and professional services already dot the neighborhood. Monica’s Bakery Café offers sandwiches, coffee and fresh baked cakes and pastries, and The Hub Byron Street opened recently, serving their own microbrews alongside scratchmade pizza and smash burgers in the historic Seaport Building.
Old Town is also home to a small residential community. “People don’t realize there’s waterfront living available in some of these buildings, for barely over a thousand a month,” Montroure tells me—gesturing behind his restaurant. And sure enough, a walk down the street leads me to the Silverdale Shores Apartments— built in 1963 but sporting a slick new logo, tasteful paint job and newly renovated units that overlook Dyes Inlet.
In a tiny, brightly painted cottage, Somsri Knight has run her Thai restaurant Nattamit for going-on 20 years. It’s the kind of place where “welcome in!” greets you long before a face does, and you’re kept company by a Thai soap opera while you wait. Knight enjoys the slower pace of Old Town, compared to her native Thailand and Seattle, where she opened her first restaurant. In fact, she treasures it so much, she made me promise not to send a flood of customers to overwhelm her one-person operation.
Closer to the waterfront, husband and wife team Te and Tom Nelsen recently opened the Old Town Mercantile, selling a mix of antiques, custom Old Town merch and cold beverages they hope will entice beachgoers from the adjacent Silverdale Waterfront Park.
It’s a modest store with lofty goals. Te says the store is about building up “the essence of Silverdale,” more than it is about turning a profit. She pointed to Poulsbo and Port Townsend as inspiration. Both towns have maintained their sense of place even as they’ve grown.
Silverdale can sometimes feel like a place without a distinct identity. Voters have repeatedly resisted incorporating as a city, which is certainly a factor. The nature of the development that it has embraced is another. “You can go to a mall anywhere from here to California and never know what the town you’re in is really like,” Tom Nelson lamented.
Old Town Silverdale is seeking to be the antidote to all of that, by bringing some local character back to its streets. And if the passion of the business owners I spoke to is any indication, they are well on their way to making it happen.
Photos: Serotonin Creative