Ivar’s is one of a handful of local chains that feels embedded in the fabric of Seattle. The logo with the looping I is iconic, and the seafood bars are a reliable place to get fish and chips for about 15 bucks, which feels like an inflation-adjusted steal. So it’s easy to forget there was a real guy named Ivar, though the more you read about him, the less real he seems.
Ivar Haglund was born in Seattle in 1905, when the city was very different — he commuted by trolley to the University of Washington from Alki Point, where he was raised. After graduating from UW in 1928, he bummed around as a folk singer before opening a waterfront aquarium in 1938. He started selling fish and chips and chowder alongside it, and soon the restaurant business eclipsed the aquarium. He opened his Acres of Clams — the full-service restaurant next to the more affordable fish and chips window at Pier 54 — in 1946.
Haglund was a canny businessman, but he’s most remembered for his stunts. He made a tradition out of carting a seal in a baby buggy to visit a department store Santa. He sold clam broth as an aphrodisiac — women had to sign off on their dining partner having more than two cups. Ivar’s hosted eating contests and a wrestling match between a man and an octopus. When a syrup truck spilled its cargo all over the highway, Haglund ran out with a stack of pancakes for a photo op. When a neighboring waterfront business demanded people stop feeding the seagulls, Haglund put up signs telling people to feed the seagulls more. Pranks are so embedded in the company DNA that even after Haglund’s death in 1985, Ivar’s did things like dredge up old billboards from the bottom of Puget Sound before revealing the whole thing was faked. Haglund was civic-minded as well as being a jokester — he bought the Smith Tower in 1976, donated to many charities over the course of his life, and left the bulk of his estate to UW’s business school.
Not that you need to know any of that to enjoy some waterfront fish and chips. Just remember to feed the seagulls — it’s what Haglund would have wanted.
