Editor’s Note: Originally published July 14, 2017. Updated June 27, 2019.

It recently occurred to me that Hewitt Avenue would make a nice linear route for a pub/foodie crawl.

It’s a straight shot. You could park on the east end and drink and eat your way westward until you hit the waterfront. Then you could sober up on the walk back to the car.

Or vice versa: start west, end east.

I don’t necessarily recommend doing this in one go, but it could be done.

It also occurred to me that you could do the whole trip…outdoors. One of the true pleasures of living in Everett is enjoying the summer in the seaside city.

The Hewitt Crawl. Hewitt Al Fresco. This could be a thing.

The proposed itinerary:

1. Buck’s American Café

Stop at the classy brick building for happy hour (Mon.-Fri. 3-6 p.m). Sit under red umbrellas on the sidewalk next to plate glass windows. Ivy growing on the walls. 

Drink a merlot on an empty stomach: a toast to the ghost of Hemingway who is said to roam the taxidermy-walled premises. A fish and chips chaser. Congrats. You’re on your way.

2. Brooklyn Bros. Pizzeria

Thin-crust New York pizza on picnic benches. Seagulls swarm the faux mastheads of Angel of the Winds Arena. Trains rumble underfoot in the deep guts of the city. Across the tracks a giant mural is dedicated to supporting unions. Inside the pizza restaurant there is graffiti, punk rock and hot ovens. There is life here.

3. The Independent Beer Bar

Re-up your buzz with a goblet of foamy craft porter on the patio. Look out at the blue sky above the intersection of Rockefeller and Hewitt and wonder: Seriously, where did all these seagulls come from?

4. Amante Pizza & Pasta / Sol Food

Take your pick: these restaurants share an open-air courtyard separated by a wall of colored bottles and (surprise!) a PNW palm tree. On the Amante’s side get a balsamic-drizzled caprese from the resident salad master. On the Sol Food side get yourself a danged mixed tapas plate with a Cuba Libre.

More seagulls. Why. How. So many birds.

5. Toggle’s Bottle Shop

The windows are rolled down on this Hewitt-facing temple of craft beverage. The sea breeze rolls into the classic brick building. Inside there are coolers and coolers of beers that you must try. Peanut butter stouts, passion fruit sours and imported Trappist ales. Toggle’s is dog-friendly, stocked with board games and they allow outside food. What’s on tap at Toggle’s? Fun. Fun’s on tap.

6. K Fresh

At the extremity of Hewitt, across the street from the Soundview, is the new kid on the block. Shittake and edamame fans, rejoice—K Fresh is Korean, vegan-friendly food (they have meat options, too). Select your own ingredients for a custom bipimbap, served in a hot stone bowl. Kimchi and soft serve help round out the meal. Fresh and tasty, the food goes down easy—so easy you may need a Lime scooter to roll out after the flavor party ends.

7. The Soundview

Things are getting good at Everett’s number one dive bar. There’s a candy crane that grabs DVDs. The billiard tables are hopping with poolsharking retirees. The burgers will bring you down a notch and a stiff well drink will chill your hand as you hit the patio. The patio décor looks like a mini golf course… but there’s no mini golf. It’s just lots of weirdo kitsch and picnic tables.

Everyone knows everyone and the crowd’s cutting loose.

You pay your tab and walk back up Hewitt feeling the feels. Chill bay breeze. You see groups of people you know and chat or yell hello. At the Colby intersection you see the Cascade Mountains glowing against the deep blue evening sky.

Everett, man. Everett.

There’s no other place like it.

Richard Porter is a writer for Live in Everett.