For centuries past, fish and chips has been the popular stand-up-and-eat snack in England, similar to our hot dog or bag of popcorn. Street vendors and fish-and-chips shops, some of them doing business at the same old stand for a 100 years or more, have sold the delicacy to passers-by and after-theater crowds in Drury Lane and other colorful streets and towns of England.
Two brothers, Jack and Frank Alger, are credited with giving fish and chips its biggest boost in Seattle, however. The Algers formerly lived in Vancouver, B.C., and were familiar with the fish-and-chips stands at English Ban and Kitsilano Beach.
England-born Jack Alger wondered why similar stands wouldn’t go big in Seattle, especially along its beach drives. So, in 1935, he opened the first Spud Fish & Chips in a small, garage-type building on Alki Avenue.