Claiming to be Seattle’s oldest continuously operating restaurant, Merchant's Café stands at the corner of Yesler and James Streets in Seattle's historic Pioneer Square neighborhood. Seattle entrepreneur Franz Xavier "F.X." Schreiner opened his establishment around 1898 as Merchant's Exchange Saloon, changing the name to Merchant's Café during Prohibition. Over the years Merchant's has served as a restaurant, brothel, tavern, hotel, and jazz club. It also sold cigars, cigarettes, pipes, and penny candy from a well-stocked counter that opened onto the street. During the gold rush, Merchant's became a gathering place for miner's going to and from the Klondike, with Schreiner operating a "bank" on Sundays where he gave miners cash in exchange for gold dust.

This image shows the Merchants Café cigar counter around 1916. The men at the counter are, at left, Carl Joseph Schreiner, F.X. Schreiner's son, and his cousin Johann August "John" Schreiner. F.X. Schreiner turned ownership of Merchant's over to Carl and John in 1916. Carl left the business in 1919, and in 1922, F.X. sold the business to John Schreiner for a token sum. Merchant's Cafe remained in the Schreiner family for 74 years. As of 2025, Merchant's Café is still in business at the same location at 109 Yesler Street.

Caption information source: "Schreiner, Franz Xavier "F. X." (1859-1946)" by Suzanne Livingston Hansen, HistoryLink.org Essay 10114, retrieved at https://www.historylink.org/file/10114
Caption information source: “Three bars in Pioneer Square claim ‘oldest in Seattle.’ Now, one is closed indefinitely”, by Alex Halvorson, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, October 31, 2019.