Drinks with character (and powdered sugar) at Stampede Cocktail Membership.
Statistically, America is likely to be consuming lower than we had been a number of darkish years in the past, however because the pandemic bars have attained a brand new significance. Now that we reside a lot of our lives on-screen, we’d like neighborhood. We’d like music overhead, the tactile pleasure of a chilly glass in our hand, and the kind of freewheeling dialogue that doesn’t require unmuting your self.
This crop of bars, our favourite spots in a city with 100 extra nice ones, contains big-time locations and superb dives, venues pushing our beverage tradition in new instructions, and ones which were perfecting the craft since hand-cut ice cubes had been a novelty. We’re fortunate to reside in a metropolis the place eating places typically have righteously good drink applications. However we’re right here to have a good time correct bars—the meals is likely to be good (typically nice), nevertheless it’s in all probability not what introduced you within the door. You’re right here for a drink. And likewise for a lot extra.
The Cocktail Perfectionists
The Physician’s Workplace will see you now.
The Physician’s Workplace
Capitol Hill
As when visiting a reliable medical skilled, you’ll need to make an appointment. Although in contrast to an precise physician’s workplace, a go to to this pillbox-size cocktail hang-out means issues are going very proper. The appointment (a.ok.a. reservation) setup lets a Mount Rushmore–caliber bartender crew lavish unfussy consideration and impeccable drinks on occupants of the scant 12 seats. Every cocktail is an clever marvel, like a Sazerac made with a mix of 4 totally different mezcals. The spirit record deserves its personal PhD program, however the pre-batched traditional cocktails are a quick, balanced, and ice-cold method to maximize the ultimate jiffy of your reservation.
Roquette
Belltown
On a Belltown strip recognized for nightclubs and parking zone fights, tiny Roquette is a sublime oasis of modern strains and palm tree murals. Zig Zag alum Erik Hakkinen’s little lounge focuses on uncommon European spirits, particularly French ones—and extra-especially variants on Chartreuse. This place is about the small print: the particular glassware, the flawless garnishes, the general dedication to artistry. Craft cocktails listed here are creative and in addition very robust. Regardless of the subtle vibe, a educated employees retains it chatty and lightweight.
Baker’s
Ballard
There are cocktail nerds, after which there’s Brian Claudio Smith. His bar, named for cocktail journalist Charles Henry Baker Jr., transcends the idea of “neighborhood bar” because of a wall of obscure bottles that critical collectors dream about. Menus are themed after beloved movies, however you gotta guess which: e.g., the Shooter’s Gold Jacket, a latest ode to Completely satisfied Gilmore, with cognac, bison grass vodka, and citrusy Mari Gold amaro accented by chamomile liqueur, dandelion syrup, and lemon.
Herb and Bitter Public Home
Capitol Hill
With its lush patio, recent lilies, pressed tin, and a really large amaro assortment, Herb and Bitter was already an beautiful cease for a cocktail. However new bar supervisor Benjamin Wright brings some sensible, fascinating weirdness to the menu. Drinks just like the Shrimp Cocktail #2 (shrimp-infused gin, acid-adjusted cucumber juice, bay leaf liqueur, Cocchi Rosa, absinthe, and a prawn garnish) are refreshingly weird and bizarrely refreshing.
Stampede Cocktail Membership’s creations have a broad fan base.
Stampede Cocktail Membership
Fremont
Typically described as “if Meow Wolf had been a bar,” Stampede has a set design that’s Vegas-level, plus a menu to again up the glitz. The Seduce and Destroy is a main
instance of the envelope-pushing happening right here: calamansi citrus gin, Thatcher’s peach liqueur, mustard-cayenne honey, lemon, egg white, and rosewater. The seasonal menu all the time contains 5 or six tremendous revolutionary mocktails, too.
Bar Crawl: Across the nook, Stampede’s sibling Dreamland Bar and Diner provides a equally fantastical expertise and one of many city’s nice drag brunches.
Oliver’s Twist
Phinney Ridge
Proprietor Karuna Lengthy has Canlis issues: how one can stability a beloved legacy with evolving tastes. Drinks just like the Duff and Blathers, a pepper-spiked manhattan riff, made this circa-2007 bar a landmark again in Seattle’s primordial craft cocktail period. They stand the check of time, particularly beside different classics rebooted in sudden methods (a Martinez, say, with purple wine discount and bitter melon maraschino). Cambodian takeout dishes born of the 2020 shutdown reside on within the meals menu. All this glad coexistence makes for a chill neighborhood hang-out that also surprises in any case these years.
Please By no means Go Away
At brunch, Hattie’s pours six totally different bloody marys, made with aquavit, rosemary, or pickle-infused vodka.
Hattie’s Hat
Ballard
This enduring spot simply marked 120 years in operation, although it hasn’t been referred to as Hattie’s Hat the entire time. (It was as soon as a wonderful eating restaurant!) However a lot of the inside, together with the grand mahogany Brunswick bar, is unique to 1904. This difficult-drinkin’ diner/dive has traditionally served Salmon Bay’s bluer collars, and though Ballard Avenue has gotten quite a bit cheugier currently, all scenes coexist peacefully right here.
Faculty Inn Pub
College District
The U District may appear unrecognizable to people who hung round in earlier a long time. However the extra it will get constructed up, the extra valuable its longtime basement pub turns into. The Faculty Inn—a bit of darkish, cozy but surprisingly spacious—has pool tables and dartboards. However greater than that, it has a vibe. It’s the type of place that makes undergrads really feel refined and outdated people really feel unburdened. There’s no higher bar in Seattle for a significant dialog with a good friend or stranger.
The Polar Bar
Downtown
Town’s best-loved architectural facade, the Arctic Membership Constructing, hides one among its most lovely lounges: proper within the resort foyer, in plain sight. Taking a seat in its clubby artwork deco environs makes you’re feeling like a personality in a Fitzgerald novel. Cocktails are largely traditional however will out of the blue veer fabulous, just like the Marie Antoinette: gin, St-Germain, bubbles, and lemon, garnished with a beneficiant hunk of pound cake.
Marco Polo is timeless…very like its jojos.
Marco Polo
Georgetown
This sacred Georgetown dive opened in 1950, earlier than I-5 was constructed, when Fourth Avenue South was dotted with roadhouses. At present, it’s extra sports activities bar than honky-tonk, however now, as then, Marco Polo serves stiff drinks and completely appropriate hen and jojos, made with an old-school Broaster. It’s a valuable relic of Previous Seattle.
Il Bistro
Pike Place Market
This bar is inside the Gum Wall, inside salmon-throwing distance of the Pike Place Fish Market, however locals know that Il Bistro’s no vacationer lure. This red-lit cellar bar is attractive as hell, with a considerate craft cocktail record, a domestically unmatched scotch assortment, and sometimes reside jazz. Plus, Il Bistro’s heritage because the bar the place the legendary Murray Stenson discovered his stride makes it an indelibly Seattle place.
Pay attention and Watch
NA cocktails, vegan phish tacos, cauliflower wings, and vinyl galore at Life on Mars.
Life on Mars
Capitol Hill
A Bowie reference, naturally, for a joint co-owned by KEXP DJ John Richards, who additionally helped curate a 6,000-large file assortment that stretches to the ceiling. Request a vinyl choice (till 7pm each day), however keep for advanced cocktails listed with ABV, together with 0.03 % NA ones. Earnestness overrides music snobbery on the vegan cling, the place a menu message insists “You Are Not Alone” and coasters proclaim “We’re glad you’re right here.”
Sport day at Tough and Tumble.
Tough and Tumble
Ballard
One of many nation’s first girls’s sports activities bars prioritizes feminine athletes on the display, and nontraditional barflies in its seats. Tough and Tumble subverts different paradigms, too; it’s large and lightweight, the nonalcoholic drink record is ample, and the notion that girls’s sports activities gained’t draw crowds is formally lifeless. However some sports activities bar benchmarks haven’t modified: the nachos are nice.
George and Dragon
Fremont
When the George and Dragon opened in 1995, the Sounders had been a comparatively obscure minor league membership. Main League Soccer was simply getting began in America. And the Reign had been nonetheless practically 20 years away. It’s not an understatement to say that the English pub has been the epicenter of Seattle’s sturdy soccer tradition since day one. Positive, these days you possibly can flip on Fox to look at the Euro Cup. However the fact that the George and Dragon understands is that it’s much more enjoyable with pints and mates.
Worldly Consuming
Korochka’s beet mule pairs nicely with any of the Russian-style dumplings on the menu.
Korochka
Wallingford
This beautiful “Russian consuming parlor” looks like Grandma’s home within the woods, with its splashy floral wallpaper and live-edge wood bar high. Korochka’s cocktail record is imbued with Slavic botanicals like horseradish vodka and pine liqueur, alongside NA choices like birch juice and kvass, served within the prettiest classic glassware. Nothing like sipping a beet-infused vodka cocktail with a steamy bowl of pelmeni earlier than you.
Phởcific Commonplace Time
Downtown
A Hanoi-distilled gin powers the rosy hoa hồng cocktail, flavored with botanicals foraged in Vietnam’s highlands. Condensed milk sweetens an espresso martini
made with phin-brewed espresso. It’s laborious to consider such a dim and transportive hideaway exists atop a Phở Bắc location on a colorless block close to Westlake Avenue, however Quynh and Yenvy Pham’s tiny cocktail bar channels the spirit and spirits of Vietnam and has a hell of a enjoyable time doing it. The sisters’ restaurant background is clear within the bar snacks, from a crabby cheese dip to a Cup Noodles portion of pho.
Left: Rumba’s Josh Ibañez places the ending touches on a Nui Nui cocktail. Proper: A freshly made My Cherry Amour.
Rumba and Inside Passage
Capitol Hill
It’s laborious to recollect the times once we wrote off rum as a spring break drink. In Seattle, that’s largely because of Rumba, with its unreal record of 735 distilled cane spirits. The employees can focus on the variations between a smoky French Guiana distillate and one thing crisp and sippable from Nicaragua. Or simply make you a imply piña colada. Educating the world on a spirit with vital colonial ties is sophisticated, however Rumba excels on the nuance; its hidden bar-within-a-bar, Inside Passage, ditched tiki tropes in favor of a Northwest escapist spectacle that’s utterly its personal factor.
Persephone
Columbia Metropolis
The (very) little sister bar to Sicilian pastaria La Medusa can maintain six folks comfortably. It’s a bijou bottle store the place you possibly can meet up with your bestie over a drink, some arancini, and a panna cotta. The amari record right here is not any joke; an enormous chalkboard over the bar shows the lengthy libretto of bottles, each for sipping and on the market.
Bar Bayonne’s drink record contains memorable turns just like the Picon punch, a subtly bitter spritz.
Bar Bayonne
Central District
Seattle borrows liberally from France and Spain’s all-day cafe tradition, however our model often simply devolves right into a coworking house that means badging in additional than hanging out. Not L’Oursin’s new sibling bar, with its mismatched chairs, French Weapons N’ Roses posters, and pileup decor—purple, teal, yellow neon. It serves up leisurely espresso or carajillos and croque madames by day, however each drink on the cocktail record provides a small journey. One that always includes sherry. Snacks are in some way each easy and over-the-top, like a bowl of potato chips layered with thin-sliced jamon.
Bottles, Cans, and Drafts
Le Caviste beckons with French wine and a meals menu of plats, planches, and salades.
Le Caviste
Downtown
Sure, we reside in a sturdy and vibrant wine area. However slip by the doorways of David Butler’s wine bar and also you’ve decamped to France. Giant blackboard menus record vins blanc and rouge; pure anecdotal proof suggests most guests don’t arrive figuring out a santenay blanc from a chiroubles. The gifted employees is prepared with as a lot—or as little—context as it is advisable discover simply the fitting glass. Meals hovers in that glad place between snack and full-on meal, each final steak tartare and poisson en papillote completely Parisian.
Bottlehouse
Madrona
In a neighborhood with restricted nightlife, this landmark wine bar fills myriad roles. Infants doze in carriers whereas mother and father drink Gorgiste gamay on faucet. Child-free events catch up over orange wine, charcuterie, and a salad that would maintain its personal at a vacation spot bistro. It’s cliche to explain a bar as a neighborhood’s lounge (although Bottlehouse’s leafy outside house is certainly the neighborhood’s patio). As a substitute let’s acknowledge the limitless heat hospitality and savvy wine program that gathers bottles from Cyprus to the Columbia Gorge and presents them by the half-pour, glass, or bottle for max flexibility.
Can Bar is simply the correct amount of nautical.
Can Bar
White Heart
The nautical motif isn’t obnoxious—a fish mounted on the wall right here, a 28-foot Owens pleasure craft from 1960 repurposed right into a bar there. However canned beer (and cider) is the true theme. A cooler behind that bar holds an impeccable number of 99 cans. Boatloads, if you’ll. To not fear, there are additionally drafts (six), cocktails (extra-good classics), possibly even the occasional Jell-O shot if that’s the place your evening is headed. Can Bar opened in 2018 however already looks like a spot that’s absorbed a long time of its patrons’ joys and tribulations.
Bar Snacks: Can Bar coats its smoked wings in Alabama white sauce, a southern staple that’s uncommon in these elements.
The Pine Field
Capitol Hill
RIP Brouwer’s. The traditional beer bar is a dwindling species in a world of spartan brewery taprooms and taking your youngsters to the patio at Chuck’s Hop Store. The Pine Field is one of some locations in Seattle that also looks like a correct bar, but in addition a confluence of unbelievable breweries. And if this place is considering its personal mortality, that’s solely as a result of it’s situated inside a grandiose Nineteen Twenties-era funeral house.
Hideaways
Revelry Room
West Seattle
Everybody loves a secret bar, and, in a metropolis with at the least a dozen, Revelry Room will get excessive marks for its impressed drinks and unpretentious setting. Within the alley behind Simple Avenue Data, the muraled lounge is giving early-’70s Soul Practice, and the beverage menu makes a degree to highlight Black-owned distilleries, wineries, and breweries. Catch DJs spinning vinyl of all genres.
Wealthy Wealthy bartender Abby McCullough serves up Corpse Revivers and a Golden Scrumptious cocktail.
La Dive and Wealthy Wealthy
Capitol Hill, Queen Anne
La Dive’s lychee martini slushy.
Can slushy drinks be cerebral? This hideaway close to Local weather Pledge Enviornment takes its cues from its Capitol Hill sibling, La Dive, serving champagne pictures through a chambong and slushies made with substances like aquavit, apricot, and orgeat—garnished like bespoke creations slightly than the product of a swirling machine equally at house in a 7-Eleven. In any other case, Wealthy Wealthy is all about cocktails and, later within the evening, DJ units. The covert entrance is the perfect factor you’re prone to discover lurking past a row of dumpsters.
