#1382 #S840 - Island Soul, Seattle - 3/5/2011

Very good jerk chicken and some tasty rums.

4869 Rainier Ave S, Seattle, WA 98118 - (206) 329-1202
seattletimes - seattle weekly - yelp

#1381 #S839 - Crepe Cafe and Wine Bar - 3/3/2011

Good wine and very good crepes.

2118 NE 65th St, Seattle, WA 98115-6936 - (206) 527-7147
Est. 2005
crepesandwine.com - facebook - thestranger - yelp  

#1380 #S838 - A Caprice Kitchen, Seattle - 2/24/2011

Update:  Caprice Kitchen closed July 9, 2011

There is actually a bar here, and it's a quite pleasant place to have a glass of wine (although it is not open late -- closing by 9pm -- and it is not open Mondays and Tuesdays).  However the focus is clearly on the food and people seem to especially enjoy the weekend brunch.  It is small and fairly intimate, and feels like some little roadside farm cafe where a fine chef moved after getting sick of the city.  There is an emphasis on sustainable, organic, local, and seasonal (hence the "caprice") ingredients.  I've seen some mixed reviews of the food but all the items I have had have been uniformly yummy.

1418 NW 70th St, Seattle, WA 98117 - (206) 371-2886
Est. 2008
capricekitchen.com - thestranger - seattleweekly - yelp

#1379 #S837 - Tidbit, Seattle - 2/22/2011

Update:  Tidbit closed Aug. 27, 2011

Tidbit has some very good (Spanish and Italian) food, some interesting cocktails, and a pretty amazing happy hour with good wines and $1 (!) well drinks (4-6 and 9-close Tues-Fri).  I tried the "Esta-te" (gin, rum, Triple Sec, vodka, Chinotto, lime, and lemon) and the "Peach Sangria-tini" (Absolut Peach, tempranillo, Triple Sec, orange juice, muddled oranges, limes, lemons).

The actual bar portion of Tidbit is tiny and not easy to sit at.  But it's a fine little stop for tapas, wine, and what has to be the most affordable happy hour drinks on Capitol Hill


1401 Broadway, Seattle, WA 98122 - Tel 206-323-0840
Est. 2007 - Building constructed: 1996
tidbitbistro.com - closure -  seattletimes - thestranger - yelp

#1378 #S836 - Chen's Village, Seattle - 2/20/2011

Update: Chen's Village closed Dec 28, 2018.

This is a classic old American Chinese place with a lounge attached.  The lounge portion is integrated into the mirrored wall restaurant slightly more here than the typical darkened room in the back or side of the Chinese place. 

Before it became Chen's in 2005, this was the Lee Chee Garden, and before that it hosted a tiki bar. It was the Tiki Hut -- with "exotic beverages" served in the Shell Room lounge -- by 1962 and into the 70s (at one point also know as "Hope's Hut").  In the 80s it was the Blue Hawaiian Restaurant (still featuring the Shell Room) until becomeing Lee Chee in the late 80s.

Rick Anderson writes of more recent days, "The bar tends to attract cops, editors, and other riffraff."  But the only riffraff in the whole place on the Sunday afternoon we dropped in were ourselves.  It serves pretty much the type of Chinese food and cocktails that you would expect.

Update: Around 2015 I started working in a space just a couple blocks from Chen's. Since the photo here was taken, the I and the L had also fallen off the front facade, and hence it was referred to as what sounded like "Chen's Lodge." A few years later, more letters were missing, and I resolved to liberate one of them for myself and the office within the next few days. I was too late though -- two days later 100% of the characters out front, including the numbers of the address, were all gone.

Chen's Village, Seattle, WA

This wasn't entirely unexpected -- Chen's had been literally falling apart for several years. In addition to the letters on the facade, ceiling tiles, garden planter railings, the clock in the bar, and other various parts of the premises were all missing pieces, with no apparent effort to repair or even stem the tide of outflowing chunks of the restaurant. They also stopped investing in frivolities like heating the building, and on cold days the server would arrive at your table with a big puffy coat on underneath her apron. The food was still fine though, but most the orders now appeared to be take-out.

Update: The day after Christmas 2018, the "Vanishing Seattle" Facebook group, and perhaps other outlets, began to spread the news that Chen's would be closing for good that Friday. We stopped in for a nightcap, joining a few regulars who were grumpy that they couldn't get their customary seat at the bar. "No, I'm not scooting," one said, when a friend tried to join the couple to his right. This was the same fellow who told the person next to him earlier that he didn't know the price of vodka, because "I don't drink vodka -- I'm not a white woman on a diet." In between these exchanges, with "Jeopardy" on the television, they argued about the Punic wars and Greek islands.

Scuttlebutt has it that the building is not, as one would suspect, due to be razed soon. "Apparently it’s not being demo’d - the lease has been taken over by a local chef & it’ll be turned into a commercial kitchen" (Vanishing Seattle). It's an oddly shaped space in an oddly placed point in time and location, as the massive tide of development driving by Amazon et. al. just a mile or so to the east has yet to really roll up the narrow shelf of "Interbay," stretching from downtown to Ballard between Elliot Bay and Queen Anne hill. One hopes that the new management makes better progress on remodeling than the lingering mess that used to be The Shanty Cafe just up the street.

544 Elliott Ave W, Seattle, WA 98119-3910 - (206) 281-8838               
Est. 2005 - Closed Dec 28, 2018 - Building constructed: 1936
Previous bars at this location:  The Tiki Hut, Hope's Hut, Blue Hawaii, Lee Chee Garden
newchensvillage.com  - publicola - seattleweekly - rick anderson - yelp  - tikicentral (tiki hut period)

#1377 #S835 - Rudy's Place, Seattle - 2/20/2011

A funky, neighborhood sports bar in suburban Magnolia, with probably the most televisions per square foot of space in the city.

3656 34th Ave W, Seattle, WA 98199-1610 - (206) 283-9510
Est. Jan 2006
facebook - seattle pi - yelp

#1376 #S834 - Egan's Ballard Jam House, Seattle - 2/19/2011

A tiny little place designed not only for jazz performances, but for spreading the jazz tradition and providing a forum for young artists.  It is named for owner Suzanne Weghorst's grandfather, who performed as "Happy Jack Egan and his Oo-La Girls."


1707 NW Market Street, Seattle, WA 98107 - 206-789-1621
Est. 2006
ballardjamhouse.com - yelp

#1375 #S833 - Ballard Ave Pub, Seattle - 2/19/2011

Update:  The Ballard Ave Pub was (less than shockingly) closed on the weekend of July 1.

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There are lots of pubs on Ballard Avenue, but Ballard Avenue Pub is not one of them. It's on Market, in the former location of Mon Petit Shoes, where you might end up if you drove north on Ballard Ave and didn't stop when you ran out off street. So they're kinda hard to search for (as pubs that are actually on Ballard Ave tend to come up higher), and they don't have a web site -- indeed they have posted in comments of a local blog that they probably won't have one in the future. (They also apparently didn't have the appropriate business licenses.)

So they obviously don't feel a pressing need to market themselves, and the decor echoes this, seeming rather soul-less, with the exception of the recovered-wood bar counter top.  They do have a quite good selection of beers.  So I suppose we'll see if that is enough.

2236 NW Market St, Seattle, WA 98107 - (206) 397-4102
Est. Feb 12, 2011
seattlebeernews

#1374 #S832 - Golden Beetle, Seattle - 2/19/2011

Update: Maria Hines closed Golden Beetle in October of 2016 and replaced it with Young American Ale House.

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An excellent new Eastern Mediterranean restaurant from Maria Hines, the chef/owner of Tilth with a fine bar featuring Andy McClellan from Lola and Marley Tomic-Beard from Spur.  From an enticing cocktail menu, I chose "One Good Conundrum" (Old Overholt rye, Cynar, house orange bitters, and Scrappy's celery bitters) and then got a little Turkish with a "Lion's Milk Swizzle" (Efe Raki, lemon, orange-flower honey, and orange flower water) -- both quite fine.  I will be coming back for the cocktails, food, and ambiance.

1744 NW Market St, Seattle, WA 98107 - (206) 706-2977
Est. Feb 2011
golden-beetle.com - thestranger - seattleweekly - myballard - yelp

#1373 #S831 - Sole Repair, Seattle - 2/16/2011

This is an event space owned by the owners of Quinn's.

1001 E Pike, Seattle, WA 98122 - (206) 979-7467
solerepairshop.com - facebook - yelp

#1372 #S830 - Fonte Cafe and Wine Bar, Seattle - 2/14/2011

Whether to count this as a bar is a borderline call for me, but since they put "wine bar" right in the name, I guess I will.  It's not a bad place, but it's rather mall-like and I didn't see anything here that would make me ever select it again from the many choices in downtown and Belltown.

1321 1st Ave, Seattle, WA 98101 - (206) 777-6193
fontecoffee.com - yelp - seattletimes

#1371 #S829 - Locöl Barley and Wine, Seattle - 2/13/2011

This is a great little place with good drinks, good food, and a really fine, funky neighborhood vibe. They display local art and have historical photos on a loop. I had a nice chat about bars with bartender Marcus, from New Orleans and consider this my new favorite bar in West Seattle.

7902 35th Ave SW, Seattle, WA 98126 - (206) 708-7725
locolseattle.com - westseattleblog - seattleweekly - yelp

#1370 #S828 - Blue C Sushi, Seattle - 2/12/2011

Update: This Blue C location closed in August 2017.

The bar at the Fremont Blue C isn't open most of the time, and it's upstairs and out of reach of the kaiten belt cycling the food.  But we had a nice couple nightcaps and pleasant conversation on this night with the manager Drew from Boston.

3411 Fremont Ave N, Seattle, WA 98103 - (206) 633-3411
Est. 2003 - Closed Aug 2017
bluecsushi.com - seattletimes - thestranger - yelp

#1369 #S827 - White Rabbit, Seattle - 2/12/2011

Update: The White Rabbit closed Dec 31, 2013

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I've only been there in the afternoon with few people around, so I'll want to go when the music is going to get a feel for the crowd and vibe.  But the folks working there are nice and the decor has a bit more personality than when it was ToST.

They specialize in coffee drinks, but I went for the Mad Hatter Manhattan (Honey Reserve bourbon, sweet vermouth, and bitters).

513 N. 36th St. Seattle, WA 98103 - 588-0155             
Est. Feb 10, 2011 - Closed Dec 31, 2013 - Building constructed: 1928
Previous bars in this location: ToST
fremontwhiterabbit.com - facebook
seattlemusicinsider -  seattleweekly fc - seattleweekly - fremontuniverse - yelp

#1368 - Raven's Nest, Redmond, WA - 2/11/2011

Black Raven Brewing Company taproom

14679 NE 95th St, Redmond, WA 98052 - (425) 881-3020
blackravenbrewing.com - yelp  

#1367 #S826 - Acquabar, Seattle - 2/9/2011

Update: Aquabar closed in 2015.

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This was the soft opening of the new bar of the space of the old Kelly's, which Mike Seeley described it as easily the most intimidating bar in Seattle -- and the neighbors were not a bit sad to see it go.  Acquabar has expanded the space into the location of the neighboring dog care business, and added an Asian lunch buffet.

None of the neighbors who had to deal with the rough crowd have shed tears over the loss of Kelly's, but the new place doesn't seem to have any personality whatsoever.  Here's hoping it evolves into something that has as much personality as Kelly's, if not the same dysfunctional personality type.

Historical Notes:  The current building was constructed in 1925 and for many years this space was the home of the Liberty Tavern.  The Liberty was there by 1945 and lasted at least in the 60s.  Kelly's was established in 1979 and closed down in October 2010, on the night owner Mary Costello Abbey passed away.


305 Bell St, Seattle, WA 98121-1719 - (206) 728-6583
Est. Feb 9, 2011 - Building constructed: 1925
Previous bars at this location: Liberty Tavern, Kelly's
acquabar.com - yelp

#1366 - John Howie Steak, Seattle - 2/8/2011

Yes, it's a pricey steakhouse in the Bravern, but it's also got quite affordable lunch choices and a pretty decent selection of cocktails at the bar.  I had a Peruvian Saint (classic Pisco Sour ingredients with St. Germaine elderflower twist, egg white, and bitters).

11111 NE 8th Street, Suite 125, Bellevue, WA 98004 - (425) 440-0880
johnhowiesteak.com - seattleweekly - seattletimes - yelp

#1365 #S825 - Mamma Melina Ristorante, Seattle - 2/6/2011

Mamma Melina Ristorante is named for the matriarch of the Varchetta brothers, who have established a number of Italian restaurants in Seattle, currently including Barolo, List, and the now relocated Mamma Melina. The latter was located just below the Seven Gables theater for 20 years (although it didn't have an actual bar at that location, and hence was not on this list). It's now relocated in a new building near U Village, with modernist decor and a canal of ice in the bar to keep drinks cool. It doesn't have the same charm as the Roosevelt Way location, but the food is still good and bar serviceable.

5101 25th Ave NE, Seattle, WA 98105 - (206) 632-2271
Est. 1989, 2010 at current location
mammamelina.com (sound) - seattletimes - komonews - yelp 

#1364 #S824 - Feierabend, Seattle - 2/5/2011

Update: Feierabend closed Dec 23, 2020

Feierabend ("quitting time") is yet another in Chris Navarra's German beer kingdom within Seattle (Prost! in Greenwood and West Seattle, Der Bierstube on Roosevelt).  I like this one. Despite being in a newer development, it's got some personality, lots of brick, a location off the main drags and I like bars with separate rooms.

422 Yale Ave N, Seattle, WA 98109 422 Yale Ave N, Seattle, WA 98109 - (206) 340-2528
Est. Feb 26, 2006 - Closed Dec 23, 2020 - Building constructed: 2005
feierabendseattle.com - secretsnob - beeradvocate - thestranger - yelp

#1363 #S823 - Moby's Restaurant, Seattle - 2/5/2011

Moby's appears to have once been a fern bar, and is now barely a ghost of a bar. There are three tap handles on the ten beer taps, exactly 15 different bottles of liquor, and the shelves behind the bar are now crammed with knickknacks - manekis and model ships, chrome dolphins and silk butterflies, Betty Boop and Native American figurines.

It's not the sort of place anyone would ever seek out for a drink or a good time -- it closes by 7:30 every evening. The restaurant appears to be run by some nice, older Chinese ladies, who serve the kind of food you might find in a retirement home cafeteria. My chicken skewers came with no sauce of any kind, and with exactly ten french fries, and the salad was your basic iceberg and bottled Italian dressing. It is curiously pallid for a place next to a live theater (ACT), but probably a pretty good fit for many of the older crowds that frequent various convention center events.


725 Pike St, Seattle, WA 98101-2361 - (206) 447-0507
mobysseattle.com - yelp