#2670 #S1297 - Kremwerk, Seattle (Downtown) - 12/6/2014

Kremwerk is not a bar you go to for the drinks, but it is one of the cooler dance clubs in Seattle. "The Kremwerk & Timbre Room Complex is a queer-centric 21+ nightclub and live music venue, specializing in progressive electronic music and queer culture."

1809 Minor Ave #10, Seattle, WA 98101 - (206) 682-2935
Est. Feb 14, 2014 - Building constructed: 1917
Previous bars in this location: None known (Habesha was upstairs)
Web site: kremwerk.com - facebook
Articles ranked: thestranger - dancemusicnw - thestranger - yelp - instagram 

#2669 #S1296 - Serious Pie, Seattle (Capitol Hill) - 12/6/2014

Update: The Serious Pie in this location closed in May 2017 at the behest of Starbucks.

Sweet fennel sausage and roasted pepper pizza
Serious Pie, Capitol Hill, Seattle

 For my money the best pizza in Seattle -- actually my favorite pizza I've ever had, including in New York, Chicago and Italy -- is at Serious Pie. And this one has cocktails! This third instantiation of Tom Douglas's pizza joints is inside the Starbucks Reserve Roastery and Tasting Room, the Willie Wonka-like coffee roasting plant and "espresso & brewed coffee megabar," where you can watch your beans exit the roasters and rush through copper pneumatic tubes to the barristas and grinders. The large space is a 1920s Packard dealership remodeled to LEED specifications and re-imagined as a massive, steampunk coffee cathedral.

Starbucks Reserve Roastery and Tasting Room
Capitol Hill, Seattle

The pizza is naturally excellent. There are choices for people who like lettuce on their pizza -- or clams, leeks, or eggs. But if you are a carnivore you must, must, must try the one with sweet fennel sausage, roasted peppers, and provolone. Do not jump prematurely into any agreement to share -- you will want all of this pizza.

It's not the sort of place you're likely to come for a (non-coffee) drink, but the cocktails are very good. On this visit I quite enjoyed the "Old and Bitter," plainly named with people like me in mind.

Serious Pie, Capitol Hill, Seattle

1124 Pike St, Seattle, WA 98101 - (206) 923-8012                              
Est. Dec 5, 2014 - Closed May 1, 2017 - Building constructed: 1920
Previous bars in this location: None known
Web site: seriouspieseattle.com
Reviews: yelp - capitolhillseattle - zagat - seattlemet - eater 

#2668 #S1295 - Terra Plata, Seattle - 12/6/2014

The best way to get a sense for Terra Plata is to simply take a quick look through the photos on their Facebook page or yelp. You'll see a wide array of lovely small plates, and eventually you'll get to a photo of the rooftop garden. Owner/chef Tamara Murphy was well known in Seattle for her work at Campagne and Elliot Bay Cafe, her Belltown restaurant Brasa, and her Smoke Farm event Burning Beast. At this restaurant in a 100-year-old auto showroom at the edge of the Capitol Hill neighborhood, the food is the star, but the cocktail menu -- heavily reliant on the garden -- is not to be underestimated.

For this visit I enjoyed a Dexter Gordon (cognac, Zucca, Chinato d'Erbetti, absinth, bitters) and a Cucumber Snow Cone. For dinner I had roast pig (chorizo, clams, tomato, hot smoked paprika, sofrito, bay-scented potato, chicharron) and Trista had the Beef Salpicon (charred wagyu sirloin, chili-potato puree, vegetable escabeche, chimichurri). Yum.

1501 Melrose Ave, Seattle, WA 98122 - (206) 325-1501
Est. Oct 26, 2011 - Building constructed: 1912
Previous bars in this location: None known
Web site: terraplata.com - facebook 
Articles ranked: seattlemag - theinfatuation - seattletimes - thestranger - yelp - tripadvisor - zagat 

#2667 #S1294 - Himalayan Sherpa House, Seattle - 12/5/2014

Himalayan Sherpa House, Tangletown, Seattle, WA

Update: Himalayan Sherpa House closed Aug 15, 2021.

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If you drive around Seattle, perhaps letting friends and events take you from one area to the next, you'll discover a lot of distinct neighborhoods, but it is very unlikely that you'll discover "Tangletown." In addition to being off the beaten path from any one well known area to another, the surrounding streets are all cattywampus, as the roads angling off the curves of Greenlake intersect with the neat grid platted north/south and a third section of angular streets that looks like it was pasted over the top the others in some kindergarten project.

But if you do stumble upon the "microhood" where Wallingford meets Greenlake, you know there's a small cache of bars and restaurants that make it well worth firing up your Google Maps. This brief commercial stretch of 55th/56th Street has a cozy, decades old dive (Leny's), an abstrusely named, upscale restaurant from one of Seattle's most famous chefs (mkt.), a Japanese dessert bakery (Hiroki), a top notch craft beer bar (Burgundian), a brew pub, a donut shop, and a hot dog shop -- and once hosted Seattle's best tiki bar. Now you can add to that a Nepalese/Tibetan/Indian restaurant named "Himalayan Sherpa House" not simply because of the evocative description but because their family name is actually "Sherpa."

Tangletown neighborhood, near in Greenlake

The vibe is elegant and intimate, and the food and cocktails were quite pleasant.The small bar across from the white tablecloths has a limited by nice selection of wines, cocktails, and beers including a house brew that thew worked on with Boundary Bay.

2227 N 56th St, Seattle, WA 98103 - (206) 633-3538               
Est. Nov 9, 2014 - Building constructed: 1928
Previous bars in this location: Eva, Brie and Bordeaux
Web site: himalayansherpahouse.com - facebook
Reviews: seattlegreenlaker - eater - wallyhood - yelp - tripadvisor 

#2666 #S1293 - Spaghetti Western, Seattle - 12/3/2014

Update: Spaghetti Western closed in March 2015

I very much liked La Bete, owner, chef and CIA graduate Aleks Demitrijevic's previous restaurant in this location. So I approached Spaghetti Western with mixed feelings, including curiosity, as usual when a placed that is always packed when I try to get in suddenly closes. And that's not to mention the odd combination of BBQ with specialized Italian pasta dishes. In addition to indulging his interest in smoked meats, Demitrijevic seems to be aiming at driving more business out of the limited space -- for which the rent increased 33% in his 4 years there -- by delivering something more conducive to take-out. Preview articles have also noted an increase emphasis on cocktails, so who's complaining?

Spaghetti Bolognese at Spaghetti Western, Seattle, WA

I've lost my notes on my cocktail from this visit but I remember remember enjoying it. For food I enjoyed the spaghetti this time, although a glance at the patters of BBQ coming out of the kitchen made me revise this plan for the next visit. It seems like another swell joint in this space.

1802 Bellevue Ave, Seattle, WA 98122 - (206) 329-4047
Est. Nov 11, 2014 - Closed March 29, 2015 - Building constructed: 1925
Previous bars in this location: La Bete, Chez Gaudy
Web site: facebook
Articles ranked: capitolhillseattle - seattlemet - capitolhillseattle - eater - yelp - thrillist - tripadvisor 

#2665 #S1292 - Good Bar, Seattle - 12/1/2014

"Good Bar," in the historic Furuya Building, Seattle

You had me at Sloppy Joe. But in addition to their upgraded take on that school lunch favorite, some folks from Marination Mai Kai serve a very nice selection of craft cocktails from a historic building in Pioneer Square, remodeled in fine congress with that history. The stone building know as the Pacific Commerical Building or Furuya Building was constructed in 1899-1990 and first housed the Seattle substation of the Snoqualmie Falls Power Company. Soon after that it housed the main store of the M. Furuya Company, "the largest Japanese-owned commercial enterprise on the Pacific coast." It grew from two to five stories in 1905, and in 1907 hosted the Japanese Commercial Bank, later to evolve  into the Pacific Commercial Bank.

Furuyama's businesses collapses in the wake if the Great Depression, with the Pacific Commercial Bank folding in 1931. The retail business was susequently reorganized under the ownership of some employees, who moved it 1941 just before losing the business entirely a year later as they were forced into the infamous internment camps.

The top two floors, lost in the 1949 earthquake, were restored in 2013. The Good Bar owners have preserved the old vaults and much of the decor, adding a white marble bar and small kitchen that serves patrons on the ground floor and a surrounding balcony above. The have a television tucked away for some sort of special occasions, but I have never seen it on. Why they chose a name bound to confuse people is not clear to me, but my cocktails were first rate and the Sloppy Joe lived up to its reputation --  highly recommended if you go.

240 Second Avenue S., Seattle, WA - 206-624-2337
Est. Nov 22, 2014 - Building constructed: 1900
Previous bars in this location: None known
Web site: goodbarseattle.com - facebook
Articles ranked: eater - seattletimes - seattlemag - theinfatuation - eater - yelp - tripadvisor - thrillist

#2664 #S1291 - Maekawa Bar, Seattle - 11/29/2014

Update: The Maekawa Bar closed in 2017.

The Maekawa Bar is an odd little space on the second floor of the associtead Ft. St. George restaurant. On the second floor you feel like you are sitting in the kitchen. I was here for a birthday drink or two with some friends so I did not sample the izakaya, but that had a range of Japanese beers, saki and schochu.

601 S King St, Ste 206, Seattle, WA 98104 - (206) 622-0634
Est. 2003 - Closed 2017 - Building constructed: 1993
Previous bars in this location: None known
Web site: facebook 
Reviews: thestranger - thestranger - seattleweekly - yelp - tripadvisor