Entertainment in Seattle
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74th Street Ale House
A sibling to the Hilltop Ale House in Queen Anne, this is the kind of place that, if you lived nearby, you’d find yourself in several times a week. It’s immediately comfortable, to the point that you feel like an instant regular – plus there are dozens of outstanding beers on tap, and the food is miles above usual pub standards. The goat cheese salad ($9) is rightly famous.
reviewed
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Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley
Hidden in an unlikely spot behind a boring-looking office building is Seattle’s most sophisticated and prestigious jazz club. Dimitriou’s hosts the best of the locals and many national acts passing through.
reviewed
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Zig Zag Café
For serious cocktails, this is the unmissable destination in town. Classic and inventive drinks are made with precision by handsome and nattily attired alchemists – including Murray Stenson, widely acknowledged as the best bartender in Seattle, and the charming Erik, who vaguely resembles Twin Peaks’ Agent Dale Cooper. These fellows know how to sling a bottle of chartreuse; sitting at the bar on a quiet night and watching them command the stage is a treat. You’ll see all manner of potions behind the bar, most of which you’ve probably never heard of (and if you’re nice, you might be offered a taste). Drinks start from $5 during happy hour.
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Seattle Mariners
The beloved baseball team plays in Safeco Field just south of downtown.
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Seattle Symphony
A major regional ensemble. It plays at the Benaroya Concert Hall, which you'll find downtown at 2nd Ave and University St.
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Seattle Seahawks
The Northwest's only National Football League (NFL) franchise plays in the 72,000-seat Seahawks Stadium.
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Blue Moon
A legendary counterculture dive that's near the university and first opened in 1934 to celebrate the repeal of the prohibition laws, the Blue Moon has served its mellow beer to the likes of Dylan Thomas, Allen Ginsberg and Tom Robbins. It's lost its luster a bit in recent times, but be prepared for impromptu poetry recitations, jaw-harp performances and inspired rants.
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Brouwer's
This dark cathedral of beer in Fremont has rough-hewn rock walls and a black metal grate in the ceiling. Behind an epic bar are tantalizing glimpses into a massive beer fridge. A replica Mannequin Pis statue at the door and the Belgian crest everywhere clue you in to the specialty.
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Jolly Roger Taproom
A secret treasure tucked away off busy Leary Way, Maritime Pacific Brewing’s Jolly Roger Taproom is a tiny, pirate-themed bar with a nautical chart painted onto the floor. Though lately it’s gone less scurvy-barnacle and more placid-yachtsman, the beer’s still tops – and served in 20oz pints. The food’s not bad either; try a chef’s special ($4 to $8.50) or a mess of clams and mussels ($8.95). There are about 15 taps, all serving Maritime Pacific brews. The strong winter ale, Jolly Roger, is highly recommended.
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Richard Hugo House
Established in honor of famed Northwest poet Richard Hugo, and the nexus of Seattle’s literary community, the Hugo House hosts readings, classes and workshops, as well as offering various events around town. Writers-in-residence keep office hours at this 1902 house (a former mortuary), during which they’re available for free consultations about writing projects. The extensive zine library invites all-day lingering, and there’s also a library, conference room, theater and cafe with a small stage.
reviewed
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Nitelite Lounge
This little place attached to the Moore Hotel has an outsize charm, thanks mostly to the seen-it-all-and-liked-most-of-it bartenders and regulars. Some of its classic patina has been lost in a recent facelift, and there’s a whole new section with its own look and feel, but the reasons to stop in are the same: it’s never crowded and the drinks are strong and cheap. When you go in the door, turn right for the old-school regular crowd or left to see what the youngsters are up to.
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Panama Hotel Tea & Coffee House
The Panama, a historic 1910 building containing the only remaining Japanese bathhouse in the US, doubles as a memorial to the neighborhood's Japanese residents forced into internment camps during WWII.
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Athenian Inn
There’s nothing fancy about the Athenian, but it’s a landmark and a bastion of unpretentious, frontier-era Seattle, a holdover from the days before Starbucks and Grand Central Bakery (way before – it opened in 1909). It’s been a bakery and a lunch counter, and now seems to have settled in as a diner-bar combination where, especially in the off hours, you can snuggle into a window booth and gaze over Elliott Bay with a plate of fried fish and a frosty mug of Manny’s Pale Ale.
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Crocodile
Reopened in March 2009 after a year in the doldrums, the sole survivor of Belltown's once influential grunge scene (formerly known as the Crocodile Café) will have to work hard to reclaim an audience who grew up listening to Nirvana, Pearl Jam and REM at this hallowed music venue.
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R Place
Weekend cabaret performances, amateur strip shows, go-go boys and DJs – there’s something entertaining going on every night of the week at this welcoming gay bar. Relax with a beer on the deck or dance your ass off. Three floors of dancing to hip-hop and R&B DJs and plenty of sweaty body contact make this club a blast for pretty much everyone who isn’t terribly uptight. If you’re feeling brave, take a shot at winning a hundred bucks in the all-male wet-undies contest.
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Online Coffee Company
Just because there’s wi-fi in every corner of every scraggly soup-kitchen bathroom these days doesn’t necessarily mean you brought your laptop with you to Capitol Hill. If you need a quiet place to check your email over a latte, this coffee shop in a renovated house is a good bet. Internet use is free for the first half-hour with the purchase of a drink. There’s free wi-fi too, of course. The branch on E Pine Street is larger and more office-like.
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Copper Gate
Formerly one of Seattle's worst dives, the Copper Gate in Ballard is now an upscale bar-restaurant focused on meatballs and naked ladies. A Viking longship forms the bar, with a peepshow pastiche for a sail and a cargo of helmets and gramophones.
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Stumptown On 12th
Serious bean freaks will be pleased to know that the small but internationally acclaimed coffee-roasting company Stumptown Coffee Roasters, based in Portland, Oregon and known for its fair-trade practices, now has two branches in Seattle. The cafe on 12th Ave is home to the company’s Seattle roasting headquarters. Coffee tastings are open to the public at 3pm daily. The tiny, adorable Pine St Cafe is also perfect for a quick caffeine hit.
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Central Saloon
It may be two years younger than the official Oldest Bar in Seattle, the nearby Merchant, but the Central isn’t exactly new and shiny. More of a locals’ hangout than an object of historical interest, this long, narrow joint makes grody bathrooms and blah food seem charming, by virtue of cheap suds, friendly barkeeps and a comfortable, unfussy vibe. Live music most nights means that anyone who disapproves of metal should get in and out fairly early.
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Hattie’s Hat
A classic old divey bar that’s been revived with new blood without losing its charm, Hattie’s Hat is a perfect storm of stiff drinks, fun-loving staff and cheap greasy-spoon food. This might be the best place in town to make that ever-so-delicate transition from weekend breakfast to dinner and drinks – you can get coffee with eggs and toast all day long, and nobody will find it odd when you switch to beer, even if it’s not quite noon yet.
reviewed
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Two Bells Tavern
Flee the white belt/skinny jeans crowd and seek refuge in the Two Bells, a neighborhood pub with the friendliest barkeeps in town and a familiar crew of regulars whose intense discussions of the previous night’s adventures are portable enough to be taken out back to the patio for a smoke. The house special is a meaty burger stacked thigh-high ($9). Show up Sundays at 1pm for help with the Times crossword.
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Pyramid Ale House
South of Pioneer Square by Safeco Field, this brewpub has the cleaned-up-industrial feel – all bricks and brass and designer lighting – that defines the Pacific Northwest brewpub. It’s a nice and mainstream (but still appreciably Seattle-ish) place to take your parents or tenderfoot visitors. But don’t even try on a game day, unless you want to squeeze into the standing-room-only beer tent outdoors.
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Café Racer
Conspicuously friendly to two-wheeled transport, this tiny bar-cafe has a rec room upstairs where you can lounge on couches and watch movies from the bar library on the bar TV. Downstairs there’s a counter, a few tables and a microscopic open kitchen, and decor includes the occasional taxidermied gazelle poised above a MotoGuzzi gas tank. And um, there’s a hair salon inside. Live music most nights.
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Tavern Law
Named for the 1832 law that legalized drinking in public bars and saloons and sparked the golden age of cocktails, Tavern Law is a mandatory stop for those making the rounds of the best drinks in Seattle. Drinks are crafted by star local bartender David Nelson. The food menu consists of whatever’s written on the chalkboard that day; if you’re lucky, it will say ‘provolone pork belly cheeseburger.’
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5th Avenue Theater
Built in 1926 with an opulent Asian motif, the 5th Avenue opened as a vaudeville house; it was later turned into a movie theater and closed in 1979. An influx of funding and a heritage award saved it in 1980, and now it’s Seattle’s premier theater for Broadway musical revivals. It’s worth going just for a look at the architecture. Tickets are available by phone or at the box office at the theater.
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