In Seattle, the Night Starts With Coffee and Ends With Creative Cocktails
Seattle by night (Anupam_ts/Flickr)
Ah, Thursday night — the only truly social night of the week. It’s the night when babysitters are booked, friends convene, and drinks are imbibed. There are no family obligations to fulfill, no amateurish weekend crowds to elbow through — and the possibilities are endless. The night starts after work and ends whenever you want. In any city. All over the world. This week, the perfect Thursday night out in Seattle.
4 p.m.: This is Seattle, so naturally, a pit stop for coffee is the place to start. While Starbucks originated here, skip the franchise and go local. Adjacent to Queen Anne is Belltown, where you’ll find Bedlam Coffee, a quirky neighborhood coffee shop that feels inherently Pacific Northwest without being overly hipster. Nonetheless, there are plenty of other coffee shops to choose from, such as Belltown’s Drip City Coffee Co.
Drink up (Toulouse Petit Kitchen & Lounge/Facebook)
5 p.m.: It’s 5 o’clock, which means it’s happy hour, and there’s no city that does happy hour better than Seattle. You’ll want to start in Queen Anne at Toulouse Petit Kitchen & Lounge, which can get busy early, since it’s considered one of the best happy hour spots in the U.S., featuring pages of happy hour items, including $8.50 cocktails. Just down from Toulouse Petit is another place with an extensive happy hour menu, Peso’s Kitchen and Lounge, which has their own happy hour margarita menu, as well as a variety of food items, including a number of different tacos.
Yum! (Nijo Sushi & Grill)
7:30 p.m.: Once those happy hour snacks have worn off, it’s time for dinner, which in Seattle can often be more casual than a lot of other cities. However, if you want an upscale steakhouse, look no further than the Metropolitan Grill, located in downtown Seattle. For a meal from a well-known Seattle chef, head to one of Ethan Stowell’s restaurants, like Tavolàta in Belltown or Bar Cotto in Capitol Hill, both of which are modern takes on an Italian. Downtown Seattle is also unique in that it has a high concentration of sushi bars, such as Japonessa, known for its happy hour, and Nijo Sushi Bar & Grill.
10 p.m.: From here, the rest of your evening takes you to the vibrant neighborhood of Capitol Hill. You’ll class things up a bit in Seattle’s best neighborhood for nightlife and where you’ll find an abundance of craft cocktail bars and speakeasies. One of the most well-known is Tavern Law, a vintage craft cocktail bar. However, what’s most unique is the speakeasy bar that’s within it, Needle and Thread, where you’ll pick up the phone by the old bank vault door, before getting access to enter through it.
11 p.m.: Next, it’s time to get the blood flowing a little more. Check out another one of Capitol Hill’s unique nightlife venues, Rhein Haus, which is part beer hall and part bocce ball court. Or for something more low-key, Capitol Hill is home to a couple distilleries, including Sun Liquor, which is part distillery and part cocktail bar, serving drinks made from their in-house spirits that include rum, vodka, and gin.
Pie Bar (mahalie stackpole/Flickr)
12 p.m.: After a evening on the town, finish with a midnight snack. There’s non better place to do that than with pie at Pie Bar, which takes pie and booze and combines it into one glorious experience. The bar features a variety of different savory and sweet rotating pies, like Granny Apple Crumble, as well as a number of pie-themed cocktails, like the key lime “pie-tini.”
Check out more Thursday nights in cities around the world:
San Diego: Yes, There’s a Beach. But When the Sun Sets That’s When the Fun Begins
No Skis Needed for a Night of Spa Treatments and Sushi in Whistler
When in Rome, Eat What Giada De Laurentiis eats!
Let Yahoo Travel inspire you every day. Hang out with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.
