When Dark Room opened in early 2023, it was an instant classic. Co-owner Matthew Gomez brings restless creativity to a drink menu that includes a damn-near encyclopedic range of ingredients. There’s interesting booze like Kümmel, Nixta, and Cloosterbitter; not-booze like Yakult and moringa; even kimchi brine and carrot. And every drink is a banger — Gomez is an absolute virtuoso, and he never misses a note. As if that wasn’t enough, ace chef and co-owner Amy Beaumier is in the kitchen slinging top-notch Korean-inflected snacks til 10 p.m., and the atmosphere is as lively as it is moody and dimly lit. 

It’s true what they say: One man’s fine-dining destination is another man’s dive. The Wedgwood Broiler is from another time, when you had a hidden bar in the back of your swanky steakhouse, so folks of all ages and lifestyles could dine comfortably without a view of the winos. (Today, they just plunk the bar right in the middle of the dining room without shame.) This frozen-in-amber neighborhood jewel opened in the mid-1960s when the Camelot thing was chic — there used to be a full, real suit of armor standing next to the entrance — and you can still spot little medieval touches in the doors and the furniture. The retired set still hangs out in the restaurant half of the building, where dinner service is always chockablock, but the move is to get your prime rib and Caesar salad with Cheez-Its on it in the shitass lounge, at one of their big circular booths that it’s really hard to climb in and out of. It’s cool, though; after a couple of their stiff pours, you’re gonna be here all night anyway. 

Y’all know about the Thunderbird? Oh, you do? Well, we know a little bit about you then. Not to generalize, but mmmmmost of the people who hang out at the T-Bird were at least initially drawn there by the strip club next door. (That’s thanks to Washington State’s ban on alcohol sales in strip clubs, soon to be gone!) Nah, we’re just teasing you. At least as many folks show up there for the Secret Sausage hot dog menu — we like the eponymous hot link with their signature cream cheese and Firlander hot sauce, as well as the meatless chipotle sausage. Still others are there for the friendly crowd of sports-watchers, the killer garden space out back, or just to say hello to Hatchet Face the tabby cat. But yeah, if you stop by before the law’s repealed… you’re definitely gonna meet some people who just popped over from the strip club to get loaded. Not that that’s bad. Look, we live in a society.

Ballard is well celebrated for being ground zero for dive bars in Seattle, but few dive tourists will venture down to the tail end of Market Street, whence two chilled-out, picture-perfect watering holes await: The Sloop Tavern (already on Eater Seattle’s dive bar map) and the Lockspot. The ‘Spot wins the distinction as an essential Seattle bar because it’s right next to one of the most gorgeous and iconic parks in the city, because it’s old as hell — an actual historic Seattle place — and also because the food absolutely fucks. Fish and chips here will put any proper British chip shop to shame, and all the sandwiches, e.g., the Philly, are luxurious and huge. They have a fun list of silly cocktails too, with Malibu and grenadine and blue curacao et al. Under new ownership since 2021, it seems like absolutely nothing has changed at the Spot next to the Locks, which has been an operating bar for almost a century. 

Hattie’s is like your cozy but stylish vintage sweater that somehow goes with everything. You can sidle up to the gorgeous mahogany bar and sip Bill Murray cocktails with a date you wanna impress or grab one of the wooden antique booths on the restaurant side and have a casual diner meal with your friends. It’s open for breakfast at 9 a.m. on weekends, so you can nurse a hangover here just as easily as you acquired it. And the crowd spans generations, like all the best bars’ crowds do.

Owned by former Seattle Post-Intelligencer (RIP) columnist Mike Lewis, the Streamline is an untouchable Old Seattle institution known as a haunt for journos — and don’t let anyone tell you the old Streamline is a single drop better than the new one. Yes, the original spot was a few blocks away, on the same block as Ozzie’s, but all of the crust and dust followed it like a neighborhood cat when it moved in 2015. The current Streamline has the same drunks, the same enormous oval-shaped bar and green pleather stools, the same pinball machines and pool tables — they even brought the toilets over. Drinks are still cheap as hell, and the food’s still pretty good. Plus that cool-ass red-and-black checkerboard floor will delight even the Oldest Seattle curmudgeon. It’s like if there were a dive bar at the bottom of Alice’s rabbit hole.

One of the finest craft cocktail bars in Seattle, the Doctor’s Office is often noted for its selection of rare and expensive high-end spirits and its reservations-suggested energy, but it’s every bit as welcoming and fun as it is lavish. (And for the record, drink prices here are right in line with other craft cocktail spots in town.) You’ll be greeted with a gratis pour of bubbly and a warmed hand towel to settle in. Check out that kooky-cool red polka dot bathroom. Order a Spanish coffee and you might get treated to a cheekily over-the-top send-up of flair bartending. But the real draw remains the exquisitely balanced cocktails. Like thousand thread-count sheets, there are no gaps in the weave of these drinks.

Can a bar be sophisticated and cozy at the same time? James Beard nominee Rob Roy achieves that rare equilibrium with artfully placed gentle lighting, elegant yet comfortable leather stools (with, let’s celebrate this, back support!) a den-like sofa area, and an ace lineup of impeccably composed drinks. A venerable figure in the rise of Seattle’s craft cocktail community, it’s been open since 2009 and hasn’t stagnated one bit. The special move here is porting contemporary techniques and ingredients into classic cocktails: Sherry and a river stone tincture give their martini alluring minerality, while pandan and aged rum fat-washed with coffee-infused butter boost the Jungle Bird right into the stratosphere. There’s also an equally great selection of signature newer-school drinks, and an intriguing menu of no-alcohol cocktails. 

Zig Zag Cafe alum Erik Hakkinen opened Roquette in 2019, but it feels like it’s been here forever. The striking Marseille-blue storefront sets the classique tone, while tastefully plush seating, just-right lighting, and a prominent mural of a tropical vista establishes the interior atmosphere. The impeccably crafted cocktails often incorporate ingredients like Amontillado or Armagnac, and the affable bartenders are apt to eavesdrop and then pour you a sample of something you’ve expressed curiosity about. Just like the caviar-and-Bugles appetizer it offers on the snack menu, Roquette is fancy and approachable at the same time.

The term world-famous gets thrown around a lot, but Canon has appeared on best bars in the world lists, and not near the bottom. Boasting a 181-page list of spirits that includes decades-old vintage bottlings, the place is a veritable Smithsonian of booze, and the drinks are often as attention-grabbing as they are creative. A luxe food menu includes bites like Taylor Shellfish oysters and salmon tartare, as well as larger portions like lamb chops and steak.

You can’t know Seattle’s craft cocktail scene without knowing the Zig Zag. Famous for bartender Murray Stenson’s tenure, during which he reintroduced the world to the Last Word cocktail, it remains a top-notch bar even though Stenson moved on long since before his death in 2023. Cocktails are detailed and composed, the staff is warmly hospitable, and the atmosphere combines moodily lit coziness with buzzy destination elegance.

The thing about Sluggers isn’t that it’s a great sports bar, per se (although it subjectively is). It’s that everyone in Seattle eventually goes to it. Due to its prime location right next to Lumen Field, it’s where you go before or after sports happen, or it’s where you go to wait for your boyfriend (of any gender) to get out of sports. See also: concerts at the stadia, New Year’s Eve festivities in Pioneer Square, killing time before a train. If you’re a Seattleite, you’re just gonna end up here sometime. Formerly Sneakers in the 1980s, this long, skinny train car of a building was built in 1910 as a warehouse, and it retains that, ahem, unfussy charm. (It owes its svelte 17-and-a-half–foot width to the fact that it replaced a railroad pathway.) Plus they have these weirdly tall booths that are like eyeball height with the TV behind the bar, so you’re looking over the bartender to intimately lock eyes with J. P. Crawford instead. A required, inevitable Seattle Place. (Note that on days when there’s nothing going on at the stadiums, Sluggers is typically closed.)

What’s more Seattle than a bar inside a record store? Especially one with a bunch of framed covers from The Rocket and a huge mural of Chris Cornell’s face? Out in the West Seattle Junction, Easy Street Records has been repping Seattle hard since the late ‘80s — a cafe was added to the shop in 2001, and since 2022, there’s been a teeny bar upstairs with menus on the backs of old 45s and punny cocktail names. It’s less of a bar in the sense of a room you can go inside of and more just the piece of furniture that is called a bar, but it’s no less a blast to pull up a stool behind the vinyl bins and have a Shirley Temple of the Dog. (That’s Olympia Vodka, grenadine, and lemon/lime soda.)