NWsource | Life Behind Bars

The Saint offers glory in a glass and grace on a plate

Geoff Carter — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 16:15:27 -0700

The Saint has nearly 90 individual bottles of tequila waiting for you right now. That's 27 bottles of anejo, 30 bottles of reposado, 21 blanco y platas, nine expensive bottles on the lista reserva and two dirt-cheap, dependable mixtos.

Fine adult beverages: Tini Bigs pours a round of new tastes

Geoff Carter — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 13:26:18 -0700

In the course of my work I am introduced to many fine adults, and many fine adult beverages. I regard both with the utmost respect, and get to know each with all due expediency -- because y'know, the world could end in five minutes and I'd hate for that to happen without good friends in the room and with a half-finished Negroni in my hand. Homey will not play that, as we used to say during the rule of Clinton the First.

Deep under downtown Seattle, Highway 99 Blues Club is a low place like home

Geoff Carter — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0800

It's grrrrreat! Pounce on Ballard's Tigertail

Geoff Carter — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 10:09:52 -0700

Visions of sugar rush

Geoff Carter — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0800

Good times pour from the Bottleneck Lounge

Geoff Carter — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 14:55:39 -0700

Located on a section of East Madison Street that most people simply pass through on their way to Madison Park or up to Capitol Hill, the Bottleneck Lounge is something of a rarity: It's a fancy-pants lounge that could hold its own against the spendy upscale lounges of downtown, while steadfastly maintaining a cozy neighborhood vibe. All the class goes into the glass -- where it belongs.

Good food and beer out in the Stix

Geoff Carter — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 11:25:09 -0700

I work within a few steps of the soon-to-debut South Lake Union Trolley ... er, Streetcar. Like so many who work in the Cascade ... oops, I mean South Lake Union area, I will soon be able to hop the streetcar at lunchtime and dine at the upper-crust establishments in Westlake Center: They have a McDonald's and a Sbarro.

"Re-toxify" at Venik Lounge

Geoff Carter — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 11:43:36 -0700

South Lake Union's new Venik Lounge has a wine list consisting of less than a dozen bottles. They have nine different kinds of beer -- with just three of them on tap -- and a handful of champagnes, sparkling waters and sodas. And that's fine, because if you come to Venik -- a place that makes some of the best vodka infusions you've had -- and order a bottle of Miller, you're completely missing the point of the place. It's akin to going to a steakhouse for the bread.

Sully's Lounge in Queen Anne: a bar for guys who like bars

Cody Ellerd — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 15:36:29 -0700

The television network TBS used to air a series called "Movies for Guys Who Like Movies." In that same spirit, Queen Anne now has a Bar for Guys Who Like Bars.

Sully's Lounge, opened in July by self-proclaimed "bar guys" Marcus and Thomas Tellefson and Sean Sullivan "Sully" McShane, is exactly what it aims to be: a mellow spot to watch a ball game, have a shot, drink a beer, eat a steak.

Crimson C's good looks go a long way

Geoff Carter — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 11:24:17 -0700

At a recent First Thursday gallery opening, some friends and I hashed out plans for the "adventurers club" we're going to build when one of us finally wins the lottery. Our lounge, with its leather armchairs, jazz-heavy jukebox and hardwood everything, would be a wonderland of sybaritic pleasures. There would be no vodkas behind the bar -- only "brown liquor" and select gins -- and entry to the club could only be gained through a speakeasy door. We would wear vintage suits and dresses, lean on giant world globes like captains of industry and tell drunken stories of the punk era.