Just inside Amber's door, at the corner of Belltown's First Avenue and Blanchard, is its main draw: the bar -- a continent-sized liquid theme park crafted in thick African Bubinga wood.

The new Lower Queen Anne bar's cornhusk-wrapped tamales, which are filled with your choice of chicken, pork or veggies, are a perfect match for a Shiner Bock beer. And if you show up during happy hour (4 to 7 p.m. daily) this killer one-two punch of barley and cornmeal can be yours for six bucks.

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.

Formerly located on the 500 block of Pine Street -- an address it occupied from Cinco de Mayo, 1998, until it was recently dislocated by gentrification -- the Cha Cha is a raucous, good-spirited dive bar, one of the city's best.

Crimson C has the potential to be a strong bar, if it avoids the groupthink that makes several distinct Pioneer Square bars seem like a single nondescript bar. It's got a friendly vibe and a visible desire to be everything to everyone.

The Dray doesn't offer hard liquor or "small plates" -- just beer, wine, coffee and a few sandwiches. Every part of its buildout -- the walls, the bar, the benches, the tables, the chairs -- is made of cedar.

West Seattle's Elliott Bay Brewery & Pub has a new sibling in Burien, Elliott Bay Brewhouse & Pub. Each serves housemade ales, seasonal specialities and pub-food classics (steamer clams, chicken wings) and then some (crab cakes, buffalo burgers).

Georgetown Liquor Company's beer is nice and cold and its sandwiches and entrees are 100 percent vegetarian. Punk rock blares from the speakers and retro video-game consoles offer nostalgic delight.

This swank cocktail lounge truly is Havana, or as close as you're likely to get without a friend in the State Department.

If you can't stand listening to young couples talking about waterfront revitalization and hybrid cars, there are other places to go. But if you're looking for that Belltown chic experience, Karma offers it in its more pure state.

Kurrent is the very picture of a Belltown-style restaurant and bar -- which would be peachy if Kurrent were in Belltown. But it's located in Capitol Hill's Pike/Pine corridor. Kurrent may acquire that Pike/Pine feel over time, but for now, it's a strange fit for the Hill.

This Capitol Hill joint excels at no less than three things: mixing up excellent cocktails, making great sushi and making you forget that some of the city's best ethnic dining and most accomplished bartenders are just steps away.

Lark's younger sibling features delicate, complex food (including ceviches with geoduck, Spanish mackerel or sweet Carolina prawns) and cocktails (like the kaffir lime sour), plus a sense of design that marries high style and basic function.

This new Belltown bar -- located at Second and Vine, naturally -- caters to those who haven't yet gotten the hang of the whole wine-appreciation thing.

This Moe is at once an homage to -- and, after a fashion, a resurrection of -- Moe's Mo' Rockin' Cafe, the venue that was in the space now occupied by Neumos and Moe Bar.

Ocho's owners, Zach Harjo and Gelsey Hanson, have quietly transformed the former site of Matt's Gourmet Hot Dogs into a sexy tapas bar that is luring crowds from the well-worn Ballard Avenue bar circuit over to the western reaches of Market Street.

Pony is the new gay bar in the space formerly occupied by the Cha Cha. Expect Human League on the sound system and $3 well drinks from 7 to 9 p.m.

Some of the original timbers at this Capitol Hill gastropub have a new supporting role as a giant communal table, which suits the rustic, pubby food: fresh sausage, hanger steak with frites, hamburgers and bar snacks made from scratch, wine and more than a dozen beers on tap.

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.

The new sake bar in Pioneer Square is first and foremost a place to learn -- a museum where you discover a culture you never knew much about, and then get to take the artifacts home.

Smith wastes no time getting down to business. Its beer list is enormous; you could order something different from it every day for a solid month -- and get well into the following month, too.

What unites sports fans across borders? Fried food, if The Spectator Bar and Grill is any indication.

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.

The Seattle outpost of Bellevue's popular superpub is rumored to boast the largest selection of draft beer in the Northwest.

The beers at Tigertail pair neatly with the kitchen's selection of small plates, created by chef Stacie Pike. So far, we've tried the delicata squash potstickers, the green-tea-and-citrus chicken satay with sticky rice, and the braised beef short rib potsickers, and it's all delicious.

You don't need to visit neighboring spa Banya 5 to enjoy Venik's vodkas, infused in-house with organic fruits and vegetables and served ice cold. Upon immediate reflection, every last one of them seems like the best taste you've ever had in your mouth.

Once a week, Verve will host a tasting, a lecture, or a winemaker dinner. The other six nights, you can relax with friends over a plate of Chevre fondue and sip wines from around the world.

The art of mixing cocktails is in full bloom at this elegant, modern bar located next door to the 5th Avenue Theatre. he bartenders of Vessel prepare every drink with the careful eye of a chemist.

At the Victory, you seldom have to wait more than 30 seconds to be acknowledged and served, even when the place gets busy.