The Top 61 Places to Drink Near The Carlson Block

A plain wooden door down a sketchy Belltown alley opens into a speakeasy-style cocktail bar that fits maybe thirty people across two floors. Upstairs, the intimate bar puts you shoulder-to-shoulder with shelves stacked with cocktail books. The menu runs to eight drinks, but the move is Dealer's Choice: name your spirit, name your mood, and let the bartender figure out the rest.

1. Difford's Guide 5 stars · Difford's Guide

1. Eater The Best Cocktail Bars in Seattle

A barely-there sign on Beacon Hill marks this casual Guamanian restaurant and bar, which is either accidental humility or the universe's way of filtering out TikTokers (it has not worked). The menu follows the chef's biography through Filipino chicken adobo tacos and Guam-style corn soup, but the achiote-orange empanadas, stuffed with raisined beef and served in a pool of fina'denne', are what drew a James Beard semifinalist nod in 2025.

1. Esquire Lola Martini · The Best Martinis in America
2. The New York Times The Restaurant List
3. Seattle Met Seattle’s Best New Restaurants

1. 50 Best #89 · North America's 50 Best Bars
2. Esquire Amis Martini · The Best Martinis in America
3. James Beard Awards 2025 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Bar

1. James Beard Awards 2023 · Nominee · Outstanding Bar
2. Difford's Guide 4.5 stars · Difford's Guide
3. Eater The Best Cocktail Bars in Seattle

1. Esquire The Best Bars in America

1. Bon Appétit America's Best New Bars

Tiger-striped wood, tile-topped bars, and hanging light tubes give this Capitol Hill cocktail bar a look that's somehow both designed-within-an-inch-of-its-life and still easy to be in. It shares a back door with the pasta restaurant Spinasse but runs on its own logic, with small plates and a drinks list to match. Date-night couples fill the tables while bartenders occasionally step out to take orders, keeping the whole thing warmer than the room suggests.

1. Difford's Guide 4 stars · Difford's Guide
2. The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Seattle Right Now

1. Huckberry The 50 Best Dive Bars in America

1. Eater The Best Cocktail Bars in Seattle

1. Eater The Best Cocktail Bars in Seattle
2. Spirited Awards 2024 · Regional Honoree · Best U.S. Cocktail Bar – U.S. West

1. Wildsam The 50 Most Essential Bars in America

The bar and tables at this Capitol Hill cocktail bar were stained with Angostura bitters, which tells you where the priorities lie. Behind the bar, shelves climb to the pressed tin ceiling holding one of the deepest spirit collections in the country, including pre-Prohibition bottles most bars only dream about. Edison bulbs, speakeasy nostalgia, and a room that takes itself seriously without quite winking about it.

1. Difford's Guide 5 stars · Difford's Guide

1. Eater The Best Cocktail Bars in Seattle

1. Difford's Guide 5 stars · Difford's Guide
2. Spirited Awards 2024 · Top 10 Nominee · World’s Best Spirits Selection

1. Eater The Best Cocktail Bars in Seattle
2. The Infatuation The Best Restaurants & Bars In Fremont

Woven kantael mats cover the walls and prahok, the fermented fish paste that anchors Khmer cooking, turns up throughout the menu, which is the quickest way to understand what this Greenwood restaurant and bar is about. The food leans into Cambodian flavors and technique without getting tangled in authenticity debates, and the cocktails follow the same logic: coconut-forward, creative, and only slightly less fish-sauce-forward than the food. Named a Bon Appétit Best New Restaurant in 2024.

1. Bon Appétit America's Best New Restaurants
2. Eater Best New Bar
3. Seattle Met Seattle’s Best New Restaurants

1. Spirited Awards 2025 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best U.S. Hotel Bar – U.S. West
2. Spirited Awards 2024 · Regional Honoree · Best U.S. Hotel Bar – U.S. West
3. Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best U.S. Hotel Bar – U.S. West

1. Difford's Guide 5 stars · Difford's Guide
2. Eater The Best Cocktail Bars in Seattle

1. Spirited Awards 2024 · Regional Honoree · Best U.S. Bar Team – U.S. West
2. Spirited Awards 2024 · Regional Honoree · Best U.S. Cocktail Bar – U.S. West

A blood bank refrigerator and a roulette wheel anchor the bar at this speakeasy-themed cocktail bar in Capitol Hill, where vested bartenders work in front of shelves stacked with bitters and books. The high ceilings and striped wallpaper lean hard into the 1920s bit, and the room delivers on atmosphere even when the service runs a little transactional. Good for a serious drink in a room that at least committed to the costume.

1. Difford's Guide 4.5 stars · Difford's Guide

1. Difford's Guide 4.5 stars · Difford's Guide

You book by text, and they text back; no app, no OpenTable, just your name and a party size to a Seattle number you'd better save correctly. Knee High is a tiny, reservation-only speakeasy-style cocktail bar tucked away on Olive Way, the kind of place where finding the door is already part of the evening. Late-night slots open up if you're bold enough to text after ten.

1. Difford's Guide 4.5 stars · Difford's Guide

1. Eater The Best Cocktail Bars in Seattle
2. Spirited Awards 2024 · Regional Honoree · Best New U.S. Cocktail Bar – U.S. West

1. Difford's Guide 4 stars · Difford's Guide

1. Eater The Best Cocktail Bars in Seattle

Those barrel-aged cocktails sitting in vintage crystal decanters along the back bar are Liberty's calling card, sharing shelf space with 70-plus whiskies, a coffee station, and a sushi setup that nobody questions. It's a casual Capitol Hill cocktail bar with couches by the front windows and bench seating opposite the bar, the kind of room built for lingering. Industry folks and neighborhood regulars tend to find each other here without much effort.

1. Difford's Guide 4 stars · Difford's Guide

1. Difford's Guide 3.5 stars · Difford's Guide

Tucked below Pike Place Market where the street tilts toward the water, this Italian restaurant bar is easy to miss, which is half the point. The bar area is compact and carefully stocked, with grappa, cognac, and malt whisky sitting alongside cocktails that get proper attention. The bistro setting around it is relaxed enough that nobody is checking how long you've been nursing your drink.

1. Difford's Guide 3.5 stars · Difford's Guide

1. Eater The Best Cocktail Bars in Seattle

1. Eater The Best Cocktail Bars in Seattle

The dark oak bar counter twists through the room like it couldn't decide where to stop, with booths opposite and vintage paneling that makes the whole place feel like it's been here forever. It's a steakhouse bar in Ballard's old commercial strip, and while drinks are the stated purpose, the kitchen has a way of making that position hard to defend. Difford's Guide gives it five stars.

1. Difford's Guide 5 stars · Difford's Guide

1. The Infatuation The 21 Best Coffee Shops In Seattle
2. The Infatuation The Best Restaurants & Bars In Fremont

1. The Infatuation The Best Restaurants & Bars In Fremont

1. Eater The Best Cocktail Bars in Seattle

The caesar comes buried under a snowfall of cheese and pankogratto instead of croutons, which tells you everything about how Tivoli works. It's a slice shop and full-pie pizzeria in Fremont that wanders comfortably between New York and Naples without apologizing to either. The pies skew classic-ish, the sandwiches on sesame focaccia could pass at a proper bistro, and the black garlic knots are just there being excellent about it. Ranked #10 on 50 Top Pizza Slice USA.

1. 50 Top Pizza #12 · 50 Top Pizza Slice USA
2. Seattle Met Seattle’s Best New Restaurants
3. Seattle Met Seattle’s Best Lunch Spots

1. The Infatuation The Best Restaurants & Bars In Fremont

1. The Infatuation The Best Restaurants & Bars In Fremont

1. The Infatuation The Best Restaurants & Bars In Fremont

1. The Infatuation The Best Restaurants & Bars In Fremont

1. The Infatuation The 21 Most Fun Dinner Spots In Seattle
2. The Infatuation The Best Restaurants & Bars In Fremont

1. The Infatuation The Best Restaurants & Bars In Fremont

1. The Infatuation The Best Restaurants & Bars In Fremont

1. The Infatuation The Best Restaurants & Bars In Fremont

1. James Beard Awards 2022 · Nominee · Best Chef: Northwest and Pacific · Mutsuko Soma
2. Eater The Best New Restaurants in America
3. Bon Appétit America's Best New Restaurants

Counter-service seafood in Fremont, where the chef sources directly from local fisheries, a supply-chain headache most spots at this price point don't bother with. The menu reads like Pacific Northwest bar food done with actual conviction: rockfish banh mi, salmon teriyaki, home fries tangled with smoked cod. The crab roll on a split-top bun comes out only on weekends, so plan accordingly. The New York Times put it on their Seattle list, which tracks.

1. The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Seattle Right Now
2. The Infatuation #20 · The 25 Best Restaurants In Seattle
3. Seattle Met Seattle’s 50 Best Restaurants

1. The Infatuation The Best Restaurants & Bars In Fremont

1. The Infatuation The Best Restaurants & Bars In Fremont

1. Eater The 38 Essential Restaurants in Seattle
2. The Infatuation The Best Restaurants & Bars In Fremont

1. The Infatuation The Best Restaurants & Bars In Fremont

1. The Infatuation The Best Restaurants & Bars In Fremont

A Turkish American tech worker turned pitmaster drives an hour a day just to source the right bread for his chopped beef sandwiches, which tells you everything about the commitment level here. This is a Texas-style BBQ beer bar in Fremont where the brisket, salt-and-pepper only, runs through the smoker for upward of twelve hours and comes out glossy and dark-edged. The sweet pickles in the potato salad are made in-house purely to be an ingredient, not a garnish.

1. Seattle Met Seattle’s Best New Restaurants
2. The Infatuation The Best Restaurants & Bars In Fremont

1. The Infatuation The Best Restaurants & Bars In Fremont

1. Difford's Guide Difford's Guide

1. Difford's Guide 4 stars · Difford's Guide

The chalkboard menu at this corner tapas bar looks like it's been there forever, which is kind of the point. Patatas bravas, garlicky shrimp, octopus, and chorizo rotate through in the Spanish tradition the team fell in love with while backpacking through Madrid. The room is small, retro without trying, and built-in banquettes give it the settled-in feel of a neighborhood place that has nothing left to prove.

1. Difford's Guide 4 stars · Difford's Guide

1. Difford's Guide Difford's Guide

1. Difford's Guide Difford's Guide

1. Difford's Guide 3 stars · Difford's Guide

The narrow passage to the left of the bar does not lead to a secret larger room; that's just the toilet. Hazlewood is a tiny cocktail bar in Ballard, once a coffee shop, where the counter is a few strides from the door and the upstairs lounge has the square footage of a treehouse. Come on a quiet weeknight and you'll spend a moment genuinely confused about where everyone is supposed to sit. The answer, apparently, is close together.

1. Difford's Guide 3.5 stars · Difford's Guide

1. Difford's Guide Difford's Guide