Seattle

Good morning all -

My wife is going to Seattle next week for a long weekend trip to visit a friend. They will be in both the Ballard and Capital Hill neighborhoods…any good wine/champagne bars or breweries in those areas? They will probably be using Uber or on foot if that makes a difference.

Thanks for any insight-

Chris

Ballard is absolutely chock full of great breweries. Cap Hill also has a few there or close but you could stumble around Ballard all day and not run out of breweries and restaurants. Some of my favorites include Fair Isle (great saison style beers), Reubens, Lucky Envelope (cool sours), Urban Family (even cooler sours and other stuff), Aslan, Great Notion (awesome sours and less hoppy IPAs), and grab a bite a Maritime Pacific and get the beer battered bacon (and some good brews). And not far from Ballard also hit Holy Mountain (interesting a good across the styles), Cloudburst (some of the best IPAs in Seattle), Fremont (among the more famous in town). As much as I love wine, and as many wineries there are in the area, Seattle does beer better and better than just about anyplace else.

In Cap Hill, Optimism is pretty solid.

Head down to Georgetown and hit Jellyfish, another Great Notion location, Lower Case, Machine House, Georgetown Brewing, and then head a little west to get to Seapine-one of my very favorite in the country. Best hef in the US IMO and great IPA and other styles. Consistently great and a cool building.

And I’m missing a bunch I should have mentioned like Counterbalance, Two Beers, Good Society, Future Primitive, Figurehead, Dirty Couch, Best of Hands, Hellbent, and 100 others.

Fichet and Le Caviste wine bars are both really good if they are open.

Near Capitol Hill (in Madrona) is Bottlehouse – nice outdoor seating and nice selection of wines (it has been years since I have been there though!). Footprint is a new and interesting looking option. All wines on “draft.” Also another new entrant is Marseille, which is in the Melrose Market which is a nice little complex (nearby is the flagship Starbucks reserve shop if they are into a large variety of fancy coffee). I have not been to either Footprint or Marseille. But Adam is right, there are lots of things to see in Ballard – lots of good restaurants. I don’t know the wine scene there (we are closer to Cap Hill so tend not to get over there that often).

It’s Le Pichet (not Fichet), and I love that place!! You won’t find high end unicorns but their list is well curated, big on value, and the food is excellent. And the chocolat chaud is legit!

I would also recommend Vif in Fremont for coffee, natural wine, and tasty light fare. Disclaimer-the owners are friends I met when we worked together at a wine store. Best mocha and best chocolate chip cookie in Seattle. I may be biased.

You are not biased.

Thank you gentlemen.