Sauced

For Your Consideration: Oscar Viewing Parties at Kell’s, Bottleneck

The Academy Awards air March 7. Where will you watch?

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Feb 24, 2010 at 12:41PM 0 Comments

The Oscars aren’t just a shameless excuse to put a picture of George Clooney on your blog. They’re also a shameless excuse to drink at the bar.

Wondering where you’ll watch the Oscars this year? In the bars category, consider Kell’s in Pike Place Market and the Bottleneck Lounge on East Madison Street.

Kell’s, which organizes the event as a benefit to St. Joseph’s Baby Corner, asks guests to “dress to impress” and will be raffling off prizes. Doors open at 4pm, the awards show begins at 5pm. Tickets are $25 in advance, $35 at the door and include appetizers, ballots, and prizes.

The Bottleneck Lounge will also be opening up at 4pm and will serve drink specials themed around the best actor nominees. It’s free and you can wear jeans or whatever.

Oh and if Oscar is not your buzz, opt instead to attend this absinthe soiree at the Sorrento Hotel with local cocktail historian extraordinaire, Robert Hess. To paraphrase something I heard a bartender say recently at that very hotel: “The green fairy is much more interesting than the red carpet.” Price of admission is $20.

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Tags: Oscars, Pike Place Market, Drinking Events

Happy Hour of the Week: Post Restaurant and Lounge

At this bunker of a Post Alley bar, order mini-burgers but not lamb sliders.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Feb 17, 2010 at 12:35PM 0 Comments

• HOURS: Daily from 4 to 7pm
• PRICES: Food specials between $4 and $6; wines by the glass from $5 to $7 and by the bottle from $15-$28; $4 draft beers; $4 well cocktails.

I’ve always liked how Post Restaurant and Lounge reminded me of the Hatch on Lost. If you don’t know what I mean by that, go get your hands on the first two seasons of that show and I’ll see you in a few weeks.

A tiny bunker of a Post Alley bar that is flanked by Kell’s on one side and the shopping center that houses the White Horse Trading Co on the other, Post opened about a year ago. Then, a few months back, Patrick McAleese (whose family owns Kell’s) and his business partner took over. A tall Irishman with a flair for interior design, McAleese has added soft-edged bric-a-brac to contrast with the cementy lockdown feel, but all the table votives, silky harem pillows, and grape bunch-shaped chandeliers can’t stop this place from feeling like a spooky underground lair.

And why would you want them to? It’s awesome to drink in a cave under Pike Place Market. Especially on a weekday evening in winter when it is dark as evil outside. I go to happy hour at Post all the time. I think of it as my panic room.

You should come. I can tell you what to eat: the juicy mini-burgers, but not the dry lamb sliders, and maybe some artichoke jalapeno dip served with little toasties—one must eat the occasional vegetable, after all. I can share a bottle of Portuguese white wine ($15) with you, the kind of wine that goes down easy and you can drink a lot of and still feel fine. The kind of wine you can drink while having the sort of deep, meandering conversation you wish would never end.

There are seven wines on the happy hour menu, six of them available by the bottle. Remember this is not your last meal, this is your Tuesday night refuge. You will be charged accordingly.

Just after it opened last year, I went to Post and there was a wake at the next table. If you want to read about that, it’s here.

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Tags: Happy Hour, Pike Place Market

Chocolate, Meet Beer.

Now in its second year, Pike Brewing’s Chocofest plays matchmaker to local chocolates and their boozy counterparts.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Feb 08, 2010 at 02:56PM 1 Comments

That’s going to make you thirsty, lady. Chocofest pairs artisan chocolates with local beverages.

Best Valentine’s-related event so far: Thursday, February 11 is Chocofest at Pike Brewing Company from 6-9pm. As such, there will be more than two dozen kinds of chocolate paired with over twenty beers, barley wines, meads, and spirits.

Vendors and products to get excited about include: Clear Creek Distillers from Oregon—they make grappas, eaux de vie, and wine brandies. Claudio Corallo, whose chocolates everyone is always freaking out over, Mount Baker Vineyards (I’m hoping they’ll be pouring some of their very food-friendly late-harvest viognier), absinthe from Pacific Distillery, and typically sold-only-at-farmers-markets Trevani Truffles.

RSVP with Michael St Clair at the brewery by calling 206-812-6613, tickets are $25 at the door.

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Tags: Local Spirits, Beer, Valentine's Day, Desserts, Pike Place Market

HAPPY PLACES: Pike and Western

Try something new from one of Seattle’s oldest wine shops.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Aug 13, 2009 at 03:00PM 2 Comments

A happy display case at a happy place.

The Place Pike and Western
The Deal A well-curated collection of bottles at all prices, specializes in wines form Washington, France, and Italy.
Owner’s Picks Nebbiolo Langhe 2007, $21.99; 2008 Beresan Cabernet Sauvigon, $29; 2007 Rôtie Cellars Northern Blend, $35.
Our Picks 2007 Chinook cabernet franc rosé, $14.99; 2006 Domaine de la Rouletiere Vouvray ($14.99)
The Scoop Wednesday afternoons, sample high-end wines for $5, on Fridays the staff pours complimentary sips of cheaper wines to sip while you shop.

The first time I walked into Pike and Western, I knew I’d found a friend. All around me were my favorite value wines: Here was a bottle of Poet’s Leap riesling, there was the cab franc rosé from Chinook, in the back I some stacked cases of Domaine de La Rouletiere, a favorite affordable vouvray from the Loire that I had discovered at Voila Bistro but had given up on finding in any of the local wine shops.

Owner Michael Teer says he is always fighting the perception that small wine stores are somehow high end only and have a huge mark up. He shows me bottle after bottle under $20, all of them, he says, selected and tasted by his staff—obsessive food and wine people who specialize in finding pairing wines for special meals. “And you don’t even have to tip us like you do the barista” says Teer.

Teer bought Pike and Western in 1991 after working there for 11 years, and is a great lover of the Italian wines from the Piemonte—he introduces novices by way of a reasonable priced nebbiolo or dolcetto. “People will drop $60 for a cab, but not a Barbaressco” he laments. For the initiated, there are a number of high-end piemontese in stock.

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Tags: Pike Place Market, Happy Places