Happy Hour: Put a little swank in your evening at Urbane

HAPPY HOUR |

Questions. We field a lot of questions. One constant request is a suggestion for a swanky bar for happy hour before a girls-night out. Another is for a nice downtown lounge to catch up with your former sorority sisters.

Plenty of options around downtown. I'll throw out a less obvious suggestion: Urbane, on the ground floor of Hyatt at Olive 8, on the edge of downtown.

Some aperitifs to start. Skinny fries to nibble on. A long, caramelized-onion flatbread to share.

And bacon mac-and-cheese to consider — because there's always someone in your party who would want that. Likely someone who had hit the gym earlier.

Urbane's slow-food-themed restaurant features a fancy cocktail lounge: earth-toned and contemporary in décor, with blue floodlights along the sidewalk to accentuate the lounge's glass and metal exterior just to let you know it's a little different, a little prettier than the others.

It's a safe meet-up because the menu is varied enough to satisfy a diverse gathering.

Drink menu consists mostly of candy-sweet concoctions, with a few craft cocktails. Bar menu ranges from standbys (burgers and chicken wings) to items for more refined tastes (rabbit pâté, crudités and seared scallop.)

But skip those Waygu sliders — neither moist nor juicy. Same goes with the BBQ pork sandwich. And service seems spotty on some evenings. Still worth a visit, though.

Those addictive skinny fries: a better take on those potato sticks you get out of a can. That popular flatbread: a nice balance of flavors with balsamic vinegar, blue cheese and caramelized onion. (And you get a crunchy texture from the walnuts.) Hit the spa upstairs, where Urbane also serves some happy-hour cocktails with facials and other treatments.

Urbane, 1639 Eighth Ave., inside the Olive 8 Condominium and Hyatt hotel, offers happy hour daily from 4-6 p.m. and again at 10 p.m.-midnight, with $4-$9 bar food and $4-$5 beer, wine and well drinks. Note: shorter bar menu during second happy hour (206-676-4600 or urbaneseattle.com).

Tan Vinh: 206-515-5656 or tvinh@seattletimes.com