Happy Hour |

This week, we go to the inbox and voice mail to answer your happy-hour quandaries. (Questions were edited for brevity or clarification.)

Q: The wife and I are meeting up with friends Saturday. We want to hit happy hour to start off the evening, most likely in Seattle, but maybe the Eastside if our friends don't want to cross 520. Cheap happy-hour suggestions?

A: Your options are more limited since many bars don't offer discounts on food or drinks on Saturdays. That's the big night out, and bars tend to fill up anyway.

Your best bet: Pair (happy hour from 5-6:30 p.m) in Ravenna. Or Branzino in Belltown (happy hour 5-7 p.m. and again 10-1 a.m.) for great crispy, thin pizzas and other $6 bar bites. On the Eastside, Trellis in the Heathman Hotel in Kirkland (happy hour 4-6 p.m.) offers a long and eclectic bar menu from pig ear to cheese steak sandwiches.

Ruth's Chris Steak House, in Bellevue (4-7 p.m. and 9-11 p.m.) and in Seattle (4-6 p.m. and 9-11 p.m.), offers an early and late-night happy hour. Daniel's Broiler also offer a good happy hour at its lounge in Lake Union, Leschi Marina and in Bellevue from 4 to 6:30 p.m. There is also late-night happy hour from 9 p.m. to around midnight but only in Lake Union and Bellevue. The atmosphere is louder and livelier at Daniels's than at Ruth's Chris.

Happy hour with a nice ambience: Palisade by Elliott Bay Marina (3-6 p.m. and 9 p.m. to close), and Waterfront Seafood Grill (4-6 p.m.)

Q: I read on a plane about bars doing barrel-aged cocktails in New York. Fascinating. Where I can sample this stuff? Another reader asks: Do any bars serve a barrel-aged Negroni here?

A: A barrel-aged cocktail is just like it sounds, a cocktail aged in a barrel like wine or whiskey. The aged cocktails tend to taste smoother, more concentrated and also pick up some oaky or woody notes from the barrel. But I think a lot of aged cocktails taste awful. The aging changes the alchemy of a drink. A lot of classic cocktails taste better as is. That's why it's called a classic.

At the annual Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans this summer, many local bartenders attended the how-to workshop on barrel-aged cocktails. So expect to see more of those 6-week aged cocktails popping up on drink menus soon.

There's a bit of Northwest pride since Jeffrey Morgenthaler of Clyde Common in Portland started this trend in the United States.

Liberty on Capitol Hill does about a dozen barrel-aged cocktails, more than any bar in Seattle. I think they do it better than most local bars. And I think its best aged cocktail is the Negroni.

Q: I live in Federal Way and would like to know some good bars to go to down this way. I tried a place in Tacoma but wasn't impressed. Help!

A: Hit 1022 South, a cocktail lounge in Tacoma. A lot of cocktail geeks and Seattle bartenders make a trip down to this Hilltop neighborhood to check out this cool bar: www.1022south.com

Q: Yo, so where does the happy-hour guy hang out?

A: Yo, I hang out at Vito's on First Hill, where drinks are dry and bitter and reasonably priced. And I can always find a seat. No crowds. No hipsters. But I think maybe what you are really asking is where are the hip or cool places now. In which case that would be 12th Avenue strip on Capitol Hill. A lot of folks hit Canon: whiskey and bitters emporium, the "it" bar now. Then they head three blocks over to Ba Bar for pho and Moscow Mule cocktails to end the night.

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