Happy Hour |

I wasn't in Belltown anymore. The happy-hour burger was $10. The music was live jazz, a Beatles rendition to get the party started.

It's happy hour at Fireside Cellars inside the Willows Lodge in "Woodinville Wine Country." There's a stone fireplace and a lawn so well manicured I wanted to roll around and run around barefoot.

The bar has live music on Thursdays and Fridays, some cooking demos on other days.

If you're cheap, wait until the bar launches its food and wine Wednesday in April, where head Chef Bobby Moore of Barking Frog (the restaurant at Willows Lodge) and a guest winemaker will offer complimentary wine and food samples during happy hour.

The bar crowd is a mix of guests who shell out $275 to $475 for the night at the lodge and the working locals.

It's a classic, sleek Northwest décor with stained-concrete floor, lots of glass and light, and a rustic, fir wood interior with giant clasps and bolts.

About half of the happy-hour food cost $10 but not so outrageously expensive when you factor in that some cocktails and wine are half off.

It's an underrated craft cocktail program, with six barrel-aged cocktails to brag about. But this is Woodinville, your better deals are with the reds.

The gussied-up bar snacks come from the kitchen of Barking Frog. Some work (quesadilla stuffed with prime rib and crème fraîche). Some don't (three overworked prawns, done in a variation of honey-walnut shrimp).

But Eastside or Seattle, expensive or not, the happy-hour burger will always be popular. It's a good one here, a nicely charred half-pound patty, salty from the blue cheese and bacon. It tasted smoky and comes with a side of shoestring fries.

Fireside Cellars at Willows Lodge, 14580 N.E. 145th St., Woodinville, offers happy hour 4-6:30 p.m. Mondays-Fridays and again 9-11 p.m. on Mondays-Thursdays. Half off on selected wine and cocktails ($4 to $5.50) and the bar-food menu ($4-$10). Check the Web for a schedule of live entertainment and complimentary-cooking classes (425-424-3900 or www.willowslodge.com).

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

On Twitter @tanvinhseattle.