With pints from Mac & Jack’s, Hale’s, Elysian, Snoqualmie, Diamond Knot, Georgetown, and Maritime breweries on its $3.50 happy-hour draft list, the Barking Dog Alehouse is the perfect place to get intimately acquainted with Seattle’s local breweries. With a newly modified outdoor seating area—simple wooden picnic benches and a stand-up bar looking out at its residential neighbors—the Barking Dog serves as an obvious place to tie Fido up, should you find yourself developing a bit of a thirst as you walk by. But for value and satisfaction, stick to the brew. If it’s cheap Buffalo-style wings you’re craving, with all the traditional fixings, you’d be barking up the wrong tree here: The Dog’s “wings” ($5) are really deep-fried chicken legs, a somehow bacon-flavored version of KFC’s crunchiest choice, served with an Asian-style chili sauce (delicious, but only 75 cents cheaper than on the regular menu.) The black-bean nachos ($5) are unremarkable, but with at least seven rounds of draft picks available every day from 4 to 6 p.m., I won’t go begging anywhere else. 705 N.W. 70th St., 782-2974. PHINNEY RIDGE/BALLARD