22(nee Doors) continues to hold the title of the darkest, loungiest bar on 15th Avenue at night. It's good for cocktails and fine dining with bird-like portions, which serves a discriminating muncher well during happy hour. By day, you can take advantage of its cozy patio to savor reasonable drink specials: draft beers are $1 off, well drinks are $4, and the best bargain is their fine wine glasses for $4, roughly half the usual price. The "naked" chicken wings ($6.50) are exceptional—perfectly fried, with crème fraîche and their house hot sauce—and the mini-burgers ($5) are a popular complement to a beer. But above all, it's the truffle fries ($5), shoestring-style and generously drizzled with the oil of the most decadent fungi, that are the best offering for taste, price, and ability to properly accompany alcohol. You're more than likely to get a server with a personality to boot, so be prepared to mingle. And the best-kept secret is the small plates for half-off late night Friday and Saturday: You can eat a gourmet dinner for under $10. HOLLIS WONG-WEAR 405 15th Ave. E., 324-6406. CAPITOL HILL
Beveridge Place Pub Do you love beer and dogs? Of course you do! Man's best friend wanders freely in this watering hole, one of the few remaining liquor-free taverns in the city. No booze means Beveridge Place doesn't have to serve food, so your dog can hang out while you and your friends sample from more than 100 bottles and 25 draft brews. You can bring in whatever you want to eat, or order a pizza from Zeek's next door (delivered to your lap). But the deal gets even sweeter from 3–6 p.m. (starts at 2 p.m. weekends), when Beveridge knocks a dollar off all Washington microbrews. There are also daily specials like Belgian Tuesday and Anglo-Saxon Sunday that let you sample Europe from a barstool. You and your mutt will love it. LAURA ONSTOT 6413 California Ave. S.W., 932-9906, beveridgeplacepub.com. WEST SEATTLE
Bill's Off Broadway In a neighborhood hyper-concentrated with all that is slim, rustic, and meticulously manicured, Bill's Off Broadway is the real deal: an unpretentious sports bar with little sign of a deep clean or an interior decorator. Regular patrons, more of the tatted-and-grungy variety, hang around the pool table and the bar and seem not to mind that Taylor Swift pops up on the radio. The drink specials alone in their happy hour, 4–7 p.m. every day, are enough to sell you: in addition to well cocktails being only $3.25, they have a whole host of Washington state microbrews available for $2.75. The best thing on the happy hour food menu is the Spinach Dip: fresh and overwhelmingly cheesy. I wish I had downed at least two more beers before reveling in its thickness, but for $3 and seemingly bottomless crostinis, I'd call it the best appetizer deal on the Hill. The Mushroom Boat and Seasonal Mixed Green salad are $2 a pop, and the Sirloin Bruschetta—with melted blue cheese and a strong basil-and-tomato tapenade—was an impressive hors d'oeuvre for $5. The very nice, very inked server informed me that Bill's will be changing its happy-hour menu for the summer to bring in lighter flavors, but that "we're definitely keeping the Spinach Dip." HOLLIS WONG-WEAR 725 E. Pine S., 323-7200, billsoffbroadway.com. CAPITOL HILL
The Bohemian This Admiral-area gathering place, "where creative peoples choose to converge," has a happy hour as varied as its clientele. Happy hours usually start quietly and end packed with throngs of proud new parents, the local belly-dancing troupe, elderly couples, and working artists (literally painting on canvas right in the middle of it all). The happy hours run Wednesday–Saturday from 3–6 p.m. and all night Tuesday and Sunday, and offer some of the best people-watching in the city. Folks also come for the $4 glass/$15 carafes of stunning sangria, $4 wines and dollar-off beers, well drinks and shared-plates menu. The Bohemian is well-known for its delicious $6 slow-braised garlic "bana calda"-style with Spanish white anchovies or sun-dried tomatoes, and well-loved for perfecting the art of yam fries, served with lavender honey, garlic aioli, or smoky ketchup ($7 for all three sauces). Bring your sketchbook, your honey, or your toddler, and revel in the seemingly lost art of the connected community. ZIBBY WILDER 3405 California Ave. S.W., 938-2646, bohemianseattle.com. WEST SEATTLE
The BottleNeck Lounge Chances are you've passed the BottleNeck Lounge a thousand times and never noticed it. And how could you, barreling as you probably do down the hill on Madison Street as it slopes toward Lake Washington? The BottleNeck is a neighborhood joint, though there's a running debate among patrons as to which neighborhood it's actually in: Park yourself on one of the forgiving stools on any given afternoon and you're almost guaranteed to see a verbal row between the Central District and Madison Valley factions over which can actually claim the bar. Otherwise, it has all the traits of a consummate neighborhood pub: comfy with a "who's the new guy?" vibe. The regulars who treat the place as if it's their own rumpus room will welcome you in over $3.50 wells or, if you prefer, a beer from the eclectic assortment of tap handles. Food remains at full price even during the 3–5 p.m. happy hour. But the conversation, which is better and, depending on your partner, weirder than you'd expect to have even on Capitol Hill, makes up for it. VERNAL COLEMAN 2328 E. Madison St., 323-1098, bottlenecklounge.com. CENTRAL DISTRICT
