Seattle Weekly - Seattle's Best Dive Bars

Praise for Seattle's Best Dive Bars (and other reactions)
"Informative, witty, and wonderfully atmospheric, Seely's thirsty travelogue should leave even the most pious Washingtonians praying that there'll be honky tonks in heaven." - Tom Robbins

"Seely, managing editor of the Seattle Weekly, is a genuinely funny writer who doesn't need to get snarky to get laughs...A fair amount of Seattle's heritage resides on pages of 'Seattle's Best Dive Bars,' or at least reminders of a pre-pretense city...He's penned a neat little book. Raise your cups and do something for the town's culture." - Joel Connelly, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

"It has some seriously funny moments. It also has the lowdown on an impressively large number of watering holes the likes of which I’ve never even heard, let alone experienced firsthand." - Jessica Voelker, Seattle Metropolitan

"Is this the greatest book ever written? As a native Seattlite, and long time connoisseur of dive bars, I would have to say yes. Mike Seely, who is managing editor of the Seattle Weekly, really gets it right about these places." - Greg Barbick, Blog Critics Magazine

"The great thing about the book is how Seely captures the atmosphere of every bar. He didn’t just pop in for one drink, take a few notes and write a couple witty paragraphs–you get the feeling he’s gotten shitfaced at a lot of these bars." - The Beer Retard

"Readers are invited to warm to the dive's dubious charm by Seely's honest and witty descriptions..." - Blythe Lawrence, Seattle Times

"If good journalists go where readers seldom do, then Seely is Stanley in search of Livingstone in his boozy quest...He makes repeat visits, drinks himself into multiple stupors, and best of all, he talks to the people he meets...If Rick Steves were a drunk, this might be the book he'd write. - Knute "Skip" Berger, Crosscut

"Mike Seely writes like Ernest Hemingway in his new book. He’s Papa for the PBR crowd, exploring the gritty, working class watering holes that are the antithesis of the geeky chic image the city has embraced. ...Seely's naked contempt for Jager-bombs and the people who drink them is as refreshing as a frosty schooner of Vitamin R." - Leslie Kelly, Serious Eats

"As Holden Caufield in Catcher In The Rye once said, 'What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it.' Mike is that type of author." - Jeremy Tolbert, Seattle P-I

"Seely's book is the go-to guide for Seattleites." - Casey McNerthney, Seattle P-I

AUTHOR MIKE SEELY KNOWS a thing or two about bellying up to the bar, especially if it's a joint with a jukebox full of classic rock and plenty of cold beer in a can. Seely's appreciation for dive bars — a term he insists is one of affection, not derision — has led him to many a watering hole in our fair city, where he’s had enough boozy adventures to literally write a book.

So, he did.

Seattle's Best Dive Bars: Drinking & Diving in the Emerald City is a comprehensive, best-selling guide to all the spots your mama warned you about — the good, the bad, and the blessedly ugly. (For an excerpt, click here.) Bars where a fella can munch on a basket of free popcorn, and where a gal can nurse a Manhattan while arguing about sports with the barkeep. The places you know and love, as well as the spots you've been driving by for years, all the while wondering about what is going on behind that windowless exterior.

For a limited time, Seattle Weekly is pleased to offer Seattle's Best Dive Bars, with a happy hour price attached. It's the least we could do, given Seely's duties as Managing Editor. We're just grateful he’s not showing up to work with a cloud of booze and stale cigarette smoke clinging to him. At least, most of the time.

Watch Mike Seely discuss his book on SCAN-TV's "Public Exposure" with host Stan Emert.