THE GEORGE & DRAGON PUB: All of your favorite characters, only they’re outside and sweaty. There’s nary a friendlier, livelier outdoor beer garden in town. 206 N. 36th St., 545-6864. FREMONT KELLA¢a‚¬a„¢S Avoid the Cancunesque patio-spillage of Friday and Saturday nights if you must, but you’d be remiss not to bake with a Bass at least once this summer out in this little alley refuge. 1916 Post Alley, 728-1916. PIKE PLACE MARKET Note by Maggie Savarino

LINDA’S TAVERN: Only the fantastic movie night selections can make this back deck more happening than it already is on any halfway-balmy night of the week. Prepare to jockey for position, but hey, you’re outside and away from bus fumes. 707 E. Pine St., 325-1220. CAPITOL HILL Note by Maggie Savarino

PACIFIC INN PUB: Whether a pit stop from the farmers market or Burke-Gilman, the Pacific Inn is a tavern about cold, light beer, fish-n-chips, and southern exposure. 3501 Sonte Way N., 547-2967. WALLINGFORDTHE RED DOOR Perched above 34th Avenue, this patio couldn’t begin to accommodate all the summertime hoards of Fremont partygoers looking for a time out and al fresco nachos. 3401 Evanston Ave. N., 547-7521. FREMONT Note by Maggie Savarino

SAMBAR: Wile away the early evening on the patio of the most stylish bar in the vicinity, secluded by foliage, knowing your drink will arrive eventually after the grandest of treatments. 425 N.W. Market St., 781-4883. BALLARD Note by Maggie Savarino

Pig Iron Bar-B-Q (5602 First Ave. S.) aims for cool with its homage to the barbeque shack, a colorful and lively two-room restaurant more likely to be playing punk rock than the blues. Your meal comes on tin plates; your lemonade comes in a mason jar. The full bar means you can spike your Arnold Palmer, as the next few stops have no booze. Note by Maggie Savarino

The simple walk-up that is Peco’s Pit>/b> (2260 First Ave. S.) runs people through like a machine every weekday lunch hour. You choose a pork or beef sandwich ($6.40) and pick your desired strength of sauce. The most savory of its First Ave. brethren, the sauce here may come in varying degrees of hot, but the mild achieves a perfect sweet, sour, and spicy equilibrium; enough to fire a few endorphins, but not so much so that you can’t immediately tuck in to your next bite. Note by Maggie Savarino

I have a hard time not getting rib tips at Jones Barbeque (2454 Occidental Ave.), and the sauce is just my style, a hint of vinegar to brighten up the thick spicy, molasses-sweet flavors most common in Kansas City or St. Louis style barbeque, backed up by a punch of smoke. Friday’s special, the Jones Big Bite, is nothing short of a meat assault — a chopped pork sandwich topped with sliced and smoked hotlinks, also made in-house. Note by Maggie Savarino

And now for a word about the Ezell’s bird (multiple locations, including Skyway and the Central District original across from Garfield High), which is utterly deserving of all the plaudits that have been showered upon it by Oprah Winfrey and company over the years. Note by Mike Seely

What you might not be familiar with are the jumbo thighs at Chicken Valley, which is located just to the north of the fish-throwers in Pike Place Market’s main arcade. Jumbo fried chicken in a farmers market known for its fresh seafood and produce? Yeah, it’s a little weird. But the jumbo thighs (we don’t really want to know why they’re so big) are more than a little good; and the proprietors clearly get something that most chicken-hawkers don’t: that the thigh is the finest, most underrated part of a chicken to devour. Note by Mike Seely

Agua Verde: You want to rent a kayak from Agua Verde and paddle around Lake Union? Make your reservation a month in advance. But to secure a spot on the patio for fish tacos and pitchers of margaritas, you only have to line up for an hour. 1303 N.E. Boat St., 545-8570, U DISTRICT aquaverde.comA Edited by Jonathan Kauffman

Coastal Kitchen: You have to be lucky or run a savvy campaign to score a table on Coastal Kitchen’s hidden back patio, but it’ll make up for all the time you spent out front rubbing coffee cups with North Capitol Hill’s hoi polloi. 429 15th Ave. E., 322-1145, CAPITOL HILL Chowfoods.com/coastal Edited by Jonathan Kauffman

Grand Central Baking Company: On sunny days, eat your sandwich on the cobblestones of Occidental Park, when the sussurating trees lull both office workers and drug addicts into a yogic state of grace. The park feels like a retreat from Pioneer Square itself. 214 First Ave. S., 622-3644, PIONEER SQUARE grandcentralbakery.com Edited by Jonathan Kauffman

Volterra: Yeah, we know the Italian food at Volterra is top drawer, but fess up: Are you sitting on that front patio to see the Ballard nightlife or to be seen by it? On Sunday morning you can bask in the sun with a Bellini and basket of pastries while watching the poor schlubs lugging canvas totes around the farmers market. 5411 Ballard Ave. N.W., 789-5100, BALLARD volterrarestaurant.com.com Edited by Jonathan Kauffman