Reed Kennedy, 2009.Hazlewood (Ballard, 2311 Market Street) is a cozy nook of a bar that’s spelt just right no matter how many whiny Missourians will bark at you to the contrary. I was initially drawn to the bar by its eponymous cocktail, which is served with a Nat Sherman and a truffle.The dessert and a smoke were a nice touch — but they’d be even nicer if the bar’s outside area wasn’t as small as my bathroom. However, I will admit that it’s quite the memorable experience trying to balance a stemmed cocktail glass, a lit cigarette and a small plate with a fancy dessert on it while standing outside in a light drizzle. The drink itself would regularly seem just an afterthought at this point, but a smooth mix of Irish whiskey, honey peppermint tea and Amaretto makes the act of consumption less of a trial and more of an amusing experience.Besides the Hazlewood Balancing Act, the bar’s tininess works more towards quaint than cramped. Fruit garnishes are placed in a bowl in the center of the bar rather than in a plastic compartment hidden behind the counter like a .38 Special. The upstairs area is so conducive to drunk chatting that midway through my second cocktail, I’d forgotten I was even at a bar — a feeling I usually only get after my ninth or tenth. Make your first impression wisely, as Hazlewood really shines on weekdays after a long day of work rather than the tail end of a sweaty Ballard pub crawl.The rest of Hazlewood’s drink menu is split into Champagne Cocktails, House Specials and Pre-Prohibition Era Cocktails — which by some peculiar bending of the time-space continuum, a mixture called the Prohibition Cocktail has somehow entered into.That brief paradox is totally negligable, because the House Cocktails are where Hazlewood really shines, filled with novel twists and playful jabs. There seem to be a lot of cocktail lounges that run themselves like a museum, perhaps to avoid comparison to T.G.I. Fridays or similar ostentatious chains, but Hazlewood is confident enough in its credibility to not have to name all of their drinks after 17th-century royalty or T.S. Eliot poems.In addition to The Hazlewood itself, novelties like the Bad Santa-inspired Thurman Merman make up the House Specials. The Merman, a cocktail with ginger muddled into it with a wooden pickle, presents itself almost like a potable trivia question, but its taste is much less arcane.The Batman fan in me couldn’t resist ordering the Harvey Dent. I was too quick to judge Dent, fully expecting a novelty drink with a couple of wildly conflicting mixers, but the drink wasn’t called Two-Face for a reason. The bitter power of Cynar and rye whiskey are calmed only by hazelnut (hazlenut?) liqueur, making it the drink of a hard-boiled district attorney rather than a cartoonish supervillain. It strikes precise and tidy, with little aftertaste. All in all, the tone of Hazlewood’s drink menu just seems more relaxed and less intimidating than most of those you’d see on Capitol Hill, while still offering time-tested classics. While Ballard might not yet have The Hill’s sheer volume of cocktail lounges per square foot, Hazlewood is certainly a formidable place to sit down and try a few new flavors.