Zig Zag Cafe
Seattle-City-Center
May 11, 2018
One of Seattle’s best-known bars, Zig Zag is much admired, both by locals and the wider bar community with very good reason. They really go to town when it comes to delivering an exceptional experience. Standards of customer service are high and the bar menu at Zig Zag is a source of excitement to anyone who cares about quality cocktails. Located just below Pike Place Market, it’s a warm and welcoming space, candle-lit and attractive. The dapper, tattooed bar tenders use vintage cocktail paraphernalia to create some seriously tasty drinks. Original concoctions like the Trident, a mi of Cynar, aquavit, Manzanilla sherry, and peach bitters remain justifiably popular, but it’s worth trying some of their newer creations, drinks like the B&R, a complex, revelatory blend of rye, Bonal, triple sec, orange and Angostura bitters, or the Stiff Handshake, which pairs bonded bourbon with dry vermouth, a dash of triple sec, Maraschino, and decanter bitters. These are subtle yet potent drinks which reveal themselves slowly – drinks to be savoured. The venue has also been spruced up of late, improving the outdoor patio area and ramping things up in the kitchen. All the more reason to make a return visit to this classic space, and you’ve never been before, now would be a good time to fix that.
What their peers say
“Murray Stenson, a legend in the Seattle bartending community, opened this bar underneath Pike’s Place Market a few years ago as a place where he could find the drinks he likes. The good news is, he likes everything, so he has a liquid library behind the bar and knows how to mix it. Don’t dress up, its not that kind of place. There is a patio outside, but the interior is so comfortable, they’re not the first tables filled on sunny days.” Anistatia Miller and Jared Brown of Mixellany Ltd.
“The first of America’s “revivalist” classic cocktail bars hasn’t changed a nick over the past 9 years… and that is good news for you! Helmed by the world’s greatest working bartender, Murray Stensen, the Zig Zag Café offers, quite simply, an unmatched “bar top” experience if you arrive early enough to grab a stool.” – Ryan Magarian
Main photo credit: http://zigzagseattle.com/
