#829 - Knee High, Seattle (Capitol Hill) - 6/9/2009

I'm not saying I can prove I personally caused this, but the start of Project K-Bar neatly coincided with an explosion in quality, craft cocktails and bars with personality, to the great benefit of the project and commensurate damage to my budget and liver. And now comes the speakeasy trend, and I must say it is pretty dang swell.

So on this night I went to Knee High, where you are greeted by only an unmarked door and a man standing outside to usher you in if you aknow where you're going. Genuine prohibition-era drink recipes are de rigueur for the speakeasy set, and apparently someone passed a regulation requiring all new bars to have fancy, art deco absinthe servers. (Like most people, I like virtually everything about absinthe -- the preparation rituals, the accoutrements, the mystery, the old ads -- pretty much everything except the actual absinthe.) Knee high is small and dark and filled with good drinks and pretty women, and I find that I can live with that sort of thing.

Try the: Hemingway

1356 Olive Way
seattle weekly - metblogs
New York Times on the speakeasy trend