Restaurants Now: Tavern Law

Chef Dana Tough and Co-owner Brian McCracken.

At Tavern Law, the new Capitol Hill bar from the creators of Spur gastropub in Belltown, you’ll want to go upstairs, and not just because of the rigmarole involving a locked door, an antique telephone, and a dark staircase. No, you’ll want to go upstairs because the speakeasy-style mezzanine is where bartender Miles Thomas is waiting to design a special drink to please you. Into ginger? Thomas might pull out a cloudy vial of house-made gingercello and combine it with rum, simple syrup, and orange juice for a spicy, invigorating, one-of-a-kind cocktail. Then again, downstairs you have full access to Tavern Law’s encyclopedic drink menu, equipped with a glossary in case you don’t know your fizzes from your flips. The food—poached salmon, fried oysters, sautéed pimientos de Padrón—is expertly cooked and appropriately modest, as if devised to keep your mind on beverages.

Tavern Law 1406 12th Avenue, Seattle (206-322-9734; tavernlaw.com)

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