On Friday I had the wonderful experience of meeting Hilary of Less Than a Shoestring, who was in New York for a few days. We feasted on soup dumplings at Grand Sichuan and followed up with cupcakes at Billy's Bakery. We got to talking about a shared bugaboo, namely, the massive budgets and pricey recommendations of travel writers writing under the rubric of "budget travel."
Over the course of the conversation, I realized that I'd just recently come across an outstanding budget-friendly deal while in Seattle between Christmas and New Year's Eve. The Zig Zag Café, a well-known spot for good, complex, old-school cocktails, has amazing Happy Hour cocktail deals, at $4.75 a pop. (Normally, house cocktails run $8.25.)
Zig Zag is a champion of a drinks den. There are drinks with exotic ingredients like falernum, green chartreuse, punt e mes, and pimento dram. The head bartender, Murray Stenson, is a master in the field, and the waitstaff is friendly and knowledgeable. One staffer patiently answered my question about an obscure Sicilian liqueur.
The Zig Zag Café is located on the Pike Street Hill Climb just below Pike Place Market. For nondrinkers (and the hungry of whatever persuasion) it's got a kitchen, too.
