Ten Best Drink Menus in Seattle? Seattle Weekly Names Their List

Thanks to the Weekly for including us in the story: "Tavern Law makes a point of searching out old, dead, lost, and forgotten mixed drinks and bringing them back to life in as close to their original incarnations as possible, sourcing all manner of super-artisan or ridiculously small-batch liquors and mixers and making everything else from scratch. The resulting drinks are not only some of the best you've ever tasted, but inarguable proof that dedicated, bookish bartenders can be just as creative and artistic as the greatest chefs out there. And also that your great-grandma really knew how to party."

photo by Kristin Zwiers

Behind the Black Door: Sheehan writes on Tavern Law

"Here, drinks are the sole focus, and the bartender is there to make sure that every single person under his care gets just precisely what they want (or need) to make it through the night. There isn't even a cocktail menu for the upstairs bar, just a raised eyebrow, a questioning glance and a, "So what do you like..." from the man on the other side of the long oak."

Hear more about what Sheehan thinks by clicking on blog title above to read his entire article in the Seattle Weekly.

Seattle Weekly Awards Tavern Law with Their "Best Old School Cocktails" 2010 Award

We so appreciate the nod given to our "canonical cocktail menu" with this award today by the Seattle Weekly.

The story reads, "The shrub. The cobbler. The fizz, the flip, and the sling. They may sound like dance moves or a list of deviant sex acts, but they're really ways your great-grandmother got hammered way back in the day. And now you can take after her at Tavern Law—where not only can you drink like they did in the old days, but get an education as well, since just about every drink on its canonical cocktail menu comes with a brief description of where it came from, who invented it, and why. The bar makes a point of searching out old, dead, lost, and forgotten mixed drinks and bringing them back to life in as close to their original incarnations as possible, sourcing all manner of super-artisan or ridiculously small-batch liquors and mixers and making everything else from scratch. The resulting drinks are not only some of the best you've ever tasted, but inarguable proof that dedicated, bookish bartenders can be just as creative and artistic as the greatest chefs out there. And also that your great-grandma really knew how to party. —Jason Sheehan 1406 12th Ave., 322-9734"

Take a tour of the other winners by clicking on the blog title above. And our sincere thanks to the Seattle Weekly.

History You Can Drink: A.J. Tigner Sips Nathan's Birchwood Cocktail and Reports

The Seattle Weekly.

Tigner says that our cocktail menu "was built for the bookish drinker" and describes us a "a tribute to classic cocktails, not a museum. As such, the menu also integrates original recipes from the staff. The Birchwood (Rye, Cognac, Cynar, Punt e Mes, Licor 43 and a cucumber garnish) was invented by Nathan Weber, a current bar manager at Tavern Law. "He's working upstairs right now," said our bartender, who nodded to the bank vault door to the side, referring to the bar-within-a-bar that's the center of most Tavern Law-related conversations between people who've yet to go there.
The Birchwood's flavors are staggered so well the only thing that came to mind at first was the three-course-meal gum from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory--first the cognac, then the cucumber, rye, vermouth, and the citrus-based Licor 43 for dessert! Finally, the Cynar serves a bitter artichoke-based kick in the ass to bring your taste buds full circle.It reminded me of the prototype booze I was served at Sun Liquor, a fact that was unsurprising, as it shared a majority of ingredients. But this version was more matured, more balanced and more, well, complete. In addition to the comfortable base of cognac, vermouth and whiskey, the Cynar and Licor 43 duel for attention, both dominating the beverage in their own ways. It's like a delicious turf war in your mouth!

It was a tremendous cocktail. Knowing the creator was right upstairs definitely built on my urge to check out the bar within a bar, but honestly the kid in me was sold the instant I heard I got to go through a locked vault door."

Care to read the entire story? Click on blog title above to do so.

Thank you A.J.

The Seattle Weekly on Chefs Tough and McCracken: A Review of the Food at Tavern Law

Below is an article, in part, that takes a close look at the Chefs and our Chalkboard Menu at Tavern Law. We'll ruin the punch line. The article ends with, "Which is why Tavern Law has now rocketed onto my list of favorite restaurants. It isn't merely that I would happily come back just for the food, forgoing the cocktail list and drinking nothing but water. No, if allowed I would move permanently into the crawl space below the bar and live like a troll, drinking nothing but whatever dripped from the bar gun and eating sautéed rocks two meals a day—provided that the third would come off the chalkboard menu, cooked for me whenever I got hungry."

Do take a moment to read the entire story by clicking the blog title above. It just might make you hungry.

The reviewer writes, "I want to be careful not to overstate this, but those potatoes were the single best potato-based appetizer I have ever had in my life, anywhere. Better than any order of fries. Better than all the house-made potato chips everywhere. They were what every potato wants to be when it grows up.

And it was so simple: just perfectly chosen fingerling potatoes, high in sugar, low in starch, split in half, smoked (I can only assume) by magical elves with secret powers, then crusted with spice rub and fried 'til golden in every way that word can be taken. They tasted like they'd been fried in bacon grease, and had the texture of perfectly constructed chocolate truffles—a little crunch from the shell of spice, then a warm, soft center, with a bit of texture from the skins that had been left on. They were, in a word, unbelievable.

Which of course meant I had to go back for more.

The next night, the bartender was handing out tastes of a dessert experiment from the kitchen: peaches soaked in vodka and set atop mascarpone like peaches and cream. There were a few more people at the bar, scattered around the secondary bar and the tertiary bar and the clubby interior of Tavern Law's back room. The chalkboard menu was the same, similarly simple—odd in its easy, American influences and roots, because "easy" and "simple" are not words one generally would use to describe the work done by Tough and McCracken at Spur.

There was pan-fried trout, a burger with onion jam and pork belly, a green salad, some lamb. On other nights, there's roasted Brussels sprouts with bacon, turnips, and smoked almonds; potatoes done with wild mushrooms; nearly classical confit legs of duck. I went for that most American of summertime indulgences: fried chicken with warm potato salad, because I figured that fried chicken is so easy even for a really good galley to screw up that this second-thought kitchen at Tough and McCracken's cocktail lounge stood a really good chance of blowing it completely.

But it didn't. The kitchen didn't just do a solid plate of fried chicken, but an amazing one: partially boned-out breast, rib, and leg sections done with the skin on, in a crisp cornflake crust, fried perfectly with an expert's sense of doneness so that the meat was wet with fat and the crust had formed a shell both crisp and yielding. All this was mounted over a potato salad that was barely the suggestion of a potato salad: the same fingerlings used in the smoked potatoes, boiled this time, shocked before losing their stiffness, and dressed in nothing but a smear of coarse-grain French mustard. The entire thing was excellent beyond all my expectations, delicious in a way that was totally out of line with how good it needed to be to act only in support of a very good bar."


Thank you Jason Sheehan!

Seattle Weekly Critic Jonathan Kaufman "Savors the Highlights of a Million-calorie Year"

The best of 2009 is out. Kaufman's picked his top ten "dishes" of 2009 and included is Tavern Law's Gun Club cocktail by David Nelson. Kaufman writes, "I've drunk too many of these (damn that six-block walk!) to omit the Gun Club at Tavern Law, Dana Tough and Brian McCracken's new cocktail bar. Of course, you can make a reservation upstairs and get a customized cocktail designed to your tastes, but I've preferred to pick through the arcana listed on master bartender David Nelson's menu downstairs. Made with gin, Lillet, Maraschino, and a few drops of Scotch for smoke, the Gun Club tastes like a downed electric wire, crackling and throwing sparks. It's a dangerous and compelling drink, as several mornings-after have proven."

Thanks Jonathan: http://www.seattleweekly.com/2009-12-30/food/the-top-10-dishes-of-2009/