Seattle Washington....Photograph permission see From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Seattle has several districts of NightLife and they are:
• Belltown. Classy and casual single professionals dining and drinking in a pristine environment Close to Queen Anne.
• Fremont. An artistic-turning-almost-yuppie community with a cool bar and pub scene. Totally local.
• Pioneer Square. Tons of pubs and some of the city's hippest clubs. Heavy on out-of-towners, too.
• Capitol Hill. Trendy and crazy, cross-dressers and spare-changers, plus the occasional scenesters. Mostly a young crowd, many with tattoos, spiked colored hair and unconventional clothing. Home to Seattle's grunge and gay community with a few straight bars and restaurants in the mix.
Thus you have several types of nightlife's within the entertaining culture of Seattle. Listed below is small review of what going on in these districts.
It's true that Seattleites spend much of their free time enjoying the city's green environmental revolutionary [ Oh ya it's nickname is the "Emerald City"], surroundings, but that doesn't mean they overlook the more very up scaled cultured evening pursuits. The city of absolute diversities. In fact, the winter weather that keeps people indoors, in the years has sucessfully cured itself of cabin feavor combined with a longtime goal of personal achivements to be the cultural Paris of the Northwest, has gave radical impetus to a surprisingly active, very accomplished, and diverse nightlife scene. Also Seatlle is likewise known as: "Gateway to Alaska", "Rain City","Coffee Town","Jet City" a real city built from the Jet setters of the 50s and 60s."
For the music lovers Seattle is the birthplace of grunge music and has, as a result established a reputation for heavy coffee consumption; and thus coffee companies founded or based in Seattle include Starbucks, Seattle's Best Coffee,and Tully's. With all that coffee consumption, at low cost compared to other communities, on a massive scale evey kind of music lover will find a plethora of classical, jazz, and rock offerings. You will not be surprised by such organizations like: The Seattle Nightlife and Music Association (SNMA) is a coalition of music, night club, and bar interests formed to educate elected officials, civic and community leaders, and the media on the serious issues facing the music and nightlife industry in Seattle.
The Seattle Opera is ranked one of the top companies in the country, and its stagings of Wagner's Ring series have achieved near-legendary status. The Seattle Symphony also receives frequent accolades. Likewise, the Seattle Repertory Theatre has won Tony awards for its productions, and a thriving fringe theater scene keeps the city's lovers of avant-garde theater contentedly discoursing in cafes and bars about the latest hysterical or thought-provoking performances.
Much of Seattle's evening entertainment scene is clustered in the Seattle Center and Pioneer Square areas. Thus Seattle has no shortage of local bars that are sure to make any visitor feel like a real Seattleite. Blues clubs, British bars, Irish pubs, lounges, dive bars and college bars are just a few of the varieties of drinkeries that Seattle has to offer. [ Note: see this additional nightlife resourcewebsite for additional details] The former hosts theater, opera, and classical-music performances; the latter is a bar-and-nightclub district. Other concentrations of nightclubs can be found in Belltown, where crowds of the young and hip flock to the neighborhood's many trendy clubs, and in Capitol Hill, with its ultracool gay scene. Ballard, formerly a Scandinavian enclave in North Seattle, attracts a primarily middle-class, not-too-hip, not-too-old crowd, including lots of college students and techies. It's not the hipster Belltown scene, it's not the PBR-swilling blues scene of Pioneer Square, and it's not the sleek gay scene of Capitol Hill. It's just a comfortable neighborhood nightlife scene.
While winter is a time to enjoy the performing arts, summer brings an array of outdoor festivals. These take place during daylight hours as much as they do after dark. Thus Seattle has an almost unnaturally large amount of dance clubs. This may be because after being cooped up in the cold for months on end leads locals to want to grind against strangers in sweaty euphoria. [ Note: see this website for additional details]
If its happenimg where arts and enterainment really rock, you will find it in the free copy of Seattle Weekly. It can be picked up in the consumer friendly bookstores, convenience stores, grocery stores, newsstands, and newspaper boxes around downtown and other neighborhoods. On Friday the Seattle Times includes a section called "Ticket," a guide to the week's arts-and-entertainment offerings.
The Club & Music Scene
Whether you want to hear a live band, hang out in a good old-fashioned bar, or dance, Pioneer Square is the best place to start. Keep in mind that this neighborhood tends to attract a very rowdy crowd (lots of frat boys) and can be pretty rough late at night.
Belltown, north of Pike Place Market, is another good place to club-hop. Clubs here are way more style-conscious than those in Pioneer Square and tend to attract 20- and 30-something trendsetters.
Seattle's other main nightlife district is the formerly Scandinavian neighborhood of Ballard, where you'll find more than a half dozen nightlife establishments, including taverns, bars, and live-music clubs.
Capitol Hill, a few blocks uphill from downtown Seattle, is the city's main gay nightlife neighborhood, with much of the action centered on the corner of East Madison Street and 15th Avenue East.
Easy Listening -- Some of the best music to be heard around Seattle isn't played in nightclubs; it's played in restaurants. Many of the city's restaurants feature live music on the slower nights of the week or after the dinner business quiets down. The music played in such restaurants tends to be less obtrusive and more low-key than in nightclubs, and is often instrumental or acoustic. On a foray around the Pike Place Market area, you might encounter bossa nova, Django Reinhardt-style gypsy jazz, or Irish music.
Some of my favorite places to catch live music include Café Campagne, 1600 Post Alley (tel. 206/728-2233); Wasabi Bistro, 2311 Second Ave. (tel. 206/441-6044); The Pink Door, 1919 Post Alley (tel. 206/443-3241); Le Pichet, 1933 First Ave. (tel. 206/256-1499); and Serafina, 2043 Eastlake Ave. E. (tel. 206/323-0807).
Pioneer Square -- The Pioneer Square area is Seattle's main live-music neighborhood, and the clubs have banded together on Friday and Saturday nights to make things easy for music fans. The Pioneer Square Club Stamp plan lets you pay one admission to get into six clubs. The charge is $10. Participating clubs currently include The Central Saloon, the Last Supper Club, the New Orleans Creole Restaurant, Tiki Bob's, Fuel, and the J & M Cafe. Most of these clubs are short on style and hit-or-miss when it comes to music (which makes the joint cover a great way to find out where the good music is on any given night).
So Who Needs Cirque du Soleil, Anyway? -- Visiting Seattle without seeing this show would be like going to Las Vegas without seeing Cirque du Soleil. According to Teatro ZinZanni, 22 Mercer Street (tel. 206/802-0015; www.zinzanni.com), a European-style cabaret of the highest order, circus acts aimed at the upper crust should be accompanied by gourmet cuisine. Staged in a classic spiegeltent (mirror tent) imported from Belgium, this evening of comedy, dance, theater, and fine food (catered by Seattle's celeb chef Tom Douglas) offers clowns, acrobats, illusionists, and cabaret singers. In fact, there's more entertainment packed into a night at Teatro ZinZanni than anywhere else in Seattle. Tickets are $104 Sunday and Wednesday through Friday and $120 on Saturday (premium seating, $125 Sun and Wed-Fri and $155 Sat). Reserve well in advance!
Movies
Summertime in the Fremont neighborhood always means Fremont Outdoor Movies (tel. 206/781-4230; www.fremontoutdoormovies.com), a series that features modern classics, B movies (sometimes with live overdubbing by a local improv comedy company), and indie shorts. Films are screened on Saturday nights in the parking lot at North 35th Street and Phinney Avenue North. The parking lot opens at 7:30pm; there is a $5 suggested donation.
There are also summer outdoor movies shown in the newly designated South Lake Union neighborhood, which is basically a huge mixed-use development being created by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. The Cinema on the Lawn (tel. 206/342-5900; cinemaonthelawn.com) series is held in July and August on the lawn beside the South Lake Union Discovery Center at Denny Way and Westlake Avenue. There's live music before the movies, so try to arrive before dark.
Want to sip a martini while you watch the latest indie film hit? Find out what's playing at Belltown's Big Picture Seattle, 2505 First Ave. (tel. 206/256-0566; www.thebigpicture.net). This little basement theater below El Gaucho steakhouse is the coolest little theater in the city and a favorite of fans of indie films.
Only in Seattle
While Seattle has plenty to offer in the way of performing arts, some of the city's best after-dark offerings have nothing to do with the music. There's no better way to start the evening (that is, if the day has been sunny or only partly cloudy) than to catch the sunset from the waterfront. The Bell Street Pier and Myrtle Edwards Park are two of the best and least commercial vantages for taking in nature's evening light show. Keep in mind that sunset can come as late as 10pm in the middle of summer.
Want the best view of the city lights? Hold off on your elevator ride to the top of the Space Needle until after dark. Alternatively, you can hop a ferry and sail off into the night.
Want to learn to dance? Up on Capitol Hill the sidewalk along Broadway is inlaid with brass dance steps. Spend an evening strolling the strip and you and your partner can teach yourselves classic dance steps in between noshing on a piroshki and savoring a chocolate torte.
