Bars near the convention?
This will be my first year going to PAX after years of trying. I'm sure me and the guys will be hitting them after festivities at PAX...every night(DON'T JUDGE ME 
).
Every town has those bars you avoid at all costs, does the city of Seattle have those bars?
What bars are an every year tradition for you yearly pax-goers?
How close to the convention are they?
).Every town has those bars you avoid at all costs, does the city of Seattle have those bars?
What bars are an every year tradition for you yearly pax-goers?
How close to the convention are they?
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Whenever I drink in downtown I usually find myself on cap hill (just east of the WSCC). Some of my favorite bars are there.
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I don't know if it's open that late, but the Urbane restaurant in the Hyatt at Olive 8 next door has great food and service.
There are some, but for the most part they are pretty self evident that you don't want to go in there but there really isn't an area that you avoid as a general rule. For example, Pioneer Square, about a 20 minute walk from the convention center, has some 'clubs' that I would avoid but there are also some really cool new bars that have opened up like Altstadt.
All the bars around the convention center will be catering to the PAX crowd. The event has gotten so huge that even Seattlites who aren't gamers, or have little awareness of games, are aware of the convention. I'd say that if you want to get a good pax bar, anything along the pike pine corridor either going up the hill or down to the waterfront is a good bet. South Bell town just north of Stewart and between 1st and 3rd ave will have a lot of Paxers.
My personal recommendation is the Raygun Lounge Bar on Pine and Summit. It's a board game bar so they will be down with the Pax and it's only a ten minute walk up the hill from the convention center. http://tinyurl.com/klobk3f
http://taphousegrill.com/
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Ooooh, nice!
I'm a beer nerd, and I'm hoping to dive into a bunch of local/regional beers I can't get back home during PAX. Besides Taphouse, are there any relatively closeby breweries you can recommend?
Well, beer nerd wise, within walking Distance, you have The Pike @ pike place market(yes it's obvious, but they do good non-shouty beer)
Up Capitol Hill a few blocks from the WSCC you'll find Elysium's large brew pub(if you want the insanely hoped IPA's/other shouty beer). Also up that way is the Pine Box, which normally has a good selection.
Regarding breweries themselves (aside from Pike & Elysium) I'm not sure of any breweries that close to the convention centre, but if head out of downtown should find some. Ballard has a surprising number of really good small breweries for instance (and is fairly accessible on the busses)
For breweries close to PAX you have to go into whats called georgetown (south of the stadiums) or north into Ballard. Ballard has an obscene amount of breweries and distilleries in a relativity small amount of space.
Theres a couple close to/on the waterfront (Pike street brewing for one) but they are few. The areas I mentioned have the most inside of Seattle.
As far as bars close to the WSCC (Now that I can make a useful post), IN ORDER OF DISTANCE.
No, I dont have a problem.
These are some of the ones I frequent for drinking/food
Pine Box
Sun Liquor
Linda's Tavern
Capitol Cider (sometimes they have things nobody else does, pricey though)
Comet (cheapest ive found on the hill)
Lost Lake Cafe & Lounge (24h)
Sam's Tavern
Barca
Unicorn/Narwhal
Elysian
Auto Battery
(These two are a bit further but worth it if you have $$ to spend)
Canon (WHISKEY!)
Von Trapp's (German Beers & sausage & Indoor Bocce Ball)
For the love of god dont drink in the downtown core. Its always flooded during PAX time and is medicore at best plus $rape. Walk up the hill a few blocks and you will have MANY better choices.
Plus its easy to stumble back downhill to the hotels and/or transit station... Not that I would know anything about that >.>
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I don't follow Riot/LoL so I have no idea.
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Big Ups for this info. Much appreciated!
Gah. I blame auto-correct/fact that I was posting late at night. Yeah, I did mean Elysian!
On that note about bars though, yeah the downtown core is pricy. Walking up to Belltown or Capitol Hill is a good idea if u want to see the best of Seattle's bar scene. Check the party thread when its closer to PAX if you want to try to follow the game industry drinking groups. I ran into Ubisoft AC4 team while I was out with Riot at Whiskey.
Also, there's a 75% chance the Schlitzkrieg will happen again this year. For anyone who's unfamiliar, it's an epic Pre-PAX Brewery tour somewhere in the Seattle area, thrown by PAXers, for PAXers, with PAXers. The focus is on small, obscure breweries that you've probably never heard of.
EDIT: This is a personal opinion. Individual experience may vary.
That sounds fun- will Schlitzkrieg be announced on the forums?
If you have a car and want to venture out, check out Ballard and Fremont as well.
You must not have been on the hill in a while :P Most of the places in my list above arent really hipster-ish and have decent service, well other than lost lake, but only 24h place there. Walking to ballard from PAX also sucks ass.
Although I do drink in ballard a lot and have gotten my fair share of terrible service at bars there. Just easier for me to get to cap hill from PAX (couple block walk) and from home for that matter.
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Wish me luck!
Unfortunately, I've been on the hill more than I'd like recently, doing sales calls and attending other distillers' events. Again, this has just been my own experience, but the level of douchebaggery on the hill has gotten worse in the last year than I've ever seen it. Bars and restaurants make a lot of noise about their 'mission' but you really see who's serious about it and who's just using marketing manipulation to sound cool when you see who really does buy local, get engaged in the drinking scene, introduce customers to new products, etc... instead of just buying the same tired old shit. What I love about more of the bars in Belltown is that there's a higher percentage there that honestly execute on their marketing claims and really care about providing an open, exciting, creative experience to the customers.
You should go on a sales call with me some time to see the 'real' side of the bar scene up there. Or... maybe not, because you might kick somebody in the knee once you see the shitty looks and snotty fuckitudes I get for not being a 25 yo blonde with a 100k marketing portfolio. I just don't feel like it's a scene that cares as much about the booze as it does its own image.
ALL THAT SAID, yes it's closer to the con. And there are some solid places on the hill. All the above is me splitting hairs between two downtown-adjacent neighborhoods that both have hundreds of bars/tavs/pubs.
*Assuming you meant Belltown, not Ballard. Because yes, walking to Ballard would suck many, many asses.
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Except that the crawl is a scheduled event with many people bombing the bar at the same time. Drinking at a scheduled crawl bar the night of the crawl may not be the greatest experience. For a gamer bar alternative, consider Shorty's downtown, Gamma Ray on Cap Hill, or Cafe Mox in Ballard.
(Would recommend Cafe Mox if you are willing to drive/cab, but it's definitely out of downtown.)
I'm also a fan of the Dragonfish in the later evening.
Taphouse does have a big selection of beer, but IMO, they tend to be pretty crowded and the service there has been hit or miss for me.
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I'm not sure how 'good' it is but it's one of the few places my group found liquor at last year, there's an IGA in downtown that's a super easy walk from almost all the major PAX hotels
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