image, via The Zig Zag

Esquire has made their annual survey of the country’s best bars [esquire], and we’ve got two of them. I’ve never been to Fu Kun Wu in Ballard, but I’m real familiar with The Zig Zag Cafe on the Market hillclimb.

I happen to occasionally date a guy who cooks for a downtown restaurant, so sometimes after his kitchen closes we’ll head down to the Zig Zag, where the kitchen is open until 1:00 a.m. By about midnight the place has emptied of pretty much everyone but a bunch of regulars. I advise stopping by on a night when Murray Stenson, a local legend, is working the bar. (Like, say, Wednesday.) Slide up to the bar and ask Murray to make you whatever he feels like. It’s pretty much guaranteed to be yummy–Murray is a master in the art of the cocktail. He once provided me with a gin-based concoction that could only be described as divine, and I’m not much of a gin drinking girl.

I’ve never had the food, but it’s always looked good, and I don’t think people who work in restaurants tend to eat where the food isn’t worthwhile. The space is hidden between a Mexican restaurant and a bunch of stairs below the Market, and inside is dark and cozy and romantic in a no-frills sort of way; it’s a good place to get to know your companions or make a new friend.

The Zig Zag really is a good bar that I always forget to recommend to people when they ask me where to go. Good call, Esquire.