Frolik
Motif Hotel, 1415 Fifth Ave, 206-971-8015
Oh, Frolik. Where do I even start? The place is so unique it deserves your attention. Here’s how the Motif Hotel’s marketing staff describes the place: “A vibrant design creates an edgy yet STYLISH environment that awakens the youthful spirit and releases the mischievous side in all of us.” The place looks like someone’s imagining of the future, with lots of plasticky furniture, weird swinging cocoon loveseats, tons of sleek and superfluously molded tables, and a 20-inch-long marble high top with a glass-enclosed fire pit running down the middle, end to end.
I guess in the future, we will spend all day wearing iridescent jumpsuits and taking “fun shots” with friends on a rooftop patio. About those fun shots ($4), so prominently featured on the happy hour menu: avoid. The fun shot when I visited was a combination of three rail liquors and Red Bull. Not fun. When I tried the Whosie-Whats-It Daily Cocktail, it was basically a whiskey Coke with some walnut liqueur—not wildly thrilling, but for $6, I couldn’t complain.
Their affordable brews ($4 drafts) and addictive cheese balls are reason enough to go. Their “Regional American” cuisine, cooked with “a signature Northwest Pacific flair,” is great drinking food, as proved by their Crispy Fried Goat Cheese balls with caper-parsley-basil sauce ($5). Were there not a limited number per plate, I could have eaten them endlessly. The Nearly Classic Deviled Eggs ($4) were exactly as promised—a little bit of innovation, but not so much as to detract from the simple pleasure of a deviled egg.
And Frolik is stuffed to bursting with games. On the patio, there is shuffleboard and ping-pong. Inside, couches are arrayed around TVs equipped with video game systems. My mom wasn’t exactly raring to play Super Smash Bros., but I’m sure if you’re in the market for a little intra-office team-building, it’d be a blast.
Happy hour: 4–7 pm every day; cocktails $6, wells/sangria $5, beer/fun shots $4, snacks $4–$8.