This piece is presented as part of our Happy Hour Guide.
It’s always happy hour somewhere—and countries all over the world have their own favorite customs for drinking and snacking at the end of a workday. Read on for a culinary world tour through Seattle that touches on tapas, izakaya, aperitivo, street food, and other international drinking-food delights.
Artusi
Italy has its own version of happy hour—the grand tradition of aperitivo, where friends gather for a nip of something boozy and a light meal after the end of the workday to stoke their appetites before dinner. Artusi—a “modern aperitivo bar” on Capitol Hill with white hexagon-tiled tabletops and long, cylindrical paper tubes dangling from the ceiling—translates that experience to the Northwest. And there’s no better time to take advantage of it than their happy hour (5–7 pm and 10 pm–close daily), where you can order a $6 spritz (your choice of Aperol, Campari, Cynar, and Gran Classico with prosecco and soda), Cynar Collins, gin or vodka martini, old-fashioned, Americano, or Fernet Branca, and munch on light bites like salumi ($7), cheese ($5 for one, $8 for two, and $11 for three), and roasted hazelnuts with controne chili and muscovado sugar ($3), all the while pretending you’re on a sidewalk in Rome.
