2 Fingers Social
This self-described classy neighborhood dive bar, which is family-friendly until 8 pm, has a whole menu of hot drinks. Stranger contributor Kara Tiernan recommends the signature hot toddy, a "delightfully steamy drink with Four Roses bourbon, lemon, honey, and a cinnamon stick."
Wedgwood
Agua Verde Cafe
Admire the waterfront view as you sip a Mexican coffee made with Pueblo Viejo Blanco tequila, coffee, Kahlua, whipped cream, and cinnamon.
University District
All Water Seafood & Oyster Bar
Order the "Smokin' St. Helen" (a spiked hot chocolate with Woodinville Bourbon, Menta Branca, Scrappy's "Theo Chocolate" Bitters, house-made chocolate mix, vanilla sea salt whipped cream, and orange zest), and you'll receive a free kid's hot chocolate for any children that may be accompanying you.
Downtown
Bottlehouse
This charming Madrona wine bar and shop has mulled wine for all your winter imbibing needs.
Madrona
The BottleNeck Lounge
This unpretentious neighborhood hangout serves a warm Applejack Toddy with Laird's Applejack, honey, lemon, and a cinnamon stick.
Capitol Hill
Cafe Presse
Pretend you're in a quaint French cafe and sip Cafe Presse's vin chaud (hot mulled wine).
Capitol Hill
Canon
The James Beard-nominated "whiskey and bitters emporium" will soothe your soul with the "Hot Dicken's Cider No. 2" (gin, vanilla, spices, lemon curd, apple cider, 160 F) or their Baltimore eggnog (based on a recipe from 1888, with cognac, rum, port, and Cinnamon Toast Crunch milk for a twist).
Capitol Hill
Conor Byrne Pub
Indulge in an Irish coffee with Jameson, coffee, sugar, and fresh whipped cream at Ballard's Irish-themed pub.
Ballard
Copperleaf
Three drinks on the Cedarbrook Lodge restaurant and bar's seasonal cocktail menu are served warm—"Cinderella's Carriage" (glass spice vodka, allspice dram, Plantation O.F.T.D. rum, pumpkin butter, and nutmeg), "What?...Fruitcake?" (Plantation pineapple rum, Lazzaroni amaretto, Wild Roots cherry vodka, and apple cider), and the Elvis-inspired "King's Nightcap" (peanut butter whiskey, bacon vodka, Giffard banana, Theo's hot chocolate, and whipped cream).
SeaTac
Corvus & Co
Rich Smith writes, "Corvus & Co. makes its toddy with bourbon, house-made cinnamon syrup, honey, allspice dram, fresh lemon, a desiccated lemon wheel with four or five cloves poked in, and a cinnamon stick. They serve it 'hot as a son of a gun,' as the bartender said, in a tall glass mug. The drink is a pretty, murky amber color, with lots of spice-warmth on the nose. Cinnamon and citrus dominate the flavor profile, making you feel like you're sipping a healthful elixir. On the whole, the toddy complements the bar's warm, gothic interior, which is strung with red lights and full of good music. At $10, it's also affordable."
Capitol Hill
Brimmer & Heeltap
The cozy Ballard bar has their own boozy aged eggnog, and they're unveiling it this Thursday with an après-ski-themed soiree. Curl up with a mug and warm your bones by their outdoor fire pit.
Ballard
Cantina Leña
Before a viewing of Frozen 2 at the Cinerama, stop in to this Mexican-inspired bar for "Elsa's Cold Front," a slushy piña colada made with fresh pineapple juice and a sparkling sugar rim. Grown-ups can add a rum floater on top to warm up.
Belltown
Goldfinch Tavern
Rich Smith writes, "The Ron Toddy is pricey mostly because it's made with semi-pricey Ron Zacapa rum, blackberry-maple honey, cinnamon, cardamom, and lemon. Initially, it threatens to be too sweet, but then the cinnamon burns and the lemon lifts it out of trouble. A wide-mouth glass mug offers a good spa-like steaming for optimum comfort. But the real joy of the cocktail is the Goldfinch's cozy environs. The fire in the middle of the room and the amber-light energy of the place make you feel like you're drinking a hot toddy inside of a hot toddy. Top-notch. Goes for $19."
Downtown
Hollywood Tavern
Sip a pumpkin pecan whiskey milkshake made with real pumpkin, Woodinville Whiskey Co. bourbon, and roasted pecans.
Woodinville
Hattie's Hat
Top off brunch at this time-honored Ballard dive with a "Nutty Irishman" (Jameson, Frangelico Hazelnut Liqueur, hot coffee, and whipped cream).
Ballard
Hazlewood
The neighborhood bar's signature hot toddy contains bourbon, lemon, honey, and a house-made pimento dram.
Ballard
Heathman Hotel
Through December 29, the Kirkland hotel will be serving up holiday cocktails in teapots, such as the "Hot Todd-tea": whisky, honey, lemon and clove-studded orange peel steamed together in a milk tin and poured into a tea cup, and sprinkled with freshly grated nutmeg and cinnamon.
Kirkland
Hot Cakes
The molten chocolate cake emporium's "Apple Bottom" cocktail is made with steamed apple cider spiked with dark rum and swirled with cardamom caramel sauce.
Ballard and Capitol Hill
Kin Len Thai Night Bites
This Fremont Thai spot has a creative and ambitious cocktail menu with Thai-inspired flavors and house-infused spirits. The "Sleepless Night" (bourbon and Thai coffee) would make an excellent nightcap.
Fremont
Knee High Stocking Co.
The Capitol Hill speakeasy's warming, smoky cocktail "Pumpkin Patch Brat" defies cloying pumpkin spice stereotypes with Ardbeg, Chai-Chin Vermouth, ginger and cinnamon syrup, house-made kabocha pumpkin juice, and a whole egg.
Capitol Hill
Mountaineering Club
You can contemplate the view of Seattle from this rooftop bar as you savor hot cocktails like the "Winter in Walla Walla" (mulled red wine, Becherovka liqueur, togarashi honey, and apple cider vinegar) or the "Hot Grasshopper" (American gin, creme de menthe, white cocoa, allspice dram, cream, and mini marshmallows).
University District
The Oak
Rich Smith writes, "If the aims of the toddy are to comfort, medicate, and numb, the Acorn Toddy at Oak takes that last charge the most seriously. Bartenders make this clean but kind of syrupy winter warmer with Old Crow, amaro (a citrusy and herby liqueur), agave, and a fresh lemon with four cloves in it. It lacks the spicy notes normally provided by a cinnamon stick, but it doesn't lack authority. Two of these would have me reaching for my blanket and falling asleep on the big oak bar."
Beacon Hill
Oliver's Lounge
This downtown cocktail bar, which Charles Mudede says he "can never get enough of," is serving hot buttered rum and eggnog. Order a cup and stare out the huge windows, which are perfect for people-watching.
Downtown
Pie Bar
You'll find a "hot and spiked" menu at the Ballard location of this bar serving up pie and cocktails, including "Cascades coffee" (coffee with hazelnut espresso vodka and Irish cream), classic Irish coffee, a "filthy chai" spiked with bourbon, a "hot schnocolate" with peppermint schnapps, a rum hot toddy, and a "butter baby" hot cocoa with butterscotch schnapps and whipped cream. Similarly, at its Capitol Hill counterpart, there's a "Warm and Fuzzies" menu with a "Burning Apron" (Irish coffee), "Butter Baby" (butterscotch schnapps hot cocoa), "Hot Pie Toddy" (a toddy with apple moonshine), "Peppermint Heat" (peppermint schnapps hot chocolate), and a "Hot Bottom" (coffee with Frangelico, vanilla vodka, and whipped cream). All would go great with a flaky, golden slice of pie.
Ballard and Capitol Hill
Rumba
This Capitol Hill cocktail den knows rum, so you can trust that their Coquito (a Puerto Rican drink with rum, coconut milk, and spices), hot buttered rum, and "Warm Bodies" (a hot version of a Zombie, with Plantation Stiggins Fancy Rum, passionfruit, lime, curaçao, cinnamon, and bitters) are made with the good stuff.
Capitol Hill
Parfait
This adorable "farm-to-table ice creamery" sells their craft eggnog in fetching swing-top bottles, available both at their Ballard location and at Heritage Distilling Company tasting rooms.
Ballard
Prost!
Every Tuesday in December, you can visit West Seattle's German pub and experience the fiery theatrics of a feuerzangenbowle—a traditional German drink in which a rum-soaked sugar cone is set aflame and drips into Glühwein (mulled red wine).
West Seattle
Rachel's Ginger Beer
Cozy up with a mug of the assertive, punchy ginger ale in a hot toddy, spiked with whiskey and topped with star anise. Order the seasonal honeycrisp flavor for added fall vibes.
Various locations
Rob Roy
As has become a yearly tradition, Rob Roy is hosting the kitsch-tastic holiday cocktail pop-up Miracle on 2nd. You'll definitely make the naughty list with the Bad Santa cocktail, complete with rum, black chai, date-infused oat milk, vanilla, and nutmeg.
Belltown
Rock Creek Seafood & Spirits
Sip aged eggnog with bourbon, rum, and cognac at this Fremont bar and restaurant.
Fremont
Rose Temple
The Capitol Hill hangout has gotten festive with their own house-made barrel-aged eggnog and hot buttered rum.
Capitol Hill
Terra Plata
According to a sign spotted outside, Tamara Murphy's celebrated "earth-to-plate" restaurant is currently pouring house-made eggnog.
Capitol Hill
Skål Beer Hall
Embrace the hygge lifestyle with some steaming cups of gløgg (Nordic mulled wine, in this case made with a red blend from Walla Walla winery Gård, Linie Norwegian cask-matured aquavit, holiday spices, orange, apple, and raisins) at Ballard's Viking-influenced Scandinavian watering hole.
Ballard
Smith Tower
The skyscraper's bar has introduced a "Naughty and Nice" cocktail menu with heated drinks like the Chartreuse Mocha (green Chartreuse, hot cocoa, coffee and whipped cream), Cachaça Toddy (a Brazilian take on the hot toddy with Novo Fogo Cachaça, lime, ginger, honey, and allspice dram), and house-made eggnog with spiced rum, cognac, amontillado sherry, and freshly grated nutmeg.
Pioneer Square
Sol Liquor Lounge
Sadly, Sun Liquor's cult-favorite aged eggnog won't be available for retail this year. However, all is not lost: They'll be selling their 2019 Holiday Spirit Blend, the same mixture of bourbon, American single-malt whiskey, aged rum, and apple brandy used to make their classic eggnog, at Metropolitan Market locations so you can mix it into nog yourself, and Sol Liquor Lounge will have limited quantities of aged eggnog available by the glass from December 20-25.
Capitol Hill
Stellar Pizza
The retro Georgetown pizzeria Stellar Pizza has a whole menu of winter warmers, including hot buttered rum made with Sailor Jerry's, "elf glugg" with Tullamore D.E.W. Irish whiskey and hot apple cider, "hot apple pie" with Tuaca vanilla citrus liqueur and hot apple cider topped with whipped cream, and Peppermint Valley 101, a hot chocolate with Ice 101 Proof Peppermint Schnapps and whipped cream.
Georgetown
Vinnie's Raw Bar
This year, Belltown-based Vinnie's Raw Bar is playing host to Sippin' Santa, a holiday-tiki-themed Miracle on 2nd spinoff that invites you to "imagine Santa on a surfboard instead of a sleigh and palm trees instead of pine." All the cocktails are just as tropical and festive as you'd expect, but if you're looking for something hot, go for the Don & Victor, which combines Martinique and Jamaican rums, Italian bitter aperitif, sweet vermouth, and creamy D&V batter and is topped with a sprinkle of freshly grated nutmeg.
Belltown
Watershed Pub & Kitchen
Northgate's pub has gone all out with their holiday cocktail list, which includes hot buttered rum, a hot toddy, spiced cider, brown sugar bourbon hot chocolate, Ghiradelli hot cocoa with peppermint-cinnamon schnapps, a non-alcoholic toddy, and even a "Festive AF" cocktail (with candy cane-infused vodka, eggnog, cream and Bedford's ginger beer with a crushed candy cane rim and its very own felt "tree skirt").
North Seattle
