The Sitting Room
Bar · Lower Queen Anne ·
Creative cocktails, upscale crunchwraps, and a cozy European bistro vibe
Creative cocktails, upscale crunchwraps, and a cozy European bistro vibe
"Lower Queen Anne is loaded up with bars of all stripes, and new ones are springing up all the time, but very few are as hella chilled out to the degree that the Sitting Room achieves. This unassuming Euro-tinged lounge opened underneath On the Boards in 1998, in a weird elbow of LQA that you may not often find yourself in if you don’t have theater tickets. But the slight detour from the urban crush around Queen Anne Avenue and Mercer is so worth it. With a broad menu of Mexican food—including tacos, quesadillas, and their signature Crunchywrap [sic]—and a thoughtful, innovative drink list that changes often, it’s equal parts elegant cocktail lounge and kitschy neighborhood joint. It’s rarely packed too. A crucial hideout to know about when escaping from Climate Pledge crowds, Bumbershoot festival chaos, or just the rainy rain." - Meg van Huygen
"Look, they lay the kitsch on heavy at The Sitting Room, but! Each drink on the menu can easily hold its own, with or without all the cute trinkets and garnishes. This candlelit lounge manages to be at once sexy-intimate and super friendly, with jokey vibes and a chatty waitstaff. The extensive and elaborate cocktail list changes quarterly, and is liable to include enticing ingredients like, say, banana-infused tequila, coconut-washed calvados, smoked cinnamon, MSG, horchata foam, the list goes on... Their creative low- and no-ABV options are immaculate too. —Meg van Huygen" - Mark DeJoy
"On first glance, the moody lighting and slick Euro vibe at the Sitting Room belie owners Shaun and Marissa Pfeifer’s wacky, elaborate cocktails and deep love of kitsch. Open since 1998, the bar has a rep for a Christmastime tradition: X-treme Home Alone-ifying the whole place, decorating the walls with cut-out faces of Macauley Culkin, and naming drink specials after quotes from the movie. Outside of the holidays, it’s still a fun, comfy, and cozy neighborhood spot with a friendly crowd and menu of dippy appetizers and variations on Mexican dishes. (The kitchen serves both a Munchywrap AND a Crunchywrap. It’s up to you to discern the difference.)" - Meg van Huygen
"The Sitting Room is a dark Queen Anne bar where you can drink spritz and pop olives and truffled almonds like they’re M&Ms. The bartenders are friendly, and we could subsist for weeks on potato chips and their onion dip. The best part about this place is that you can have a few different types of nights here based on where you sit—there are soft sofas in the back, the bar feels like a library desk, and a row of candlelit tables would work for a date." - aimee rizzo
"This little watering hole in lower Queen Anne feels like a quiet, relaxed living room away from home; I can nestle into a couch with a book and sip a fig-infused old fashioned, and the place even gets extra points for playing the Keira Knightley adaptation of Pride and Prejudice on its big-screen TV during a recent visit — definitely no Monday Night Football here." - Andrew Engelson