Social Scene Brewing

A tiny place with a big selection of top-notch beers as well as wines, Joe Bar is actually a coffee house that serves crepes, too. The bar is just one of a collection of Seattle-area spots where you can find your favorite brew, whether its beer or coffee. Here, Brandin Myett enjoys a third alternative, wine, while he reads. (Jim Bates | The Seattle Times)

TAKE AWAY MY cynic's license if you must, but I like Starbucks, especially the big one on Olive Way when it's buzzing at 11 p.m. More than their actual shops, though, I admire the company's effect on the local coffee ecosystem. If you want to compete with the Mermaid, you have to be different. Top Pot makes its own doughnuts (which are admittedly now served at area Starbucks). Coffee Messiah cultivates a stick-it-to-the-man aesthetic. Hines Public Market Coffee and Espresso Vivace serve better coffee.

But a number of local coffeehouses have hit on an easy way to set themselves apart: Sell beer.

In fact, I'm sitting and drinking a beer right now. A really good beer. La Fin du Monde, from the Unibroue brewery in Quebec. It's 9 percent alcohol (the average beer is 5.5 percent), so I'm feeling a little giddy.

I'm at Joe Bar, at 810 E. Roy St., across the street from the Harvard Exit Theater on Capitol Hill. Despite the name, Joe Bar is not a bar, and that's why I'm here. They look at you funny when you pull out your laptop computer at a tavern, which is just one reason I can't stand bars. There's the smoke (I rank smokers' rights up there with the rights of nun-slappers and public urinators). The darkness. The noise.

I realize these are all reasons that people like going to bars, and I don't begrudge them that. As a music fan, I spend a fair amount of time in bars. If Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, the world's best live band, are in town, I'm not going to miss out just because they're playing at a hot and smoky dive.

But I can't be the only person in town who really enjoys going out for a drink, who finds himself a bit more social after a beer or two, but doesn't like bars. That's why I'm delighted to find more and more coffeehouses serving beer. There are no more convivial beverages in the world than coffee and beer; why shouldn't they be drunk around the same table?

Here at Joe Bar, the beer selection rivals half the bars in town. In addition to La Fin du Monde, there's Unibroue's Maudite, a little darker and sweeter than La Fin; Reinart Wild Ale, Hoegaarden from Belgium, Elysian Field and Bitburger, as well as entry-level brews such as Red Stripe and Bud (bottles run $2.50 to $5). And Joe Bar serves crepes. Along with my Belgian-style brew, I polished off a lemon-sugar crepe. I probably could have had the same at a restaurant, but it would have cost more than $6.50 total, and they might have grown annoyed as I occupied valuable real estate with my laptop for a couple of hours. Instead, I'm sitting at the edge of the balcony and watching a group of young women and men teaching themselves to knit. Apparently knitting is a hip thing these days; maybe if I wait around long enough, something I like to do will inexplicably become cool.

"Joe Bar is about things that I like," says owner Wylie Bush. "Beer and wine are two things that I like a lot, and this was also a great way for me to learn about them."

It will not surprise you to learn that no Starbucks locations serve beer, and a spokeswoman chuckled when I suggested it. In addition to Joe Bar (206-324-0407), here are a few of my favorite coffeehouses that have succumbed to the lure of Demon Rum:

Solstice (U District, 4116 University Way N.E., 206-675-0850). This is your scruffy antidote to frat-boy bars like Big Time Brewery. Students and student-wannabes (I plead guilty) camp out here for hours nursing Elysian IPA on tap ($3.75) and Rogue Dead Guy Ale from bottles ($5).

Mr. Spot's Chai House (Ballard, 5463 Leary Ave. N.W., 206-297-2424). Better known for hippie vibe, live music and chai drinks, its customers clamored for beer and Mr. Spot (actually impresario Victor Trey) responded with Pike Kilt Lifter, Obsidian Stout, Maritime Pacific Old Seattle Lager and Mirror Pond Pale Ale on tap (16-ounce $3.50).

El Diablo Coffee Company (1811 Queen Anne Ave. N., Suite 101, 206-285-0693). A brightly-painted Cuban coffee joint, it has a small assortment of Mexican and Caribbean beers (Dos Equis, Red Stripe, and so on, $3) but an ambitious wine list; I couldn't resist a glass of Yalumba Clocktower Port from Australia ($4) and a slice of white and dark chocolate mousse cake ($4).

Cherry Street Coffeehouse (Belltown, 2121 First Ave., 206-441-7176). This is a quintessentially Belltown spot, colorful and quirky, with huge window seats. They serve Persian food at night, and serve both Sierra Nevada and Heineken for $3.50.

Zeitgeist (Pioneer Square, 171 S. Jackson St., 206-583-0497). The high-ceilinged gathering spot is among the most striking coffeehouses in town, which is probably why I didn't even notice when they added beer and wine some months ago. "If you go to a coffeeshop or a cafe in Europe, they have coffee and tea, beer and wine, and they're combined in a way you don't see here," says co-owner Bryan Yeck, who bridges the gap with a rotating cast of beers including Orval ($5.25) and Warsteiner ($3.25). Wine by the glass is also notably inexpensive at $4.25.

Now, if I'm going to join that knitting circle, I'll need fortification. Barista, bring me another beer.

Matthew Amster-Burton is a Seattle freelance writer. Jim Bates is a Seattle Times staff photographer.