ART Restaurant's Nightly Lounge Food Spread

​This is the time of year to meet family and friends downtown for post-shopping cocktails and pre-symphony festive cheer. In my family, that meant hotel bars: The Drake, The Palmer House, the Four Seasons, some place that made dressed up us feel like we were somewhere besides Chicago.

ART's lounge in the Four Seasons (99 Union Street) doesn't feel like Seattle, even if the view of ferries on the Puget Sound reminds you from just about every seat in the place. It feels intercontinental somehow, due to the little details such as superiorly dressed cocktail waitresses and a dangerous level of ecru tones that battle with that Seattle gray outside.

Every day from 4:30pm to 10:00pm, the counters of ART's lounge are given over to a selection of tapas and cheeses, both of which are all you can eat. But I wouldn't call it a buffet. No heaping scoops or steam tables are involved in this scenario.

On Thursdays, the tapas menu changes, with six different dishes provided by as many cooks. $14 per person buys you an unlimited number of trips for tapas. Crab with bitter greens and chicories and gorgonzola dolce with walnuts were among recent choices. For $12 a guest, you can make as many trips to the cheese table as you like, and $20 gets you access to both. The cheese presentation includes many high-end selections like Humboldt Fog, and plenty of each at that. It's presented more like what you might see at a gala event as opposed to the pre-sliced, cubed, or stingy portions you get at wine tastings or in a green room.

The savvy drinker can combine this deal with ART's Sunday through Thursday $5 happy hour (5:00-7:00pm) and get a $5 Aviation cocktail or lovely glass of wine to go with it. Recent choices included K Vintners' "The Velvet Devil" Merlot.

I avoid the word buffet on purpose, because nothing about the setup reminds you of a buffet, even though it is a buffet. In fact, the hotel has done such a good job presenting these items, you might start referring to yourself in the first person plural, until your greedily hoarded mound of cheese falls on to your last season's H&M Miu Miu knock-off and you remember you're last name ain't exactly Astor.

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE: This Thursday and next , December 10th and 17th, from 5:00-9:00pm, ART will also include a chocolate bar to go along with the tapas and cheese. For $15 per person (children 6-12 only $7!), you have unlimited access to chocolate fondue, mini milk shakes, chocolate covered marshmallows, chocolate doughnuts, panna cotta, chocolate dipped fruits, and more. The booty ranges from bite-sized to personal-sized desserts.

(ART Restaurant & Lounge in the Four Seasons, 99 Union St., 749-7070)