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On the eve of midterm elections, Crow's more media-saturated neighbor Nabob was packed high with eye-rollers and shit-talkers raising their blood temperatures over their country's inevitable slide into some nightmare Libertarian abyss. Of course, this only optimized the subdued warmth of Crow from my favorite Election Day activity -- getting smashed by myself and cloistering up against any possibility of idle chit-chat about the lumbering, impotent beast we call American politics.

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This week, Whiskey Wednesday followed Shane Sahr's trail of cocktail contest victories back to his home base of Tini Big's. All but straddling the border of Lower Queen Anne and Downtown Seattle, the cocktail bar doesn't quite have much to offer when it comes to food (something I'm told will be remedied in the very near future), but more than makes up for it with a literal book full of tasty drinks.

I started off with The Deshler, an orange-heavy whiskey cocktail with Dubonnet and Peychaud's bitters. It was a competently made classic featured in most respectable bar books -- but tonight, I was far more interested in the award-winning ingenuity of Sahr than another history lesson. Once I had his attention, he was extremely enthusiastic to show me some of the more novel attractions he'd been working on behind the bar.

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Sarah Anne Lloyd, 2010.

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Fresh off his victory at the Tilth-sponsored Organic Cocktail Contest, Tini Big's Shane Sahr came in first place this Monday at the Second Annual Esquire/Woodford Reserve Manhattan Shake-Off against five other local competitors. As per the rules of the contest, Shane Sahr will soon go on to the national finals to crown the year's "Master of the Manhattan" in Smyrna, Delaware (wait, no -- Manhattan, New York).

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Georgetown Liquor Company, despite the name, gets most of its positive reputation for delicious vegetarian fare and enough vintage video games to qualify the bar as a small museum. Behind the counter, Atari, Nintendo and Super Nintendo video games are available to check out and play on the bar's endearingly ancient monitors while hopefully getting sloppy enough to get your 'tween 8-bit edge back.

On Airport Way and Lucille Street, of course you're going to hear the trains. But a good old fashioned spurt of industrial transport might just be what most Seattle dives need -- the occasional lacuna of locomotion that breaks up the hackneyed drunken tirades about Glee you've been rehearsing throughout your work day.

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The Bookstore Bar and Cafe (A.K.A. The Bookstore, A Bar; A.K.A. the hotel bar of the fabulous Alexis) is probably most colloquially known for neither selling books nor storing a large amount of them. Then again, compared to the dire hosiery selection at Knee High Stocking Company, you can't really be hold that against The Bookstore.

Being connected to the Alexis means alot of finicky tourist traffic that has no idea what they want, but insist that bartenders know their tastes by default. In response, The Bookstore has taken to offering a wide variety of frequently rotating scotch flights -- three half shots of selected premium liquors at a flat rate. This is also possibly the best way to manage the overwhelmingly huge whiskey selection which freely lines the counter (which turned out to be slightly treacherous as a clumsy handshake attempt across the bar illustrated).

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Vessel sits on 5th Avenue, Downtown Seattle's unofficial home of paying too much money for underwhelming or uninspired returns. Vessel may be in the same price range as its lackluster neighbors, but if there's anything I've learned from an adolescence of Old Crow and grocery store sour mix -- you get what you pay for when it comes to cocktails.

Vessel's upstairs area is a breathtaking design feat the likes of which a bar-glued lush like myself will never quite appreciate to its fullest -- but the bar's signature Vessel 75 cocktail is a showpiece I can get behind.

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Hidden from the pinball-crazy, knife-waving denizens of Belltown's peculiar stretch of 2nd Avenue lies Bathtub Gin & Co., two stories that first appear as the speakeasy theme which Seattlites who crave a delicious, innovative cocktail have more or less forced themselves to identify with. Although the bar is only accessible through an alleyway between 1st and 2nd Ave, Bathtub's faux-illegal pretenses are sidestepped by a service staff that dresses like they live in the 21st Century and a refreshingly hip library including coffee table books featuring Daniel Clowes and Banksy.

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Keith Allison, 2010.

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FX McRory's isn't the best steakhouse in Downtown Seattle. Its food can't stand up to the Metropolitan Grill, although its prices certainly attempt to. The Brooklyn Grill provides a calmer, homier ambience that doesn't feel like you've wandered into a combination Applebee's/Hard Rock Cafe. The location, right up alongside Safeco Field, is technically helpful for a pre-or-post-game dinner -- although keep in mind that swarms of tourists, sports fans and squealing children all have the same idea.

That said, this edition of Whiskey Wednesday wasn't going to be about reviewing confused sports bar aesthetics or shrivelled pieces of fried fish -- but rather FX McRory's humongous wall of booze. Claiming the "world's largest bourbon selection" and just beginning its featuring of the National Bourbon Heritage Month, McRory's could exclusively serve $120 dogmeat patties topped with cigarette ash and enriched uranium and I'd still have to feature it.

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Reed Kennedy, 2009.

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Hazlewood (Ballard, 2311 Market Street) is a cozy nook of a bar that's spelt just right no matter how many whiny Missourians will bark at you to the contrary. I was initially drawn to the bar by its eponymous cocktail, which is served with a Nat Sherman and a truffle.

The dessert and a smoke were a nice touch -- but they'd be even nicer if the bar's outside area wasn't as small as my bathroom. However, I will admit that it's quite the memorable experience trying to balance a stemmed cocktail glass, a lit cigarette and a small plate with a fancy dessert on it while standing outside in a light drizzle. The drink itself would regularly seem just an afterthought at this point, but a smooth mix of Irish whiskey, honey peppermint tea and Amaretto makes the act of consumption less of a trial and more of an amusing experience.

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Keith Allison, 2010.

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There have been two fairly gaping holes in the core of Whiskey Wednesday since its inception, made not strictly out of personal distaste, but more out of predictability. The first of those is Belltown's Whisky Bar (notice the spelling), a venue I've received more inquisitive e-mails about than any other aspect of this column. The second is the Manhattan, one of the most universally recognizable cocktails that makes up the Holy Hexology of Mixology as insinuated by David Embury in the classic bartending guide The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks. Joining the Martini, the Old Fashioned, the Daiquiri, the Sidecar, and the Jack Rose, the Manhattan is a time-tested drink that any bartender worth their salt (or whatever preferred garnish) knows like the back of their hand.

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