Happy-hour: A mix master finds a home at Bellevue's Chantanee

Happy Hour |

Make the cocktail rounds around Seattle, and you'd see Andrew Bohrer behind the bar.

There he was at the cocktail mecca Vessel in downtown Seattle, making happy-hour Manhattans. Then the next night at Liberty in Capitol Hill, subbing for a sick bartender. And yeah, that was Bohrer, in the same week, cracking eggs to make Pisco Sours at ToSt in Fremont.

The "hired sword," as he calls himself, now gets to run his own cocktail bar, and it's a good one: Chantanee Thai Restaurant and Naga Cocktail Lounge in Bellevue, which opened in late February, has the potential to be the premiere cocktail den on the Eastside.

The cocktail list, classic and eclectic, features obscure drinks dating back to the 1800s, such as L'Aurore, similar to a martini. There's a splendid, rich dessert cocktail, the Betsy Ross, made with a raw egg in a port and cognac base. There's also the showy Blue Blazer, which in making, Bohrer sends a streak of flames from one mug to another. He also handcarves baseball shaped-ice for scotch drinks.

Chantanee, if you haven't figured it out, is a paradise for cocktail geeks.

It also serves bar food with a Southeast Asian bent, such as the $7 minced duck satays — essentially meatballs on lemon-grass skewers. Tasty, but at $5-$9, it's doubtful that anyone would consider these noshes happy-hour bargains. The best value: A plate of Asian pork sausage and crispy pork short ribs for $6.

Soon, Bohrer will introduce original and contemporary cocktails to the menu, including a bacon-infused bourbon whiskey with hickory-smoked pecan syrup.

Chantanee, at 601 108th Ave. N.E., Suite 100, in Bellevue, offers happy hour 3-6 p.m. every day, with $3 off bar food, classic cocktails and absinthe drinks, and $2 off draft beers and house wines (425-455-3226 or www.chantanee.com).

Tan Vinh: 206-515-5656 or tvinh@seattletimes.com