Happy Hour |

Seattle Cocktail Week starts Thursday, honoring local bartenders and the cocktail renaissance. But who are we kidding? Bar hoppers will remember it as the biggest bar crawl ever, with 80 bars rolling out specialty cocktails and happy-hour specials Thursday through Sunday.

Organized by the Washington State Bartenders Guild, Cocktail Week was hastily put together for October partly because Portland and San Francisco also celebrated Cocktail Week earlier this month.

"We've had a lot of bars gain national recognition lately," said bar-guild president Andrew Friedman. "But we've never held a major event together to showcase and celebrate the cocktail scene like we do the culinary scene here."

In Seattle, the neighborhood bar crawl will be the big event, with specialty and discount drinks at many bars on the following nights:

• Thursday, in Ballard, Fremont and North Seattle

• Friday, in downtown, Belltown, First Hill and Queen Anne

• Saturday, on Capitol Hill and Eastlake

• The closing party takes place Sunday at Barrio on Capitol Hill (7 p.m. until closing).

The schedule is a loose format. Some bars will offer drink discounts throughout the week. Also, nine bars on the Eastside and The Company, a bar in White Center, will also offer discount drinks during the week.

Among the major events will be a breast-cancer-cure fundraiser at Rob Roy in Belltown Thursday (7-9 p.m.) with food truck Where Ya at Matt parked out front. This is being organized by the local chapter of — no joke — Ladies United for the Preservation of Endangered Cocktails. Some bars plan to hold cocktail and food pairings.

Several bars, including Zig Zag Café downtown and Fireside Cellar in Woodinville, are featuring barrel-aged cocktails.

Several bars will feature cocktails made from local booze. The craft distillery scene has exploded in the state, with 41 mom-and-pop distilleries, and 18 more applications pending.

There won't be another event this year where you'll see so many bars making such complex or high-end drinks for under $10. Some bars such as Barrio and Liberty will even offer $5 cocktails.

There's no official website, but a 100-page Cocktail Week booklet listing bars and their drink specials and other events will be available free at the 80 participating bars around town.

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