Nobody can argue that Canon makes the best cocktails in town. After booking an online reservation and putting down a $25-per-person deposit, you’re in for an experience that feels like a trip to Willy Wonka’s Factory—only there are no irritating children, and you’re sampling outstanding drinks instead of candy that alters your chemical makeup. The space is also impressive—it has one of the best Secret Patios in town.

Between the phenomenal cocktails, friendly bartenders, and palpable big-night-out energy, we’ve never met a bar that we wanted to make “our bar” more than Daphnes in Edmonds. For a spot that seats around 15 people, there’s always something exciting happening here. On a Friday evening, it’s a cramped sardine tin party, with “Volare” blasting while couples who can’t fit inside drink negronis and dance on the sidewalk patio.

While everyone at Phở Bắc’s newest Downtown location is slurping phở under stark fluorescent lighting, there’s a speakeasy upstairs where you should head post-soup. Phởcific Standard Time serves phenomenal cocktails with Vietnamese twists at a small four-sided counter. We love every last one of these drinks, from the Dua Dừa featuring rum, absinthe, coconut milk, lime, and basil seed to our current favorite cocktail in Seattle: the Cà Phê Tini, an iced coffee-inspired martini.

Left Bank is the best place to drink natural wine in Seattle. The space feels like your super chill friend’s basement that’s filled with sofa cushions, dangling lightbulbs, a record player, and a ton of reasonably-priced wine bottles hanging on the wall for sale. Anything they pour is funky, interesting, and comes with a fun description from the friendly owner. If you want to sit back with a glass of something unfiltered, orange, or both, make this your new home.

If Left Bank is your mellow friend’s basement project, Bottlehouse is your most sophisticated acquaintance’s elegant garden party. It’s a wine bar in a retrofitted home in Madrona, complete with a porch and a backyard patio where you’ll find us permanently stationed in the summer. Everyone should be able to find something to drink here—from some Bolivian syrah to grenache blanc made in Walla Walla.

If you’re looking for a serotonin rush without having to snuggle a puppy, just spend some hours out on Dreamland Bar & Diner’s balcony patio, a.k.a. Carnelian Bay. The whimsical space-galaxy-jungle-grotto surroundings make this bar feel like a hazy movie mashup of Jurassic Park, Alien, and Xanadu in the best way possible. There are $99 large-batch margaritas served in disco balls alongside salty pucker powder-rimmed glasses, frozen grasshopper slushies, and Jell-O shots.

Peel back the curtains on this unmarked door on Pike to reveal a bar with psychedelic wallpaper, a disco ball, gold tchotchkes, and lots of tropical cocktails. You can’t help but feel like you should be carrying out some kind of secret agent mission, only you’re not trapped in a spy movie dream sequence—you’re drinking alcohol and eating cheeseburger bao at Foreign National. Bring somebody you’re trying to impress here and order some excellent drinks and snacks.

If your out-of-town guests insist on going to Pike Place Market, make sure you hit up JarrBar after. It’s pretty close to the market and is a fantastic spot to drink outstanding cocktails and momentarily escape the Downtown chaos. It also works if you’re looking to drink and have a light bite all by yourself—order a couple of Spanish gin and tonics and the salmon rillettes with crostini. For everything annoying about the market, JarrBar is the place to get away from it all.

There’s a bar in West Seattle that has skee-ball, karaoke, pinball, tiki drinks, and Chinese food. It might seem impossible for all of those things to work under one roof, but New Luck Toy pulls it off. If you’re just here to drink and sing karaoke in the private room up front, the alcoholic slushies are delicious—the flavors include frozen prickly pear margarita and Frangelico pina coladas. If you’re hungry, they have a whole menu of delicious Chinese food.

The Nook is an impressive cocktail spot that’s disguised as a low-key neighborhood bar. Complete with a mismatched assortment of vintage living room sofas, a fireplace, and extremely friendly bartenders, you’ll find drinks like champagne spritzes, white negronis, and mules topped with torched marshmallows and rosemary.