Nightlife

It's true that Seattleites spend much of their free time enjoying the city's natural surroundings, but that doesn't mean they overlook the more cultured evening pursuits. In fact, the winter weather that keeps people indoors, combined with a longtime desire to be the cultural mecca of the Northwest, has fueled a surprisingly active and diverse nightlife scene. Music lovers will find a plethora of classical, jazz, and rock offerings. The Seattle Opera is ranked one of the top companies in the country, and its stagings of Wagner's Ring series have achieved near-legendary status. The Seattle Symphony also receives frequent accolades. Likewise, the Seattle Repertory Theatre has won Tony awards for its productions, and a thriving fringe theater scene keeps the city's lovers of avant-garde theater contentedly discoursing in cafes and bars about the latest hysterical or thought-provoking performances.

Much of Seattle's evening entertainment scene is clustered in the Seattle Center and Pioneer Square areas. The former hosts theater, opera, and classical-music performances; the latter is a bar-and-nightclub district. Other concentrations of nightclubs can be found in Belltown, where crowds of the young and hip flock to the neighborhood's many trendy clubs, and in Capitol Hill, with its ultracool gay scene. Ballard, formerly a Scandinavian enclave in North Seattle, attracts a primarily middle-class, not-too-hip, not-too-old crowd, including lots of college students and techies. It's not the hipster Belltown scene, it's not the PBR-swilling blues scene of Pioneer Square, and it's not the sleek gay scene of Capitol Hill. It's just a comfortable neighborhood nightlife scene.

While winter is a time to enjoy the performing arts, summer brings an array of outdoor festivals. These take place during daylight hours as much as they do after dark.

To find out what's going on when you're in town, pick up a free copy of Seattle Weekly (www.seattleweekly.com), Seattle's arts-and-entertainment newspaper. You'll find it in bookstores, convenience stores, grocery stores, newsstands, and newspaper boxes around downtown and other neighborhoods. On Friday the Seattle Times includes a section called "Ticket," a guide to the week's arts-and-entertainment offerings.

Bowled Over in Seattle -- A hip bowling alley? Why not? Up on Capitol Hill, you can do a little bowling, shoot some pool, and take in the hipster scene at Garage, 1130/1134 Broadway (tel. 206/322-2296; www.garagebilliards.com). When the weather gets warm, the garage doors roll up to let in the fresh air. Definitely not your small-town bowling alley.

The Club & Music Scene

Whether you want to hear a live band, hang out in a good old-fashioned bar, or dance, Pioneer Square is the best place to start. Keep in mind that this neighborhood tends to attract a very rowdy crowd (lots of frat boys) and can be pretty rough late at night.

Belltown, north of Pike Place Market, is another good place to club-hop. Clubs here are way more style-conscious than those in Pioneer Square and tend to attract 20- and 30-something trendsetters.

Seattle's other main nightlife district is the formerly Scandinavian neighborhood of Ballard, where you'll find more than a half dozen nightlife establishments, including taverns, bars, and live-music clubs.

Capitol Hill, a few blocks uphill from downtown Seattle, is the city's main gay nightlife neighborhood, with much of the action centered on the corner of East Madison Street and 15th Avenue East.

Easy Listening -- Some of the best music to be heard around Seattle isn't played in nightclubs; it's played in restaurants. Many of the city's restaurants feature live music on the slower nights of the week or after the dinner business quiets down. The music played in such restaurants tends to be less obtrusive and more low-key than in nightclubs, and is often instrumental or acoustic. On a foray around the Pike Place Market area, you might encounter bossa nova, Django Reinhardt-style gypsy jazz, or Irish music.

Some of my favorite places to catch live music include Café Campagne, 1600 Post Alley (tel. 206/728-2233); Wasabi Bistro, 2311 Second Ave. (tel. 206/441-6044); The Pink Door, 1919 Post Alley (tel. 206/443-3241); Le Pichet, 1933 First Ave. (tel. 206/256-1499); and Serafina, 2043 Eastlake Ave. E. (tel. 206/323-0807).

Pioneer Square -- The Pioneer Square area is Seattle's main live-music neighborhood, and the clubs have banded together on Friday and Saturday nights to make things easy for music fans. The Pioneer Square Club Stamp plan lets you pay one admission to get into six clubs. The charge is $10. Participating clubs currently include The Central Saloon, the Last Supper Club, the New Orleans Creole Restaurant, Tiki Bob's, Fuel, and the J & M Cafe. Most of these clubs are short on style and hit-or-miss when it comes to music (which makes the joint cover a great way to find out where the good music is on any given night).

So Who Needs Cirque du Soleil, Anyway? -- Visiting Seattle without seeing this show would be like going to Las Vegas without seeing Cirque du Soleil. According to Teatro ZinZanni, 22 Mercer Street (tel. 206/802-0015; www.zinzanni.com), a European-style cabaret of the highest order, circus acts aimed at the upper crust should be accompanied by gourmet cuisine. Staged in a classic spiegeltent (mirror tent) imported from Belgium, this evening of comedy, dance, theater, and fine food (catered by Seattle's celeb chef Tom Douglas) offers clowns, acrobats, illusionists, and cabaret singers. In fact, there's more entertainment packed into a night at Teatro ZinZanni than anywhere else in Seattle. Tickets are $104 Sunday and Wednesday through Friday and $120 on Saturday (premium seating, $125 Sun and Wed-Fri and $155 Sat). Reserve well in advance!

The Gay & Lesbian Scene

Capitol Hill is Seattle's main gay neighborhood; consequently, it has the city's greatest concentration of gay and lesbian bars and clubs. Look for the readily available Seattle Gay News (tel. 206/324-4297; www.sgn.org), in which many of the city's gay bars and nightclubs advertise.

Movies

Summertime in the Fremont neighborhood always means Fremont Outdoor Movies (tel. 206/781-4230; www.fremontoutdoormovies.com), a series that features modern classics, B movies (sometimes with live overdubbing by a local improv comedy company), and indie shorts. Films are screened on Saturday nights in the parking lot at North 35th Street and Phinney Avenue North. The parking lot opens at 7:30pm; there is a $5 suggested donation.

There are also summer outdoor movies shown in the newly designated South Lake Union neighborhood, which is basically a huge mixed-use development being created by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. The Cinema on the Lawn (tel. 206/342-5900; cinemaonthelawn.com) series is held in July and August on the lawn beside the South Lake Union Discovery Center at Denny Way and Westlake Avenue. There's live music before the movies, so try to arrive before dark.

Want to sip a martini while you watch the latest indie film hit? Find out what's playing at Belltown's Big Picture Seattle, 2505 First Ave. (tel. 206/256-0566; www.thebigpicture.net). This little basement theater below El Gaucho steakhouse is the coolest little theater in the city and a favorite of fans of indie films.

Only in Seattle

While Seattle has plenty to offer in the way of performing arts, some of the city's best after-dark offerings have nothing to do with the music. There's no better way to start the evening (that is, if the day has been sunny or only partly cloudy) than to catch the sunset from the waterfront. The Bell Street Pier and Myrtle Edwards Park are two of the best and least commercial vantages for taking in nature's evening light show. Keep in mind that sunset can come as late as 10pm in the middle of summer.

Want the best view of the city lights? Hold off on your elevator ride to the top of the Space Needle until after dark. Alternatively, you can hop a ferry and sail off into the night.

Want to learn to dance? Up on Capitol Hill the sidewalk along Broadway is inlaid with brass dance steps. Spend an evening strolling the strip and you and your partner can teach yourselves classic dance steps in between noshing on a piroshki and savoring a chocolate torte.