The U District’s New Rooftop Bar Serves Sweeping Views and Seafood

The former Hotel Deca, which recently reopened after an extensive renovation as the Graduate Seattle hotel, adds its striking rooftop bar today, Mountaineering Club. The bar’s indoor and outdoor seating areas boast unimpeded views of the city and the mountains from the perch in the University District.

Suzi Pratt for Eater

Suzi Pratt for Eater

Inside, the bar sports Pacific Northwest-themed decor, with flannel plaid fabrics, mountaineering books, vintage tufted sofas, potted plants, an underbar with abstractions of the Seattle skyline, mountaineering journals from the 1930s, and antique snowshoes. The bar is an homage to Edmond Meany, a University of Washington graduate, journalist, and state legislator who served as president of the outdoors nonprofit, the Mountaineers.

Suzi Pratt

Suzi Pratt for Eater

The bar serves a seafood-leaning menu with bites like raw and cooked oysters; clam chowder; a can of Loki salmon with avocado smear and toast; shrimp gumbo; and a seafood boil with shrimp, clams, corn, potato, sausage, remoulade, and bread. Non-seafood items include a chicken melt and a marinated zucchini sandwich with spicy tomato and burrata on sourdough. There’s also a self-contained s’mores making kit, presented in a coal tin, for outdoor consumption.

The Northwest-leaning cocktail list has nine originals, including the Palouse is Loose, with cognac, Campfire whiskey, salted barley malt, apricot, coconut, and toasted pecan bitters; and the Hot Grasshopper, which consists of gin, crème de menthe, white cacao, allspice dram, cream, and mini marshmallows.

Suzi Pratt for Eater

In addition to Mountaineering Club, the hotel has an all-day cafe called Poindexter and a still-to-come spot called Genghis Cohen, a Los Angeles-based, New York-style Chinese restaurant and music venue. Crispy egg rolls, turkey dumplings, and ginger chicken are among the standouts at the famed spot, which should be ready by late 2019. The three dining options are the work of respected Los Angeles restaurateurs Marc Rose and Med Abrous, who also own respected cocktail bar, The Spare Room, and Winsome, which was named one of Bon Appetit’s Best New Restaurants in 2016.

• Revamped U District Hotel Is Bringing In Big Food Names from Los Angeles [ESEA]
• Graduate Seattle [Official]
• Mountaineering Club [Official]
• All Coverage of Mountaineering Club [ESEA]