Hosting a range of consistently high quality cabaret-style shows including vintage jazz, tango, theatrical-leaning rock music, and even trapeze, The Pink Door is as much an Actual Restaurant as it is a performance venue. They’ve been featuring menus of carefully sourced local and seasonal produce since 1981, well before that approach was fashionable. The lasagna here is a definite star, made with fresh spinach pasta and topped with a veritable Italian flag of pesto, béchamel, and marinara. It’s decidedly not like nonna’s, but it’s delicious nonetheless. For something lighter in the warmer months, the Everything Green salad is butter lettuce along with peas, fava beans, asparagus, and pistachios in a buttermilk tarragon dressing — a formidable Tuscan answer to Le Pichet’s famed salade verte.

Gently luxe with a large stage and table seating throughout the house, the venerable Triple Door is a classic Seattle nightclub. Wild Ginger handles the food side of the operation with a greatest-hits version of its eastern Pacific Rim-spanning menu. Beef rendang is satisfyingly heady with lemongrass, galangal, and coconut milk, the monk’s curry is abundant with tofu, eggplant, sweet potato, and daikon, and dry-fried sichuan green beans are a winner for something a bit lighter. The menu helpfully indicates which dishes are vegan and/or gluten-free.

A historic grunge venue in a historic grunge-y building, the Central Saloon used to be a place where the main sustenance option was Vitamin R. But now top barbecue joint Pecos Pit has set up shop within, offering sandwiches and snacky smaller plates. It’s a perfect pairing; the rough-hewn rockers, well-rehearsed metalheads, and timeless blues bands that play the Central are exactly what you want to be listening to while eating that signature Pecos brisket.

Like the Central Saloon, Slim’s is a place where the menu and the music feel thematically aligned. In this case, it’s rockabilly and chili. Now, chili can either be a haphazard collection of cans opened up and poured into a crock pot, or it can be a deeply warming, scratch-made stew that derives rich flavor from dried and fresh chilies, rendered fat, and patient reduction; a dish that takes time and real effort to make. Slim’s is bringing the latter, of course, and in four different varieties: There’s all-beef Texas Red for purists, a smoky brisket and red bean version, pork chile verde, and a much less Southern turkey and white bean chili, all served straight-up, or atop a choice of white cheddar grits or jalapeno mac and cheese. There’s no wrong answer there, but if you aren’t up for chili, the crawfish po’boy is an excellent alternative, and hot new sister restaurant Pig Iron Burger Shack is right next door.

Going strong since 1888, Jules Maes has been an essential venue for punky up-and-coming bands in more recent years, and new  owner Rache’ Purcell has expanded the scope since bringing back live events. Now Jules Maes also books Latin psychedelia, synth-wave, blues, metal, and Americana bands, and hosts trans social nights, brass and percussion jams, theatrical variety shows, standup comedy and more. And while at first glance the menu looks like standard bar food, the dynamite braised-then-fried pork shank and knockout beef stroganoff emphatically separate Jules Maes from the burgers-and-tots pack. Doesn’t have to be haute to be good.