The Place:
Paratii Craft Bar, 5463 Leary Ave. N.W., 420-7406, BALLARDThe Hours: Monday-Saturday, 5-7 p.m., and all day on Sunday (that’s 5-10 p.m.)The Deal: Your cheapest drinking option during happy hour is the draft beer–each day, one featured selection is on special for $3 (on my day it was a seasonally appropriate light and citrusy Fremont Summer Solstice pale ale). Beyond the beer, house wines are $4 a glass and five cocktails are $7 each. That reduced-price list unfortunately doesn’t include this Brazilian-themed bar’s best-named drink, the Gisele, but it does feature the national cocktail of Brazil, the caipirinha, a tart mixture of cachaca (sugar-cane rum), lime, and sugar. Food-wise, there’s a nice selection of small bites for $3 that keep with the South American theme (the head chef is Brazilian), like misto quente, savory sliders of ham, melted cheese, and a relish of tomato, onion, and thyme atop baguette slices; yucca fries, crispy, starchy logs (like a creamier potato) seasoned with Syrian pepper salt; and for $2, charred bread with a dish of Sam’s chili sauce, a secret recipe concocted from five different Brazilian peppers, so hot it caused one of my companions to exclaim, “Holy shit! It’s coming out my nose!”The Digs: Paratii’s only been open for about three months, occupying the space once held by Mr. Spot’s Chai House. Some aspects of the decor and ambience reflect the bar’s Brazilian theme–seashells on the tables, a colorful tropical painting stretched across one wall, a birdcage hanging in the front with what looked like a piranha inside; others, not so much–Alanis Morissette and Adele playing on the stereo, a globe of the world inexplicably hung upside down from the ceiling. So, some more structured redecorating might be in order. (My idea is hanging the ceiling with a canopy of vines and toucans, a la Rainforest Cafe. And maybe some more of those fake piranhas. The jungle-ier, the better.)Decorating confusions aside, Paratii’s a super-pleasant place to drink and eat. It’s bright and clean, our bartender was beyond cheerful and accommodating, and if you’re looking for something livelier than an afternoon happy hour, on Monday and Thursday nights they have live jazz and Brazilian music (as evidenced by the piano sitting in one corner). The Verdict: Hopefully Paratii does liven up and end up sticking around. Ballard’s got enough dives, and a classy specialty bar like Paratii deserves a place in the neighborhood. The food is delicious, and if you need further reason to visit, Paratii makes their own liquor infusions–our bartender, the gentlemanly Shattuck, whipped me up a mouthwatering concoction of pineapple juice, cream of coconut, lime juice, and homemade banana rum–which smells and tastes like freshly baked banana bread. We also tasted a Cumari pepper gin, a shot so spicy that another of my companions described the feeling as “a thousand miniature mice stabbing my throat with swords.” Now that’s a drinking experience. Follow Voracious on Twitter and Facebook.
