Barca

Have you ever gone to the gym and end up on a machine that no one uses? You kind of sit there in no rush, staring at self conscious people exercise. You often ask yourself existential questions like ‘why am I here?’ and ‘what is the point of this?’
Well, Barca feels similarly. I wouldn’t say this place is a bad bar. I wouldn’t say it’s fantastic either.
You know, I’ve been invited this bar multiple times, every year for the last four years and I still for the life of me can’t remember this place. It’s so basic. Repetitive. Carbon copy. Boring. Tia Lou’s. Flavorless. High fructose corn syrup.
Like your Grande Almond Chai Tea latte with whip. Predictable.

Really didn’t like the door people. One smelled like bagettes and one was TOO sexy.
But there’s this dope black guy, name Kenny make sure to flash gang symbols at that one. Also really didn’t appreciate the lack of pickles in my food/​drink.

Capitol Hill staple. Nice happy hour from 5 – 7 daily. Rotating drink specials in addition to the standard wells, beers, and wines by the glass. Thursdays feature live jazz from 9 to midnight with no cover charge. It’s always crowded (Thursdays especially), but don’t let that deter you from stopping by and having a drink and listening to some free music.

The line to Barca is never too long and there is no cover, so thumbs up to that!
Once you enter the bar, you are leaving the breezy outdoors to a warm and musky environment. It’s a great place to hang out with friends and they usually have a good music selection, however I believe I speak for a lot of people when I say there needs to be a cooler fan or air conditioning. They have two HUGE fans, but… my pits were still sweaty. Wah wah wah.
The bartenders are very nice and quick to assist guests. There are two floors and have a bar on each floor. No bad experiences with them thus far.
Like taking shots? Great. They give a generous amount.
Like hot drinks? Their hot toddy is awesome too.
Like jazz music? Stop by on Thursday! When barca is not full of people, they have a spacious first floor and you can get a great view of the jazz trio that play there.
Like a clean bathroom? They have them.
Barca is conveniently near other bars on 11^th and a preferred spot to hang out.

Barça is my happy place.
I only go to Barça on Thursdays, but really, I don’t see why you’d want to go on any other day. They have an excellent jazz trio that plays every Thursday from 9 – 12 with no cover. As if that wasn’t good enough, they also offer $ 10 bottles of wine on Thursdays.
The atmosphere is exactly what you want in a jazz bar: dark, warm, lots of candlelight and nooks to hide out in. The place looks sort of like a Spanish boudoir with its red velvet curtains, rod iron accents, and blown glass light fixtures. They have gigantic booths along one wall that can easily accommodate 6 – 8 people and a balcony (though it’s closed on Thursdays).
The service is great. The bartenders are always friendly, fast, and helpful, and the servers are prompt.
Walking into Barça on Thursday, ordering a bottle of red, finding a dark corner to hide in, and listening to some seriously great jazz is one of my favorite things right now. If you like jazz and want a chill, inexpensive place to indulge in it, Barça’s the place.

Came here for drinks with a couple of people for the first time. We intended to go to Grimms but wanted something more chill where we can carry a conversation.
Space: very large and open, plenty of seating upstairs and downstairs for large parties.
Drinks: Their mixed drinks are not very strong but their shots are extremely generous. If you want to get some strong drinks, I’d recommend getting shots or else you’re going to feel jipped. Their mixed drinks are pretty cheap though, so maybe you’re getting your moneys worth, I’ll leave that for you to decide.
HEAT: Let me just start off by saying, it was freaking HOT in there. They had 3 – 4 fans blowing air upstairs and I was STILL sweating. After a while, my entire group just couldn’t handle it and had to leave, we were all drenched in sweat and all we were doing was sitting down and chatting… They need to fix their A/​C pronto. Once they do, I’d probably bump them up one star but the other night was unbearable. I felt like I was in Asia.

So there’s this guy that works here. I don’t know his name. But he’s almost always there.
And he makes an amazing old-​fashioned.
Furthermore, Mondays are «all-​day happy hours,» and my boyfriend and I got my old-​fashioned and his beer for $ 11. As a New Yorker, this floored me. I’ve paid $ 15 alone for an OF. (Again, this is just Mondays. They have a different happy hour every day.)
They also have these massive booths that are super cozy. The seating is endless: in addition to the booths, there are tall tables, a mile of bar seating, and a second floor with tables overlooking the rest of the place.
The only reason I’m giving it four stars is that it has a slight divey feel to it… and I can’t tell if it’s intentional or not. It feels like it needs an update or something. I’m not sure what it is. It’s cozy but not particularly endearing.
But thank you, Mr. Bartender who makes me great old-​fashioneds.

If I could give negative stars I would. I went to Barca for the first time last night with a group of friends, and the visit was absolutely horrendous. Walking in we were immediately hit by a wave of hot stuffy air due to the lack of ventilation. While it was uncomfortable to be inside we were looking forward to getting drinks and we had already walked all the way there so we decided to stay. We immediately went to the bar to get drinks, and ended up standing in line for 20 minutes before one of us finally got to order. My friend comes here often and ordered one of their cocktails that she normally gets, but the bartender just told her «No.» When she asked him what he meant he told her he wasn’t going to make that, despite the fact that they are a cocktail bar and it was one of their house cocktails. Not to mention that a cocktail would be more expensive than a well drink, so it makes no sense to refuse to make the more expensive drink. My other friend then orders with no problem when this guy who had been sitting behind us the entire time we were waiting decides to get up to get another drink and cuts in front of me. I had been standing in line for over 20 minutes by now, so I’m really annoyed that this guy is going to go and skip the line. When the bartender comes back over I start ordering my drink so the guy who was trying to cut wouldn’t get the chance to order before me when the bartender gives me a dirty look and yells at me to stop. I was confused about why he’d be mad about me ordering so I asked what he meant. He then proceeded to angrily tell me that the guy was there first and he wasn’t going to allow me to order before him. I figured he just didn’t notice that the guy actually was the one to cut, so I told him that I had been waiting in line for 20 minutes and the guy had actually just cut in front of me. The bartender then starts going off on me by calling me a liar and cussing me out. That was absolutely disrespectful and uncalled for, so I said screw this and got out of line because there was absolutely no way that I would support a place that employs someone who treats customers like that. The rest of our group who were standing in line behind me also got out of line and refused to buy a drink after the incident too. The entire experience was completely appalling. While I thought that the lack of ventilation and the bartender refusing to make one of their house cocktails was bad, the way the bartender acted completely pushed the experience to horrendous. I don’t know how this place is able to stay in business when the bartender treats customers like trash. I absolutely will not be returning, and my group of friends said they won’t either after the way the bartender treated me. I recommend going to literally absolutely anywhere else instead of coming here.

Once you walk into the bar, you are slapped in the body/​face with warm air! The bar apparently does not believe in AC! They have fans but they basically circulate WARM/​HOT air to the whole bar! GROSS!!!
Despite the circulating warm air, the place is pretty good for hanging with friends. They have large table seatings upstairs.
Their moscow mule is pretty good. I just wish they had the drink in a copper cup! The drink would be better!
Prices for drinks are rather steep…*sad face*

Nice atmosphere and drinks. Good place to start the night. I think they’re drinks are a little less expensive than nearby bars. The space is also beautiful and usually quite crowded.

Might be an ok bar except it was hotter than hades. It ended our night sooner than we planned. So uncomfortable.

Security tried to fight a customer. For absolutely no reason. I’ve never been so embarrassed to bring friends to a Seattle late night spot. I will never return again. Wow.

The ambiance is great. If your looking for a place to have conversation with people prepare to yell. It’s very hot on the second floor so stay on the first if you easily burn up.

First stop for our pub crawl meetup this year and it was a good one.
I ordered a New York Sour and they made it nice and strong. Their bartenders were really cool and personable.
The place reminded me of Columbia City’s whiskey bar in how it was dark inside with lights lit and it was wooden. There are 2 floors. They have plenty of seats and seat selection from booths, tables and where we sat, which was the front by the window area seats.
They also had food, but we didn’t order any, even though I was hungry.
Prices were pretty average for drinks.
Cool spot, will come back.

Came to this bar for my birthday and me and my friends basically took over the whole patio upstairs. It’s great because they had a bar upstairs as well, so you wouldn’t have to go up and down the stairs to grab a drink. I really liked the atmosphere of the place, it’s definitely lounge-​y without a super upscale vibe. The drinks were also good and were decently priced (but then again, not that I would know how much they cost because I didn’t pay for them!). I’d definitely come back here again with a group to drink, hang out, and chill.

I like this spot, why such low ratings, peeps?!
Perfectly lit (yes! It’s not too bright!), great cocktails, local brews and wines. Friendly staff, decent bathrooms and jazz. Did I mention jazz?
Check their site, but they offer music on some nights. We stumbled in one night after dinner and found the pianist that worked with Charlie Mingus. It was kinda awesome.
I really like the space, the booths have high backs, super comfortable. There are also high tables/​chairs and the bar. I would recommend this spot for date night, or hanging with the ladies.

Cute, spacious bar in Capitol Hill. We were bar hopping in the area and originally intended to go to the bar next door. which had a much longer line. Barca appeared to be a better alternative, and we were not disappointed. Although it is not on the main street with most other bars, Barca is situated close enough to feel safe. They have plenty of tables to sit at, and even more floor space to mingle. If you’re looking for an uncrowded place to grab a drink, i highly recommend coming here.

I still like this place, but thought it was time for an update now that I’ve actually had to interact with bartenders here. HOLY COW this place needs to hire more bartenders. Or schedule more of them on Friday/​Saturday nights. Seriously, ONE bartender for like 20+ people standing around at the first floor bar makes zero sense.
However, it’s still refreshingly spacious here and the drinks taste fine, so Barca will remain at 4 stars in my book. Bonus for having a bathroom that doesn’t gross me out that is also spacious.

This place rocks for two reasons:
1. Stiff Drinks from friendly bartenders
2. Speed Dating
So you can get stiff drinks at a lot of places, but where can you watch a speed dating session?!
Boyfriend and I walked in on a random Sat. night and noticed the upper floor was filled with couples. But wait, one man just got up and… what?! Sat down with another woman?!
Oh. I get it.
My boyfriend and I aren’t bullies, we just love people-​watching. And body-​language says a lot. So our night at Barca was spent observing the rotation of couples while sipping on delicious vodka-​sodas, making random predictions about who would end up with who, and even getting to talk to a couple of the disappointed women afterwards.
Apparently this is a common event at Barca. Where else can you get this type of entertainment?

I had a great time here! We went early which probably helped the crowd problem. We were there from around 9pm — 11pm on a Friday night. By the time we left it was busy, but we were upstairs and there was definitely still room to move and we didn’t have too difficult of a time getting a drink! It’s a big place so there is room for a lot of people.
I liked the crowd a lot though — not hipster or hoity toity. A nice in between crowd of normal people lol. The music was good, the prices were reasonable (to me). I had a great time and would definitely go back next time I’m in Cap Hill!