Sweet land of Liberty

I'd rather be enjoying a Jamjuree Roll right now. This glorious piece of sushi -- made with shrimp, spinach, cilantro, mint, red pepper, cucumber, cabbage and spicy peanut sauce – is a specialty of Liberty, an easygoing Capitol Hill bar that, by a not-so-extraordinary coincidence, is also serving my favorite cocktail of the moment: The Dragon's Toe. Mix Evan Williams bourbon with ginger water, muddled cucumber and a splash of ginger ale and you'll get a Dragon's Toe; mix a Dragon's Toe with a Jamjuree Roll and some deep couches, and you'll have a place that I'm reluctant to leave.

Even the neighborhood surrounding the bar is comforting. Liberty is located on a less heavily-trafficked part of the Hill, a stretch of shops and restaurants located on 15th Avenue East, between Thomas and Aloha. Many of Liberty's sushi dishes are named for its Capitol Hill neighbors: Rainbow Grocery (a veggie roll), Wax On Spa (snow crab and avocado), Babeland (a D.I.Y. roll – just settle down, now), and — naturally — Jamjuree Thai Cuisine. In a neighborhood that rich with talent, you need to do at least one thing well to distinguish yourself, and Liberty excels at no less than three things: mixing up excellent cocktails, making great sushi and making you forget that some of the city's best ethnic dining and most accomplished bartenders are just steps away. You could spend an entire evening at Liberty and not give the rest of the world a second thought.

The explanation for this phenomenon lies not so much with Liberty's arty, handsome décor – you gotta dig those two skateboards emblazoned with photos of Kurt Cobain, laid indifferently atop the bar – but with a staff that seems to have an almost supernatural gift for knowing exactly what you want and when you want it. Everything my bartender recommended – from the aforementioned Jamjuree Roll to one of the best Negronis I have ever drunk – absolutely hit the spot. The staff knows when to draw you into conversation and when to leave you alone, and they know when to make recommendations and when to let you figure things out on your own. That's the very definition of liberty.

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