The Seattle Restaurant That Serves Cocktails In Bathtub And Flamingo Glasses

What's a Seattle restaurant to do when it wants customers to raise a glass that doesn't look like a glass at all? One option is to adopt the approach of a place whose bar has bragging rights. Perhaps a place whose accolades include topping Tales of the Cocktail's lists for Best Spirits Collection in the World award and Best Drink Collection in the World in different years. This Seattle establishment seemingly stocks countless kinds of whiskey, which is its specialty, and more than 4,000 labels total. Touting a drink list over 180 pages long, that place is called Canon, and it claims to have the largest collection of spirits in the nation.

Canon's owner and head bartender Jamie Boudreau is a vintage liquor bottle collector who has managed to procure such coveted, rare treasures as an 1898 Canoe Club (which retails for a whopping $1,225 a shot) and an 1890 Union Club whiskey, among countless others. While the Cannon log features the weapon of war, the name is meant to capture another meaning as well. "Canon" can also refer to high-level creative works in fields such as art, music, or literature. Boudreau told Food Republic that he regards their cocktails and liquor bottles as art.

Indeed, the establishment's mixed drinks became an opportunity to experiment with eye-catching, quirky ideas. In addition to an enormous selection, Canon doesn't skimp on aesthetics, crafting fun and unique Instagram-worthy cocktails served in glasses shaped like bathtubs, flamingos, and other objects (per Punch).

Canon's cocktail glasses aren't limited to birds and tubs. It also gives patrons a chance to slurp cocktails through a glass shaped like a pipe with the visual bonus of witnessing a mixed drink that wafts smoke to mimic lit tobacco (via Punch). Or how about a Canon's Cannon, a whiskey concoction served in a mini cannon that uses liquid nitrogen to make it appear that it has fired?

Canon's website features a photo gallery filled with fanciful creations highlighted by a cocktail served out of a lightbulb and a drink that appears to be hooked up to an IV bag drip transfusing more alcohol. Guests can enjoy their drink while sharing the captivating visual with friends and family on social media. The restaurant's Facebook page posted a TikTok video of a cocktail that for a fleeting moment resembles an ice cream cone before a needle is applied to evaporate the ginger smoke.

But the mixologists behind these drinkable spectacles aren't exactly sacrificing taste and quality, according to some. 50 Best Discovery, a database for eating and drinking which has previously ranked the establishment in the top 10 of its World's 50 Best Bars, hails Canon as a "shrine to the art of bartending." The food menu, as you might imagine, isn't quite as extensive as the artistic beverage selection. The offerings include cumin lamb chops that come with chickpea fritters, frog legs with a ginger glaze and kimchi pancakes, and rabbit with pomme puree.