When celebrity chef Vitaly Paley first opened his Pacific-Northwest super chic restaurant downtown, people couldn’t stop talking about the food. Very quickly, though, the song has changed and now it’s all about the bar. Sure, the food is still banging, but it’s their drinks that swept us off our feet.

Take a perch on the massive bar, beneath the dark ceiling and strange tiled walls and just check out that back bar. Every bitter, tincture, gastrique, liquid smoke and mist, you could ever imagine has a home and is regularly used. And that’s not to mention their massive selection of booze. We were totally won over by New Money, with a healthy dose of bourbon, Nardini Amaro smoked vermouth and bitters. What’s more, every cocktail is under $10.

Imperial is attached to the Hotel Lucia, so the crowd can lean towards tourists and business folk, but there’s also a good following of bartenders and cocktail lovers, drawn in to see what new concoction they’ll have next.