We really want to like 22 Doors. After all, it can be a little lonely on top of Capitol Hill. Down closer to Broadway, you have the full spectrum of drinking stops — from legit hip to fake hip, legit gay to fake gay, legit dive to fake dive, and so on…

But the choices slim at the top — 15th Ave does well in the legit end of the spectrum but doesn’t really cover a breadth of categories beyond dive (see ‘Canterbury), neighborhood brew pub (see ‘Hopvine’) and homemade meth (see ‘Walgreens’).

So it’s hard not to welcome another category to the mix even if it’s not as cool as it thinks it is.

And boy does 22 Doors think it’s cool. From furnishings made of ‘reclaimed’ material like old doors from the Camlin (get it? 22 doors) to $75 drinks on the specialty cocktail list, 22 Doors tries to pull of some fashionable stuff. While some of these things come off great — classy liquor list for example — others remind you you’re paying Belltown prices on 15th Ave. Simple case in point — a medium rare burger came out charred to the core with huge, unevenly cut tomato blocks (couldn’t call them slices or even wedges for that matter) smashed inside. It looked kind of like something we would make for ourselves. And we are decidedly un-cool and definitely not fashionable. Meanwhile, it came with excellent yuppie fries (meaning oddly cut, oddly spiced but yummy).

Like any good friend, we plan to embrace the parts we like about 22 Doors and avoid its bad habits. That means we’ve got a place to drink when we’re all dressed up but don’t want to leave the hood. It’s nice to have the ‘swank’ category filled in (See ’22 Doors).

22 Doors is located at 405 15th Ave E just a few steps from Victrola.

Seattle Weekly called 22 Doors “classy and relaxed” while the Seattle Times had mixed things to say including the ambiguous “22 Doors is a restaurant disguised as a cocktail lounge.” Meanwhile, this dude was more certain in his praise — “definitely worth trying” — but he did drink beer with pancakes so who knows?

–j/k