What does it even mean for a place to be romantic? The OED calls romance “a feeling of excitement or mystery associated with love,” but we like to think it includes a setting as well, ideally a pretty one. It could also be an interactive place, where you’re doing an activity together that helps you commune creatively with your sweetie. Or maybe it’s just an unusual locale, and you bond by discovering the strange experience together. WIth that in mind, we present this curated list of romantic things to do in the city proper. And by romantic, we mean pretty, delicious, and kinda weird.

Take in the Old Seattle history at the Smith Tower Like List —and its panoramic view of the city
Once the tallest building west of the Mississippi—from its completion in 1914 until the Kansas City Power & Light Building topped it by 12 feet in 1931—the neoclassical Smith Tower still retains its air of stateliness and prestige all these years later. Inside the pyramidal roof, the fabulous observatory with its spectacular city view has been closed off to the public for most of its existence. But today, you can purchase tickets for various levels of access to this glorious space, such as a self-guided tour, a docent-led tour, or cocktail-making classes. It’s basically Seattle’s Empire State Building, but without the tourist hordes. 

Take a fancy cooking class at PCC Like List
Did you know that you can learn how to cook at the dang supermarket? Or just refine your skills? Seattle-based food cooperative PCC Community Markets hosts DOZENS of different classes all year round, where you can learn all kinds of tricks you didn’t know you needed in your life—like how to make brioche doughnuts, Pakistani comfort food, or an elegant Peruvian dinner. The workshops are led by local chefs, cookbook authors, and other types of culinary experts. Best of all, each class is often taught at multiple different PCC locations, so, for example, if you can’t make it to the Bellevue store to learn how to make arepas, maybe you can get to the Green Lake one. Many classes are also taught online too, so you and your lover can learn—and cook!—in your skivvies. Um, if you want.

Indulge in sexy after-work drinks and snacks at the Polar Bar Like List
The swanky-fabulous Polar Bar inside downtown’s century-old Arctic Club Hotel was closed for YEARS for pandemic reasons but has finally reopened, to great fanfare. The beautiful bar takes up the entire main lobby and is such an ornate, golden-lit, yesterworld place to be, from the luxe walrus-themed carpets to the illuminated vintage bar. We recommend ordering the gigantic cone of extremely truffly truffle fries (and feeding them to each other??). We've already talked about the light, femme, cake-topped Marie Antoinette, but for a more romantic scenario, you're going to want to have Mike, the Polar Bar’s longtime bar manager and resident dad joke-teller, make you a Smoke & Mirrors, which could be described as a barbecued old-fashioned. It’s Old Overholt rye, sugar, and orange bitters, which is poured over a giant cube in a lowball glass, trapped under a bell jar, and smoked with a little propane-powered cocktail smoker. Talk about a smokeshow. 

Enjoy a golden afternoon at the Volunteer Park Conservatory Like List
Volunteer Park’s best known for its summer festivals, but don’t sleep on the lush, leafy conservatory, which comprises horticultural collections from five different climates. Fashioned after London’s Crystal Palace, it’s a Victorian-styled paradise, especially on a drizzly winter afternoon. Tour the diverse categories by room—individual glass greenhouses are each devoted to cactuses, ferns, bromeliads, palms, and seasonal plants—and marvel at the sheer variety, and then maybe hoof it up to the nearby water tower, Volunteer Park’s signature landmark, to enjoy the evergreen view of our own endemic flora. (Trees is what we mean. Trees for miles.)

Tour Swansons Nursery Like List and its verdant little cafe
Yeah, Swansons is a store, but we swear this isn’t an ad. It’s just so pretty and nice to stroll around all the different flowers and read the little tags to learn what they are and maybe take home a new houseplant baby when you’re done. You can spend hours here, meandering indoors and outdoors, inspecting all the fascinating plants and reveling in the natural splendor. Plus, their sweet little cafe serves espresso by Caffe Ladro, pastries by Macrina, and gelato by Bottega Italiana, as well as lovely breakfast scrambles and sandos. And it’s just loaded with greenery, obviously. What a pleasant place to have found yourselves in.

Explore post-apocalyptic-lookin’ Gas Works Park Like List
Gas Works is a weird place, man. Originally a gasification plant in the ‘60s, it was shut down for polluting Lake Union, it sat fallow for ages, it got cleaned up, and then a bunch of soil was trucked in to build a big hill for kite-flying and some picnicking spots and such. But they left the empty rusted-out tanks and towers to loom over all this scenery, and that combined with the unequaled view of Lake Union spread out before downtown Seattle makes this place just sort of creepily fantastic—and perfect for sunset-watching. On a clear day, nothing beats wandering around with a banh mi from Lucky's Pho Like List and peeking into all the secret nooks—along the lakeside, in the pump house, on the foresty walking trail. This place is just lousy with nooks, so go find ‘em, you crazy kids.  

Drink coffee and pet some soft, nice cats at NEKO Cat Cafe Like List
Look, there are literally thousands of places to get coffee Like List in this city. Why would you get your coffee from a place that doesn’t provide you with friendly cats to pet? Moreover, why not pet friendly cats whenever you could be petting friendly cats? With locations in Capitol Hill Like List and Bellingham Like List , NEKO Cat Cafe is a mix between a coffee shop and an animal shelter, and aside from the permanent residents, all the kitties on site are available for adoption. They also have fun names like Hazmat, Sundae, Polly Pocket, and Alfredo Linguini. Watch out, or you might just fall in love with a cat. Along with, yanno, your date. Right.

Fall in puppy love at Voff Dog Park Like List  
Perhaps dogs, not cats, are your thing? What we like about Voff Dog Park, in comparison to the other dog park/bar hybrids in Seattle, is that this place has style, man. Back in 2018, owner Ryan Matthews bought a 1930s Craftsman house on a double lot in Greenwood, renovated it by hand, added a bar, then turned the second lot into a huge off-leash dog park. Here in the post-lockdown era, Voff’s main bar is now out on the heated enclosed patio instead of in the dining room, but the spot is still a creative, stylish spot to have a beer—or a boozy slushy!—and watch the action. If you have a pooch, you can bring her along on your date for an extra fee, but you definitely don’t need to BYOD to have a great time here. (Voff means “woof” in Norwegian, by the way!) 

Abscond into the sky at the rooftop garden in the Fourth and Madison Building Like List
This isn’t the only secret garden in downtown Seattle, but it’s the sexiest. It’s actually a little tricky to call it a rooftop garden, since it’s on the four-story extension of the Fourth and Madison Building, not on top of the actual skyscraper itself. But if you enter on Third Avenue, take the elevator up to the seventh floor, and go through the door on the right: voilà. There’s an expansive, sunshiney (well, depending) garden up there that hardly anyone ever goes to, with peekaboo views of the Space Needle and Mount Rainier, and it even has free WiFi. It’s only open from 7 am to 5:30 pm, though, so you’ll have to make it an afternoon delight. 

Play vintage pinball at the Ice Box Like List —and maybe sing some karaoke
A few years ago, someone bought an old ice warehouse in between two residential houses in Frelard, then stuffed it full of pinball machines and arcade games and painted the cinder-block walls a bunch of wacky colors, and it’s kinda wonderful in there. The Ice Box Arcade attracts a fun, scrappy crowd that includes both old and young, and this describes the arcade and pinball machines as well. There’s beer and cider and snacks and air hockey, and also karaoke if you’re there on Thursday! Come prepped with a love song.