So you’re weary of hearing about Capitol Hill’s fresh splendors in the realm of drinking/eating/having-of-fun—I would submit that you are one billion times better off at Smith, Cafe Presse, the new Cha Cha, or the old Cha Cha, a.k.a. Pony, than at downtown’s new Daily Grill (it’s now open!).

However, one billion new bars are now open in other neighborhoods as well for your fresh drinking/eating/having-of-fun pleasure, e.g.: The Local Vine, a new wine bar at Second and Vine brought to you by two women who attended Harvard Business School (oddly, much is being made of this fact, while it seems more salient that Jason Wilson of Crush created the menu); Saké Nomi, a premium sake bar in Pioneer Square (open for business, officially grand-opening in a few weeks—meanwhile, endearingly, they say: “we’ll greatly appreciate your patience…if it appears that we don’t know what we’re doing”); the new incarnation of the Lobo on Eastlake, called Victory Lounge (which looks, unfortunately, cleaned up—my primary memory of the Lobo involves a bartender wearing a frilly apron that lifted to reveal a large set of male genitalia crafted out of stuffed pantyhose); the behemoth Tap House Grill in downtown’s retail core (160 beers on tap, sibling of Bellevue’s behemoth Tap House Grill); and, in Wallingford, Babalu: The Mambo Room (in the former Wonder Bar space and, according to myspace, a single 26-year-old Leo female, occupation: bar).

Soon, also: Kurrent on Pine, grand-opening on July 21, bringing (at last) an ice bar to Seattle—formerly, one had to journey to the Eastside’s The Parlor for a frozen stripe of water upon which to rest one’s drink: no more.

Bar Exam will dutifully be covering all this hot bar action in the coming weeks, even though Bar Exam’s liver hurts just thinking about it.

And P.S.: In the chow category, note that Matt’s in the Market has at last now re-opened.