For the last few days, Rob Roy, one of Belltown’s most acclaimed cocktail bars, has been shut down while it undergoes a seasonal facelift before reopening today, Oct. 1. For the fourth year running, Rob Roy has turned into the Seattle outpost of Black Lagoon, a nationwide pop-up event that mashes up Halloween, goth vibes, and craft cocktail culture.
This means that Rob Roy owner Anu Apte and her team have to go into the crawl space above the bar to get out the Halloween decorations and the special glassware: tiki mugs made of skulls, coupe glasses adorned with spider webs. They also have to clear out their fridges to make room for the ingredients for the Black Lagoon menu.
The menu is created by the Black Lagoon team, and it combines Halloween themes with classic fall flavors, plus some over-the-top flourishes. Abyssa’s Obsession, a piña colada riff, has a dash of tobacco-flavored bitters; Demon Dance, the Black Lagoon take on an Old Fashioned, features coconut- and cream cheese-infused bourbon.
In keeping with our increasingly NA-friendly times, there are also three nonalcoholic cocktails. Guests can also buy the glasses as souvenirs, especially the limited-edition tiki mugs made by renowned mug-maker Tiki Farm, which this year features a kind of snake-octopus-mermaid monster ($48).
If you show up at Black Lagoon, which runs into November, get ready for an immersive time — not only is the bar covered in cobwebs and gore, the bartenders tend to dress up too. “For the most part at Rob Roy, we dress nice. We wear our aprons, no hats,” says Apte. “We don’t have a strict uniform, but there's definitely a dress code. But for Halloween, it's like, ‘Do whatever you want. The more, the better.’”
