Violet

The wine list at Violet doesn't try to be everything — it's tight, intentional, and leans hard into bubbles in a way that feels genuinely considered rather than accidental. For a cozy American omakase spot on 12th Ave, the Champagne selection alone is punching well above the restaurant's weight class. You open the list expecting safe house pours and instead find José Dhondt and Billecart-Salmon sharing the same page.

The list skews heavily toward sparkling, with a Champagne section that covers real ground: grower producer José Dhondt Blancs de Blanc sits alongside the more recognizable Billecart-Salmon Brut Reserve and Drappier Carte d'Or, plus a Jane Ventura Cava Brut Natur for those who want fizz without the Champagne price tag. The red wine side is thin but deliberate — Corliss Syrah from Walla Walla and a Powell & Son GSM from the Barossa give you two serious, food-friendly options that hold up against a multi-course tasting format. There are obvious gaps: no white Burgundy, no Italian to speak of, minimal depth beyond a handful of bottles. But what's here is chosen with a clear point of view, and that counts for something.

Glass pours run $12–$17, which is honest pricing for Capitol Hill, and the Drappier Carte d'Or at $17 by the glass is one of the more legitimately good house-level pours we've seen at this price point in Seattle. The by-the-glass program appears limited in total options — we don't have a full count — but the range seems to mirror the bottle list's sparkling-forward sensibility. If they're rotating the glass program with any frequency, that data hasn't surfaced, which suggests it may be fairly static.