GAMERS GONE WIRED: sudo apt-get PAX-10!!!!11one1!! The gamer convention of the year is upon us. On Friday, "Girls and Games: The Growing Role of Women in the Game Industry" at 4:30 p.m. caught our eye. On Saturday, "Is Casual Killing Core Games?" at 6 p.m. sounded interesting. Ken Levine of BioShock fame delivers the keynote address on Friday night, and there will be music and LAN parties! Ahhh, we just had a nerdgasm. Friday through......

Chasing last week's patriotic cocktail (generically in support of the US Olympics team), this week brings a shot for Barack Obama. It comes from longtime restaurant impressario Jackie Roberts of The Pink Door: 2 oz. Crater Lake Vodka (hand crafted American vodka from Oregon) WHY? Because he loves America 2 oz. Freshly pressed grape juice WHY? Because he's fresh! 1/2 oz. cointreau WHY? Because he has a sweet side 1/2 oz. freshly pressed lemon juice......

If this sounds snarky and needlessly mean-spirited, just blame the Chinese. In any event, the marketing wizards at McCormick & Schmick decreed that there would be cocktails with an Olympics theme, so the "Red White & Blue Martini" came into being. Fortunately, barman Darrin Bengston knows his specific gravities. Raspberry purée into the bottom, followed by a shaker of Stoli Vanil and Stoli Blueberi. Float an ounce of Blue Curaçao, and voilà! The blue......

Scott Staples says he always wanted to be on Capitol Hill but couldn't find the right spot. That was before Quinn's, which opened late last year. In the meantime, Zoë the dinner house on Second that he opened in 2001, has become a Belltown fixture. At the bar, the original drinks menu has evolved to more contemporary cocktails ("Spring Flowers" of Ciroc vodka, St. Germain elderflower liqueur, lemon sour and Moscato d'Asti, $9.75). Hold......

Fortunate we are, in Seattle, to have lounges for serious drinkers of cocktails, connoisseurs of the art (as opposed to cocktail lounges for "serious drinkers," another category entirely). The best cocktail bars, the ones that care, cluster downtown, in or close to hotels. ZigZag, for one (a cocktail called the Toronto), Suite 410 (that's their Pisco Sour), Oliver's, Vessel. They're not flashy (Milk & Honey in New York is almost anonymous). They hire experts......

Cascadia's new cocktail menu (now that we've dispensed with Big City interlopers) includes a classic called Satan's Whiskers, a combination of gin (high-end Plymouth, ideally), sweet vermouth, dry vermouth, orange juice, Grand Marnier and (very important) orange bitters. All ingredients we're very fond of, so let's go for it. Bartender Michael Candelaria, long a master of his craft, builds the drink with care, measuring precise amounts of liquor into an empty glass, squeezing fresh juice,......