Which spot was this?
It's all nightclubs. The liquor board is a bunch of fun-hating old farts who make all sorts of dumb rules to maintain what little power thy have left in Washington. Hell, nightclubs aren't even allowed to legally call it "bottle service" because it's against the law (or probably just another dumb rule the liquor board made up) to advertise selling entire bottles of liquor. It's called "tableside service" instead. The fact you can even buy a bottle in a nightclub in Washington is a miracle, because if the liquor board had their way, they'd ban it entirely. They hate the fact that nightclubs do it, but as long as someone else is pouring the liquor, there's nothing they can do. Unfortunately, the only way to ensure that is to lock the bottle up.
The nightclubs hate it because while they get business out of the sales (and markup), they're missing out on so much more opportunity if customers were able to handle it themselves. I know people who live here who refuse to get bottle service because it's locked in that cage. I get it every once in awhile, but only if a friend of mine is the waitress, and she pours extra glasses of just vodka so we can make our own drinks. Technically, that's not illegal, because she actually poured it...even though it's no different than if I poured my own drink, because it's just straight alcohol.
Also, the liquor board has tried to implement rules that you can't sell a bottle for less than the equivalent of what it would cost if somebody bought that much alcohol at the bar (in other words, no bottle "deals" or "free" bottles). It's nearly impossible to enforce though.
Champagne is handled just like beer: you can pour your own, drink out of the bottle, whatever you want.
I have been in worse. But yeah it gets bad from Northgate to south center. If you know your back roads it doesn't bother you though
