If you’re in Interbay on a Thursday or Friday evening, in the sidewalkless industrial district just southwest of the Ballard Bridge, you might spot a sandwich board that promises a tasting room serving locally made amaro. It’s a little tricky to find, but let the sandwich boards guide you: toward some warehouses, through a parking lot down by the train tracks, and to a specific door. Look for the neon sign that depicts a bowtie made of recycle arrows. Okay, they’re supposed to be hearts. That’s the SennzaFinne logo.

Does it feel weird to just walk into some warehouse with no concierge, like someone will yell at you and ask what you’re doing there? Yes. But listen, it’s cool. Enter the building beneath the recycle bowtie, and continue past the coffee roasters on the left and the motorcycle… welding… workshop… on the right. Proceed toward the Christmas lights at the end of the fluorescent corridor. Narrow your eyes. Oh my god, it’s true. There’s a little cocktail bar in the distance. 

Owners Gillian (with a hard G) and Joey Diedrick are longtime Seattle bar industry folks who’re ridiculously in love with each other and amaro. These two are caricatures of lovebirds, with the chatting and the smooching and the hand-holding, and it’s a joy to watch them work together. When the pair got engaged a decade ago, they took a tour of Italy and came home inspired to create their own amari, opening SennzaFinne in 2019. Senza fine means “endless” in Italian, and it’s echoed in the business’s slogan: “Flavor without end, always made in love.” 

“People like to tell us our name is spelled wrong,” Joey said, “and we’re like ‘Uh huh. We know.’”

Gillian chimed in: “We chose to misspell the name for three reasons: for branding purposes, because It looks nicer with extra Ns and as one long word, and to hopefully help non-native English speakers pronounce it correctly.” They clarified that the name also refers to a delicious thing that lingers on your palate, “and to tie in our love story,” she added, “without being too heavy-handed!”

There’s seating for maybe 10 people in this hidden room that’s part cocktail lounge and part amaro laboratory, with tables strewn among the bins of angelica, orange peel, burdock, and calendula. They’re only open Thursday and Friday, from 4 pm to 6-ish. I like to sit at the cute wooden bar with the velveteen stools, next to the menu chalkboard that usually has three different drinks on it—all of which feature a different SennzaFinne amaro—and generally change every week. But if you don’t like this week’s features, these two veteran bartenders can freestyle something for you from their well-stocked booze library.

The first time I tasted SennzaFinne’s featured cocktail the Meadow on the Runway, I was with my pal and fellow food writer, Mark DeJoy, and when we simultaneously took our first sips, we yelled, “It’s the celery!” in unison. The Meadow on the Runway is a take on the iconic Paper Plane, which usually comprises bourbon, Aperol, Amaro Nonino or sometimes Montenegro, and fresh lemon juice. (Some say the Paper Plane itself is a great-grandchild of the Last Word, but IIII dunno about all that.) Along with the intense celery bitters and drop of cherry syrup, Gillian and Joey’s version swaps in their bright, herbal Spring amaro as an understudy for the role of amaro, then uses Aperix instead of Aperol—they’re close cousins. 

Can I start off by saying how much I love the name of this drink? It took me a minute, but once I got it… eeeeee, so cute. A tiny paper runway. You’re probably smarter than me, though, and will get it right away. 

Made in Italy by the Santoni family, Aperix is yet another classic red aperitivo with gentian root, rhubarb, cinchona, and strong citrus peel powers, and it’s designed to be added to prosecco or cava as a spritz. “So, basically, this drink was gonna be a Paper Plane [with Spring in it], and we went to the store for a bottle of Aperol, and they were doing a tasting with this,” Joey explained, holding up the bottle of Aperix. “It hits the same notes as Aperol, but I thought maybe the viscosity wasn’t there. Maybe it’s a little less sweet and a little less bitter. So we made the cocktail, just straightforward, and it felt a little too dry, like it needed more sugar.”

“I tried making one with hibiscus syrup and one with cherry Luxardo syrup,” Gillian said, “but it was a little too acidic with the hibiscus.” If you’re not familiar, hibiscus petals have a ton of vitamin C in them and can taste like a chewable Flintstones vitamin if the flavor’s not diluted. “But the touch of Luxardo syrup rounded everything out.” 

That celery note, too, is such a knockout. When I asked if they make their celery bitters in-house, Gillians replied, “No, actually, these are celery bitters made by Peter Patrician out of Connecticut. We met him through Instagram, and he has one of the largest amaro collections we’ve ever seen, and he classifies us in at least his top five, he said.” He originally reached out to SennzaFinne to buy a bottle of Spring, then went back to order more, “and we realized he made bitters,” she said, “so we were like ‘We’d love to try your bitters.’ We had to wait months and months for the celery bitters until they were ready, but we finally got them, and they were wonderful. His home bar is just incredible too. If you follow him on Instagram, you’ll see.” 

Brilliant and vegetal, SennzaFinne’s Spring amaro is the color of rainforest moss and tastes like lovage, lemon balm, fresh peas, and spring flowers, with some bitter hops looming in the background. I detected some citrus zest too. It’s like drinking an entire Easter bouquet, leaves and all. Like all SennzaFinne products, it’s not loaded with sugar, as many amari are, just a whisper of herbal sweetness. I tend to gravitate toward flavors like citrus and cucumber and conifers, so Spring is the ideal playmate for my personal gin collection. I also plan to use it to enhance a can of ginger-lime Polar Seltzer or a juniper Dry Soda, maybe with a splash of sweet vermouth. 

I definitely walked away with a bottle of Spring after my visit, as well as a bottle of earthy, gingery, mushroomy Autumn, which has a warm spice profile that makes me perversely wish it was cold again so I could have it in a hot toddy. (We’re still in Fool’s Spring in the PNW right now—I’m sure it’ll happen.) Autumn would pair gorgeously with bourbon, maple, cider, black tea. Probably cola, if you can find a cola that isn’t a total sugar bomb. Ugh, my life’s goal.

On our way out, Joey assured us that, regardless of what’s on the chalkboard next weekend or the following one, “We can always make you a Meadow on the Runway.” Its presence on the SennzaFinne menu is, as they say in Italy, “senza fine.”