Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Portland Happy Hour: Rock Bottom Brewery

Posted by Kelly

One of the nicest things about living in the Alphabet District of Portland is being able to walk and max to happy hours all over downtown. With other friends living in NW and SW it is easy to meet up for a drink and some great food.

A friend from UP lives in SW along the park blocks so I left my car parked in the busy streets outside my apartment and went to check out her new neck of the woods. After seeing her cute apartment with a great view of the park we began our happy hour search. We ended up at Rock Bottom Brewery on the corner of SW 2nd and Morrison. We both ordered a glass of Riesling and of course a little too much food! The large soft pretzel was awesome, as were the sliders, salad, and humus plate we ordered. Their happy hour menu ranged from $3 to $5, all with generous portions. To top it all off there was live music and an energetic atmosphere on a Tuesday night.

To get home we jumped on the westbound max that conveniently stops right outside Rock Bottom's front door and were home in minutes! Love living downtown!

Monday, June 22, 2009

San Francisco Happy Hour: Bacar

Posted by Katie

Happy hours are apparently few and far between in San Jose, but such is not the case in San Francisco, thank god. Doug and Rachel (shout out to one of our few known readers) were in the city for a few days so we decided to go to happy hour before hitting up a Giants game.

Doug and Rachel chose Bacar, a swanky restaurant about halfway between their apartment in Union Square and AT&T Park. In an unusual happy hour move (at least for kel and me), we each chose our own dish. Rachel went with the goat cheese dip ($5), Doug chose the sliders with grilled onion and jack cheese ($5.50) and I decided on the flatbread and hummus with olive oil & sea salt ($4). The flatbread and hummus was my favorite and it would definitely be a great choice for sharing with others as Bacar does not skimp on the flatbread. Doug and I also decided to forgo fancy drinks for $2 PBRs. Again, not the usual, but it seemed more appropriate for pre-baseball game drinking.



While I was writing this post, my friend Lindsey reminded me of a happy hour worthy of mention, even if Kel and I visited there almost a year ago. That is 540's $1 well-drinks on Mondays from 10pm-2am. Cheap drinks, fun crowd, do it.

Vegas Happy Hour: Paris

Posted by Katie

Looking for a cheap(er) cocktail in Vegas? Check out the 1/2 price ($6) martinis at the bar near the lobby at Paris Las Vegas Hotel and Casino from 4-7pm. We tried the chocolate martini and the lemon drop. Avoid the bitchy waitress if possible.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Portland Happy Hour: Departure and Huber's

Posted by Kelly

Like Katie said in the last post, a sad thing has been happening since graduation, a very sad thing for Katie and me and our happy hours. Last Wednesday Katie and I attended our last happy hour(s) together in Portland for a while, well at least until Katie visits in August. Although this is pretty sad, we will definitely still be blogging! I will write about happy hours in Portland and Katie will write about happy hours in San Jose (where she will be for the summer) and then happy hours in Boston (when she goes for grad school). Though we won't be eating at many happy hours together until we visit each other, we will still report on the happy hours in our separate cities...we're diversifying!


Our last happy hour began at Departure on the 15th floor of The Nines hotel. The entrance is reminiscent of an entrance to a spaceship, and the wait staff wore blue outfits like spaceship stewards/stewardesses. We settled for indoor seating after checking both decks (east and west) to find no open seating. It has a neat atmosphere, and Katie and I agreed it felt like dining in a bigger, flashier city than Portland.


We checked out the happy hour menu and both ordered the $5 drink of the day, a passionfruit margarita. We ended up ordering two, cuz they were delicious, and $5.


The food menu is selective and we decided to try three of the five items since we felt their portions would be less than satisfying. We chose the edamame, BLT, and tuna pops. The edamame was good, like most places. Before ordering the BLT we joked about it being a cherry tomato, wrapped in bacon, on a piece of lettuce. Well we were right on!


And then there was the tuna pops. By pops (note the s) you may think the order would include more than one. Unfortunately not, though it was tasty. For $5 we got a small piece of seared sesame covered tuna on a dab of curry with mint and cilantro. Our food totaled $14 and our drinks $20, with tip we had a $40 happy hour and we thought...this is our last happy hour night and we're hungry. Where next??


We got our check and headed out to SW 3rd and Stark to Huber's happy hour. My mom told us about this place and how it serves Thanksgiving dinner food year round, so we thought we'd check it out. We walked over to Portland's oldest restaurant, each ordered a margarita, and shared a cheeseburger (including fries) and spinach artichoke dip. With our overwhelming amount of food and couple drinks we spent a total (with tip) of $19.


In one 4 to 6:30 pm happy hour time. we went to two totally different places. One, Departure, was new and trendy, expensive, and perhaps best for a rooftop cocktail overlooking downtown Portland on a sunny day. The second was old time classy with dark hard woods, large portions, and comfort food. Both worth the experience.

I know Portland happy hour is going to miss Katie, probably not as much as I will! But we'll both be blogging and have even more for everyone to read!