Pink Door

So, I am the master of happy hour faux pas. Choosing the Waterfront Restaurant on Pier 70 on a sunny day when their patio wasn't even open and now choosing a place that doesn't even really have a happy hour. At least, not from our standards...

PINK DOOR

I will say though, that before choosing the Pink Door as our happy hour spot, I did try to do my research. They don't post anything about it online so I called and was assured that indeed, drinks (wine and beer) were half off and that there were plenty of small plates for $5. It was even listed on urbanspoon.com as the #1 happy hour. All of this info. was dreadfully wrong. Although it was great to sit on their chill, outdoor patio, the happy hour was elusive at best. There were 5 items for $5: mostly breads with garlic and spreads, and some Italian sliders. Everything I tried was good, but nothing was great. Only a very limited assortment of beers were happy hour priced and the one that Sarkis ordered wasn't even available that day. I think the boys settled on (a light beer that I cannot remember the name of, will add later). My friend, Jaclyn, and I were very displeased to see that no wines were on happy hour. We settled on drinking a glass of wine anyway but were a bit put off by this. Overall, a huge disappointment considering the Pink Door is such a fabulous place. I have gone there for dinner a few times and have really enjoyed my experience but will not be recommending it for happy hour.

Things I liked: the outdoor spot is fun. Mis-matched plastic table
cloths with bright flowers and fun deck seating.

interesting view of the alley behind it which is
bustling with people on a warm day.

pretty good service

indoor area is a great place for a dinner date.
Very eclectic atmosphere.

ALIBI ROOM

After this, we moved on to the Alibi Room. I had never been to this Seattle hangout before so I was excited to try it out. We got a big table and more of our hhr peeps met up with us there. We ordered a lot of appetizers here and all were delicious. The cheese, apple, and honey plate and the tapenade were great. I especially liked the bruschetta. Drinks were great and for an hour we enjoyed happy hour pricing. Check out the happy hour menu at seattlealibi.com. We saw lots of pizzas at other tables and decided that next time we would definitely get one. They bring out the pies and place them on extra-large tomato cans on your table which adds an elevated, fun flair. Overall, the Alibi Room, with it's dark and mysterious atmosphere, was a fun place to go and had a pretty great happy hour. We may have gone to Twist after this.

Happy hour at Alibi runs from 3-6 Monday - Thursday and 12pm to 6pm on Fridays
Appetizers are $5
Draft Beers $3
Wells $4

BluWater Bistro (by default)

Prologue: Apparently I didn't do my research on this one. It was an easy pick. In fact, I usually wait until Wednesday to make my HH decision but this time it was so simple that I chose on Monday. We would go to the Waterfront Seafood and Bar on Pier 70. It was destined to be a top five choice as their patio is awesome and right on the waterfront and the sun was said to be shining bright at 70+ degrees. No brainer, right? Wrong! Sarkis and I cabbed down a bit before 4:00 to scope a place for our pals and were told by the hostess that the patio wouldn't be open until June sometime. What?! We quickly began texting, facebooking, and calling our friends to warn them not to meet us there. We would choose another venue with a patio as this is where we (okay, I) thought we needed to be on such a sunny, warm day.

Which brought us to: My last-minute decision of BluWater Bistro. Not nearly the same quality or ambience as the Waterfront but it fit the bill. Luckily a friend was enroute to Seattle and was able to grab us a table on the patio in the sun. Thanks Jaclyn! Sarkis and I eventually joined her after our second cab ride of the afternoon. We quickly opened our menus and were a bit unhappy right off the bat at the miniscule selection of Happy Hour Drinks. I opted for a margarita (not on Happy Hour) and Sarkis and Dempsey had one too. Even though they were not very good, I still managed to have two more of them before the night was over. Most of the boys began drinking beer as it was only $3. One good thing is that all of the appetizers are priced half-off. We ordered sliders, Jamaican Jerk chicken satay, sauteed shrimp, and calamari during our first round. I can honestly say that I tried all of these and thought they were all very good. The sliders especially - as they didn't try to do too much to them. Simple and good. Later, another friend ordered the clams in white wine and garlic and they were excellent!

BluWater has a pretty substantial patio next to Lake Union. It's nothing fancy, and the chairs and tables are plastic and a bit flimsy. It was a pretty happening spot when we got there and only seemed to fill up more and more as time passed. There is an outdoor tiki-looking bar that was packed with people and looked pretty fun to sit at. We, however, were in the Kid-zone. At times it felt like we were at Chuck-E-Cheez as there were gobs of kids running around while their parents enjoyed happy hour on the patio. We were sitting right next to a fence that separated the patio from a children's playground so this basically put us IN the line of fire. Children would run behind our chairs, jump onto the fence inches away from where we were sitting, and hop over to the play area. Again and again.

As the sun began to set, it got a bit chilly and we asked our waitress to turn the outdoor heater on that was near us. I warned the children not to touch the heater since it was hot and this deterred them from jumping over the ledge again. Mission accomplished. And, soon, so was our Happy Hour mission at BluWater. All in all, a great patio with and interesting crowd, and only so-so food and drinks.

Since we were already at Lake Union, we decided to stumble on down to where else? Joeys! We had a couple of food items there as well. The gyoza is always a favorite at Joey's and it didn't disappoint on this trip. Our drinks tasted like they were crafted with care. We ordered manhattans, vodka sodas, wine, and Bobby and Jaclyn settled on coffee and an apple pie dessert with caramel ice cream. They said it was the best they've ever tasted.

What started out as an Elliott Bay Happy Hour Revolution quickly turned into HHR at the Lake. In the end, it doesn't matter where you are as long as it's Happy Hour and you're with your friends. Good times.


BluWater Bistro Happy Hour
1/2 off all appetizers
Sliders, sauteed shrimp,
calamari, Jamaican jerk chicken satay,
crab rangoons, baked artichoke dip,
wild salmon, clams: all of these are between $5 and $7.

drinks:

Beers $3

Wine (3 house wines) $4

The Tin Table - 5/7/2010

We returned to Capitol Hill this week for a quick Happy Hour stop at The Tin Table. We had a birthday celebration to get to around the corner at Via Tribunali. So The Tin Table made for the perfect stop on our way. This was a smaller revolution as it was just the original group of 3 to make it (Sarkis, Teddi, & myself).

The Tin Table is located on the 2nd floor in the Odd Fellows building on Broadway and Pine. It sits across the hall from the Century Ballroom. I was an instant fan after I enjoyed the dramatic entrance into the bar... Up a huge flight of very old steps and down an old hardwood floor hallway conjured up thoughts of being back in elementary school. I came around a corner and found my fellow revolutionaries laid back in a classic leather tufted love seat.



They were enjoying a couple of the many crafted cocktails on the menu. A Moscow Mule for Teddi (her new favorite) and a Boulevardier for Sarkis. I went with their New 1920 Manhattan which featured both sweet and dry vermouth along with orange bitters - my favorite way to serve a Manhattan! Check our the rest of their cocktails here: Drink Menu.

All of Specialty Craft Cocktails were $2 off for happy hour. Here are additional details of their drink specials:

• Draft Beer $1 off
• Well Drinks $3.50
• House Red, White, Bubbly $5
• Red & White Bottle Specials $16

They also have select food items on special. Shoestring Frites, Cod Fritters, Fish Tacos, Pasta, and a Burger. As we were getting ready to head to a dinner party we couldn't indulge too much in the food menu. But we decided we couldn't leave without at least getting some Shoestring Frites. It was collectively decided that these were the Shoestringiest fries we'd ever had. Tiny and yummy with a touch of truffle salt. They come piled overwhelmingly high in a tall tin cup... We may have spilled a couple into the candle. Oooops!

We enjoyed a few more Craft Cocktails before moving on to our dinner party. But ultimately the old hardwood floors, exposed brick walls, crafted cocktails, great service and tucked away atmosphere guarantees a return trip in the near future for these revolutionaries.

It is worth noting that their happy hour runs from 3:00 - 6:00 (Daily) and 11:00 - 1:00 (Sun, Tue - Thur). We've been told that their late night happy hour is quite popular. Full Happy Hour Menu

-Jonathan

The Capitol Club (4/30/10)

For our first happy hour adventure on the Hill, we went to the Capitol Club on 414 E. Pine. It was my choice of venue this week. I was drawn to the Capitol Club's tapas style menu, wide selection of happy hour items and extended happy hour time -- 5:00 to 8:00. The extended happy hour time is a big plus for Samantha and Jonas, who always make the drive out from Bellevue. We love you guys!

The Capitol Club's bar is located upstairs and is an eclectic mix of art, tables and chairs complete with a big "L" shaped booth filled with pillows that wraps around the back side of the room. Happy hour specials include:

• $3 wells
• $4 Sangria
• $5 glasses of wine
• Several $4 food items including pork skewers, spinach artichoke dip, mushrooms, fries and TEMPURA FRIED BACON (had to try it, but would not recommend)

The lighting was dark and the atmosphere unlively -- except us of course ;-). When we first arrived the only other table was one person reading a book. I can only assume the mood picks up a little bit in the summer when the deck is open, but the vibe was notably low key.

Other than the tempura fried bacon, most of the food was pretty good and overall everything was a good value -- their well whiskey is Evan Williams and certainly worth the $3. After a couple of hours we were ready to move on, but pleasantly surprised by the size of our bill.

We moved on to Still Liquor and had a great time there. Our bartender, Joel, gave us awesome service and crafted several nice cocktails for us as well. In particular, Teddi enjoyed the Moscow Mule and Dempsey, Deran and I really liked the Still on the rocks (a good change of pace if you drink Manhattans). Of note, Still does not serve any food so we had to move on once we were in need of nourishment!

Ok, that's about it on this uneven outing for the Happy Hour Revolution. Sorry for the belated post and look here for more adventures as the Revolution brings Happy Hour back one Friday at a time.

Maximiliens

I heard about Maximiliens from a friend. (Thanks, Richard!) I was told it's a great place for Happy Hour and since I had never heard of it before, I decided to look it up online. Some of the things that caught my eye immediately from the website was the promising selection of happy hour drinks, but most fascinating to me was the 8 appetizers for $20 deal. I didn't know if I would like all of these app's, as it is a French restaurant (and I am usually not a big fan of French food), but it sounded fun just the same.

Fast Forward to Happy Hour Revolution last Friday at Maximilien: I was running late that day and I am thankful for three of our friends who went a tad early to select a table and hold down a spot until the rest of us could meet up. I must say, that having never been to Maximilien, I really didn't know what to expect other than what I had seen online and I was a bit anxious. As I made my way past the fish throwers at Pike Place Market, and entered the restaurant under the swanky, red neon Maximilien sign, my insecurities and doubts about the place were quickly erased.

It was a warm, though slightly cloudy evening and our friends chose a large table out on the patio. Nice work, guys. The view is amazing from the restaurant and the patio -- Elliott Bay at it's finest. We quickly ordered Happy Hour drinks: a margarita for me, a couple of happy hour martinis for Nikki and Morgan and the boys got a bucket of Stella Artois. We were joined by Sarkis and Daren shortly thereafter who partook in the bucket of beers. In fact, the HHR males drank Maximilien out of Stella and by their third bucket of beers, they had to move onto Hoegarten. Happy Hour was buzzing by this point as all of the patio tables were taken (about 12 tables, a larger patio than I expected) and during this time we began to order food. Oh, the food. This subject may need it's own paragraph...

We asked for two orders of the 8 app's for $20 and an order of oysters that were on happy hour priced at half-off. When the food came it was like a 'smorgasbord of loveliness'. First came the mussels in white wine and garlic. My absolute favorite. (I wish I would have taken a pic of my plate and all the mussel shells. It was loaded.) Along with the mussels, came the goat cheese and garlic mousse which sounded strange but was really just baguette croutons with a cheese spread. Yum. Another favorite at our table was the salmon pastry with mustard sauce. We even ordered a couple of extra of these salmon pastries for a low, low, happy hour price of $2.95. The rest of the 8 for $20 items were tarte flambe, chicken wings, mini croissants, fries (yes!), and tartines fromagere. These were all equally amazing, but I thought I might lose your interest describing each one, so check out the happy hour menu at maximilienrestaurant.com to get descriptions.


At this point, we were all in love with Maximilien. It even started to rain a bit and our server, Carlos, turned into "hero mode" and cranked open the awning to protect everyone from the rain. Well, everyone at our 12-deep table. The rest of the patio patrons had to go inside to escape the rain as their table umbrellas weren't protecting them as well. Thanks, Carlos!

You might think this is the end of a pretty fabulous Seattle Happy Hour. You would be mistaken. While the Happy Hour may have ended, the revolution continued down past the gum wall of the market (a few funny pics in-between) and onto Zig Zag Cafe. I was one of the newbies to this establishment and was quickly impressed by their service, good drinks (though we were too late for happy hour prices), and atmosphere. From what I remember, it was a great time here, and I will go back.

Things to note: as stated before, check out maximilienrestaurant.com for details, pics of the restaurant, and a complete look at their menus.

The bathroom at maximilien was amazing due to the slow, melodic, french music and cleanliness. We even took a picture because we liked it so much.

Good times.

Top 5 Revolutions

We've decided to add a running Top 5 list of the best Happy Hour Revolutions to date. We've only hit 5 thus far so they are all up on the list. With each new Happy Hour Revolution we will update the list accordingly. The new list has a slight spoiler alert... As you can see last week's adventure to Maximilien landed the #1 spot right off the bat! Expect a great post from Teddi in the coming days with all the details of our current #1 Seattle Happy Hour destination!!

An Irish Good Friday

Being that this Irishman had the honors on Good Friday I decided we should celebrate at the closest thing to a Catholic Church I know... An Irish Pub! I hemmed, I hawed, and ultimately decided we should start at the Owl N' Thistle in lower Post Alley. They have a good Happy Hour and there are other Irish Pubs within a short jaunt or two if we decided to move on.

The Owl N' Thistle could be called the working man's pub and their Happy Hour reflects it! It runs from 3:00 - 6:00. There is plenty of value on both sides of the menu with $2-3 draft beer, $3.50 well, $3 apps, and $3.50 "Fish N' Chips Voted Best in Town" so they claimed. I briefly searched for a list of references to this claim to no avail. But we Irish are a trustworthy bunch so I take them at their word.

As I said the Owl is definitely a working man's bar. I could tell my fellow revolutionaries had their reservations when I arrived to find them bunkered in off at the bar's corner table. I think they felt a bit out of place... But this was nothing a few beers and vodka sodas didn't cure. We started off with beer and well drinks. Once all revolutionaries arrived we ordered up a couple orders of the Fish N' Chips and a Hummus plate. While I'm not ready to say "best in town" they were very good. You get two decent sized pieces of fish and a good portion of fries. The fries were extremely good actually... greasy and crispy!

The Owl has several areas to relax in... The front dining area, the bar, the bar/stage area, and the pool table area. Its all very old world feeling. A lot of brick and such gives it more of an east coast bar feel. You won't find a whole lot of fanciness when you go... just people looking to drink and have a good time.

One Note: the bathroom is through the pool room and down a separate hallway that is not part of the bar. Which means you can't bring your drink with you and multitask.

Our Irish adventure does not stop their however... But before heading on the guys celebrated Good Friday with a couple shots of Jameson to close things out at the Owl. All told we spend $65 for 5 people for a couple hours of happy hour. Not bad at all!

Next we went up and around the corner to Fado to catch the end of their Happy Hour (runs till 7:00). Fado has a completely different feel than the Owl. Less working man and more business man. Which we were equally happy to settle into. Unfortunately it must be noted that their Happy Hour menu also reflects this attitude. Our choices were as followed for happy hour: one Hef on tap for $3.75, one type of wine for $4.75, Vodka well drinks for $5, along with a few uninspiring food options. Nonetheless, we still managed to have ourselves a good time for another couple hours. A few more revolutionaries joined the group along the way to close out a very Good Friday.

So the moral is that if you are looking for value check out Owl N' Thistle, if you are looking for atmosphere check out Fado, but if you are a true Revolutionary... GO TO BOTH!!