Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Why?!

Try googling Sacramento happy hour…Go ahead…….Exactly.

It’s almost impossible to figure out where to go for a bargain brew and bite after work in the Sacramento area. If you accidentally stumble upon someone’s online recommendation, there’s a good chance there’s no mention of price or even operational hours of happiness. Instead, you’ll muddle through opinions of how the person loved the “toasted bread with some type of tomato mixture on it.” My goal in this blog is to post specific prices, and times of the best and worst happy hour spots in Downtown Sacramento, and its surrounding areas. I’ll try to be as objective possible, unless of course, the place warrants excessive criticism.

I will try to be open to any issues, comments or suggestions you may have and look forward to questions about specific restaurants that would require additional “research,” on my part. I plan to visit the following restaurants for happy hour in the near future:

Pyramid Alehouse, 4th Street Grille, Dive Bar, Pizza Rock, Shady Lady, Ella, Fox and Goose, Parlare Lounge, Il Fornaio, Streets of London, Fanny Ann’s Saloon, Rubicon Brewery, Bulls, Centro Cocina Mexicana, L Wine Lounge, McCormick and Schmick’s, The Broiler, Brew it Up, Mikuni, Bistro 33, Chanterelle, Ernesto’s, The Waterboy, Blue Prynt, Zocalo… I’m sure I’m missing a bunch so I’ll need some suggestions.

A little about me: I’m a Sacramento native who just moved back from the bay area. I graduated from UC Davis in 2006, worked in Oakland from November 2006-November 2007, and am now currently working on I Street. Being away from the Sacramento area made me realize how much I enjoy it here. I plan on moving to downtown in the near future and am convinced that, aside from the current market slump, Sacramento is going to see great expansion in the future and is poised to become a world class city. As far as my hobbies go, aside for sports, I just started brewing my own beer, and have a passion for making exotic cocktails.

I have always taken pleasure in going to restaurants for happy hour, but this love was solidified when I stumbled upon Horatio’s on the Oakland Marina.

It was mere luck, the day my brother came to visit for a Warrior game. I had been taken out on a corporate lunch the week prior to Horatio’s and really enjoyed their appetizer sampler (teriyaki tenderloin, coconut shrimp, and crab & artichoke bisque). Since the company taking us out wanted to impress us, the owner ordered three at a price of $23.95 each, for the six of us (yes as a lunch APPETIZER)… Anyways, back to my brother’s visit. I wanted to impress him, and decided we’d sit on the outdoor deck at Horatio’s and order some beers as well as the appetizer sampler. Of course one Anchor Steam ($4.50) quickly turned into three, and when the bill came I was expecting to pay around $60 with tip. Little did I know that Horatio’s had one of the best happy hour menus in the world…or at least Northern California. Our bill came out to $27.05 ($10 for the sampler and $2.50 for the beer). This single experience is probably where my infatuation with happy hours stems from.




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