Happy Hour

I love happy hour. Too bad that I'm at work when most of them are going on.

 

I'm a big fan of happy hour as well. Like others have said it's not always about the best beers available but something affordable that brings in a group of my friends a few times a month. Play some pool, eat some food, have a good time. For me, going to a bar is rarely about the best beer out there, but more about the company i'm with. I can buy fancy beers to drink at home if I feel like it, or hit a tap house with a huge list and spend twice as much. I'm a sucker for a good dive bar with some pool tables and cheap drinks.
My local spot (walking distance, a few blocks from home) has $1 pbr pints and $3.50 pints of anything else during happy hour, good food specials as well. There is always something good on tap.

 

Happy hour is fun but I don’t go looking for it anymore like I did when I was younger.

 

I used to do happy hours mostly on Fridays when I was (1.) in my 20s and (2.) single. Those qualifications are probably the demographics of who you'll meet nowadays at these things (if you can find one).

 

Yeah my local Lowe's has a pint night on Thursdays, everything's 2.50 for a full pour. Which is nuts considering what kinds of kegs they manage to snag.

 

For me happy hour is between 6:00 am and 10:00 pm, or basically any hour I'm awake. Back when I still had to work for a living things were different and when I met people for drinks after work we choose a spot out of convenience for the group. Places in our town competed for the business so there were happy hour deals all over.

 

Beer Blast Fri. night at Schillers in Narragansett, R.I. back in the late 70's.
$1 mug all the Bud you can drink from 7-8PM. They gave you a mug at the door, the trick was to "obtain" a 2nd or 3rd mug.

 

Drinking and driving these days is a fools task. Back in the day, when I was a bigger fool than now, I'd travel the 18 miles back to my country lair with a buzz and with regularity- mid 70s. I was stopped twice and was able to not be arrested. One early morning at about 3 AM I was cruising home and saw a strange light behind me. My mirror in the old Dodge Monaco would tilt down and nicely show the back seat. I straightened it up and saw a county sheriff on my tail. I had had about 6 beers. I pulled over and he knew my name, said he had been behind me for two miles, and asked if my front end was out of line. I assured him that it was and I was about a half mile from home. He winked and told me to "drive carefully". Those days are gone and it's good that they are.

 

I have not missed the lack of a happy hour in NC. Rarely do I have more than two when out and saving 2$ on a beer just isn't that big a deal. And Uber has filled that infrequent time when >2 was/is in order.

When I was in the service, a few happy hour "rounds" at 1-2$ a pop was attractive. Thirty years later, I am not sure I want to be in that fray again. It's a younger mans/womans game. Was fun at the time.

 

Back home in CA we had amazing happy hour options. I mainly enjoyed it for the food because the beer options were usually mediocre. Some places even offered happy hour all day on Sunday. I moved to Massachusetts last year and asked someone about the happy hour here and he looked at me like I was nuts.

 

Massachusetts: The Commonwealth was the first state to ban happy hour, with legislation passed in 1984 outlawing bars and restaurants from temporarily changing alcoholic beverage prices any time during the course of a week.

In 1984, then-governor Michael Dukakis passed the "Happy Hour" law as a response to a drunk driving tragedy; the culprit had been abusing a happy hour special and the state figured enough was enough.

 

Probably not true.

Some of the local breweries around me do happy hour pricing, many others do not, so folks around here can base their decisions around $$$ first if they want, knowing they can still drink something of enjoyment.

 

No its Lowes Grocery, a grocery chain only in the Carolinas. Some have a dedicated beer bar.

 

They could go down the street and get a cheaper Bud Light at happy hour, correct? Hence, cost is not outweighing ANY other factor.

 

I have never been to a happy hour in my 50 plus years on this planet. If I want to get drunk on cheap beer I can do that at home.......Then again Im over 50 and married. What do I know?

 

I like Happy Hours that do both drinks and foods. But if I had to choose, I'd gladly pay for drinks when food is a bit cheaper for Happy Hour.

 

True.

But I was talking about being within the confines of a craft drinker, one could very possibly choose one place over another specifically with cost and happy hour pricing being the variable that most dictates where one goes (that is craft-centric).