For me, booze and food go together. I rarely drink without snacking on something. So grabbing a drink after work is always a bit problematic. Is there a bar menu so that I can get a bite to offset the alcohol (yes, I’m a lightweight)? Will I gaze longingly as others move from drinks to dinner? Will I eventually cave, turning the after-work drink into a much more expensive affair?
Enter the happy hour that combines discounts on alcohol and food. Oh, happy, happy hour! One of the best in the heap has to be Tempest Oyster Bar. For starters, its intentions are clear. The restaurant posts its happy hour menu on its website and offers a printed version when seated. And while most happy hours conclude at 6 p.m.,Tempest’s keeps going until 7 p.m.
There is no skimping on the booze here, even though the price of the house cocktails drops from $8.50 to $6. A Cabin Boy, with rum, triple sec, pineapple and orange juices, and guava kombucha, tastes like a much refined Rum Runner, with a similar effect: it definitely took the edge off the day. The Shanghai’d, also a rum drink, had a nice kick.
Almost all of the appetizer specials are priced by the piece, except for the conch fritters, which are three for $4. Shrimp cocktail is $2 per shrimp; oysters are $2 each. The shrimp, meaty but somewhat bland, come in a martini glass with cocktail sauce and horseradish that you mix yourself. The conch fritters were more filler than fish. The standout was the smoke stack, a layered combo of lox, whitefish salad, boiled egg and caviar that is served with either crackers or bread. We chose the latter, and I was thrilled when the server delivered a basket of sliced Madison Sourdough whole wheat, one of my favorite local breads, to the table. The bread and the smoke stack, a bargain at $5, make for a hearty snack. I went straight to a concert that night, sated and slightly buzzed (I walked).
Perhaps Tempest set the bar too high or, my expectations were raised when I called the Capitol ChopHouse at the Hilton (there is no happy hour menu on the website) and learned that it has a happy hour (weekdays, 4-6 p.m.) with discounts on drinks and appetizers. But there are no discounts on the regular dinner appetizers; instead a special menu offers items more commonly offered at a sports bar: cheese curds ($10); chicken wings ($11), nachos ($10) and truffle fries ($9). The fries, with shaved sarvecchio cheese, were addicting but the nachos were disappointing; the billed queso tasted more like cheese sauce you would find on ballpark nachos. Five special cocktails are offered for $5, all of which sounded tempting. But neither the Knot-Garita (tequila, lemon juice, orange, dill sprigs, campari) nor the Gin-Elle (gin, mathilde pear, lemon, soda) hit their mark; the flavors did not hang together well. All draft beer is $4 and there are some good wine specials, including a Layer Cake Chardonnay and Red Blend at $6.
Judith Davidoff
The layered smoke stack is a tower of delicious value at Tempest Oyster House.
Over at The Wise Restaurant & Bar, “The Fiver Happy Hour” keeps things straightforward. As noted on its website, the restaurant in HotelRED offers five beers, five wines, five cocktails, and five appetizers from 4-6 p.m. In a nice twist, happy hour is offered on Saturday as well as on weekdays. On a recent weekday we found cozy banquette seating, facing the bar where Barry Alvarez was schmoozing and two TVs were playing (no one seemed to be watching any of the three on in the room). It was our first time at the restaurant but by the end of our stay our very personable and efficient server, Aliyah, made us feel like regulars.
The cocktail specials are available only on straight rail drinks (a gin and tonic, for instance), not the list of special cocktails, so we thought we’d try the Butcher’s Board Special for $12, which comes with two glasses of wine or beer for $12, saving $3. The attractive board was piled high with capicola and Mortadella, alongside rounds of soft goat cheese, plus all the sides and condiments you could want: dried cranberries, nuts, orange marmalade, mustard and honey. The Mortadella had a nice peppery kick, but truth be told neither ham nor goat cheese are my favorites — that’s the gamble you take when ordering a butcher’s board that changes frequently. But two other appetizers hit the spot. Fish tacos (two) with coleslaw and spicy aioli were a bit heavy on the tempura coating, but tasty nevertheless; pulled pork sliders (two), served on toasted brioche buns, also with coleslaw, were tender and pure comfort food. A bottle of One Barrel Commuter Kolsch was its usual delicious self and a Wombat Hill Cabernet was a bargain at $5.
At Rare Steakhouse, happy hour could easily double for dinner, but without the dinner prices. The full bar menu is available at half off, as are drinks on a special menu. Select wines and beers are also discounted. It’s truly hard to choose among the tempting offerings on the bar menu; I’m already plotting a return to try the lobster roll, crab cakes, ahi tuna poke and burrata bruschetta. But having heard about the bar burger, we decided to give it a try and it did not disappoint. Topped with melted Hook’s truffle cheddar and caramelized mushrooms and onions, the black angus beef patty was melt-in-the-mouth tender and a steal at $7.50. Oh yeah, it’s served with fries and aioli. A crispy chopped salad ($6) of romaine lettuce, red onion and roasted red pepper had a tangy creamy garlic dressing and was topped with a hunk of julienned avocado. An artisanal cheese plate ($9) featured three cheeses: Hook’s five-year cheddar, a Sartori Parmesan and a crumbly blend of Swiss and Parmesan cheeses. Dried cherries, honey and lightly candied pecans were served alongside crostinis. A Bee’s Knees ($6), with Death’s Door Gin, honey and lemon juice, was served on the rocks instead of strained into a glass; it was more tart than others I’ve had elsewhere. A Duckhorn Merlot at $9 proved a smooth partner for the cheeses.
There are many other restaurants and bars that combine liquor and food specials, though surprisingly few make it clear on their websites. Sardine, which hosts happy hour every day of the week in its lovely bar from 4-6 p.m., posts its menu and keeps it simple. Oyster lovers come here for the half-priced East Coast oysters; house wine (red, white and rose) is $5 a glass and Kronenbourg 1664 beer is $3.75.
According to Ed Lump of the Wisconsin Restaurant Association, happy hours go back to the post-prohibition age when restaurants and taverns used various ways to attract customers. It was popular for new taverns to offer free food or nickel lunches to lure customers and, conversely, for restaurants to give away free drinks. One of the goals of the Wisconsin Restaurant Association when it formed in 1933, says Lump, was to prohibit the state’s taverns from doing just that. He says that sometime that decade the Legislature did pass such a ban, but it was lifted in the 1980s.
While the emphasis used to be solely on the drink specials, more and more bars and restaurants have added food discounts, in part to counter concerns about drinking and driving. While the benefit of happy hours to customers is obvious, there’s something in it for the hosts as well. They bring in traffic at slow times, build brand awareness and tempt customers to come another time to try dinner. Some customers, adds Lump, might just stick around for dinner that night. Now there’s a thought.
