Happy hour deals

In an effort of breaking the routine (wake up, get on the train, go to work, get on the train, go home, go to bed, repeat... )I am looking for more things to keep me downtown after the clock hits 5. Oh right. And preferable on the cheap/special/discounted side.

So- I would like to compile a sampling of places to meet friends after work, try some good food and drink nice wine and not break the bank.

Last week I went to Morton's Steakhouse on Wacker- they have a happy hour special where appetizers are only $5. And- in keeping with true Morton's portions (i.e. the bigger the better), they're not skimpy at all. $5 got me three hefty cheeseburgers and my friend got 4 steak sandwiches for the same price. The wine wasn't discounted, but averaging the cheap eats and regular wine came out to $20 for a glass and three burgers. Not too bad.

But I digress... I've been, I've conquered, now where else can I go???

Smith and Wollensky- $2.00 reverse happy hour (late instead of early) so long as you buy a drink. Beer + oysters = yum. In some cities they offer this at normal happy hour times too.

I continue to be a fan of Drink Town for finding drink and food specials. You can select the day you're interested in, food/booze/both, and even do a keyword search (say "wings"). It draws all the results on a Google Map and even shows you the closest El stop.

-Dan

I also passed McCormick and Schmick's on the way to meet a friend after work and they had a $1.95 happy hour menu posted on a board outside the restaurant... Not bad, although, it'd be nice to find some smaller local places doing this as well...

cmerritt wrote:The wine wasn't discounted, but averaging the cheap eats and regular wine came out to $20 for a glass and three burgers.

For what it's worth, it's illegal in Illinois to have time-based special prices on drinks. (See this PDF about the Illinois Happy Hour law.) That's why happy-hour type specials are all either free food or special prices for food.

All day drink special prices are permitted: for example, Gruppo di Amici in Rogers Park has half-price bottles of wine all day on ... er, Thursday, I think.

germuska wrote:

cmerritt wrote:The wine wasn't discounted, but averaging the cheap eats and regular wine came out to $20 for a glass and three burgers.

For what it's worth, it's illegal in Illinois to have time-based special prices on drinks. (See this PDF about the Illinois Happy Hour law.) That's why happy-hour type specials are all either free food or special prices for food.

Darn. I was about to post a few great specials, but since they are all violations of this law, I'll refrain from calling out the establishments. Suffice to say that many happy-hour type specials are most definitely not all about the food.

My old stand by- Nick's Fishmarket in the bar area. Usually a vodka special of some type, happy hour food prices. Good, steak sandwiches, but the chipotle chicken nachos ($3) are the way to go, along with flatbreads. http://www.nicksfishmarketchicago.com/specials.cfm

dansch wrote:I continue to be a fan of Drink Town for finding drink and food specials. You can select the day you're interested in, food/booze/both, and even do a keyword search (say "wings"). It draws all the results on a Google Map and even shows you the closest El stop.

-Dan

Great tip and site... Thanks, Dan!

cmerritt wrote:

dansch wrote:I continue to be a fan of Drink Town for finding drink and food specials. You can select the day you're interested in, food/booze/both, and even do a keyword search (say "wings"). It draws all the results on a Google Map and even shows you the closest El stop.

-Dan

Great tip and site... Thanks, Dan!

I agree! It's fun to surf. . . for example, I learned that one of my favorite dives, Chipp Inn, has a Thursday special -- domestic can grab bag for $1.75. While I'm no fan of domestic cans, $1.75 is really cheap and the "grab bag" aspect does add some mystery and suspense to the experience.

Glad to see that people are using Drinktown. It's actually run by a friend of mine, so he'll be happy to see the mentions.

Trattoria 10 has a very reasonable bar/buffet on weekdays from 5-8. I haven't been for awhile but it was a pretty lively scene my last time there.

Red Eye publishes a list daily of drink/food specials - sometimes there are some good tips especially Mon-Wed.

Even though I no longer work there, I know Poag Mahone's offers their 9 oz. burgers for $2 on Mondays (after 3pm, I think). There are other specials throughout the week, but this is the best of the deals.

Poag Mahone's
333 S. Wells.
Chicago, IL
(312) 566-9100

My advice would be to move to the city. Then you could do something different daily without having the commute to think about

A friend just had dinner at Kiki's and she mentioned she saw some signs about a dinner special before 6:30... I'm going to look into that... any type of budget eats and/or drinks is great...
ALSO- does anyone know if Graham Elliot's has a bar special? I didn't think so but I heard some chatter about it at work...

ALSO- does anyone know if Graham Elliot's has a bar special? I didn't think so but I heard some chatter about it at work...

I don't think so, either - in fact, they dropped the late-night snack menu completely. Not so much as a bowl of popcorn on the bar the night we were there, unfortunately!

sundevilpeg wrote:

ALSO- does anyone know if Graham Elliot's has a bar special? I didn't think so but I heard some chatter about it at work...

I don't think so, either - in fact, they dropped the late-night snack menu completely. Not so much as a bowl of popcorn on the bar the night we were there, unfortunately!

Yeah- definitely too good to be true. I was going to eat at GE for my anniversary, but recently a bunch of people I know who have gone had pretty disapointing experiences, so I think I'm going to hold off for a few more months and let Chef Elliot iron out all the issues (or at least a few of them!) first...