Happy Hour

What are the best happy hour/bar specials that you have encountered?

I am currently opening a bar and am wanting to know what YOU like and want. What are the best specials, happy hour deals, events, etc. that you have come across and really have found unique and enjoyable? What makes you want to come back time and time again?

It’d really help to know what kind of bar you’re opening and who you’re targeting, but these are some that I remember.

$1 highballs between 5 and 6 pm. It packed the place, and most customers stayed the evening, though I was there on a Friday night and it was a student crowd. In Canada, so there wasn’t a lot of binging or drunkenness problems (fights, extreme over drinking). It did pack the place though and it was early enough to get quite a few food orders in. I think if you did it on a Wednesday and threw in a Wings Night ($5 a pound) you’d get great exposure, especially for a young crowd.

Went to something similar in Scotland, 1 pound pints (about $1.60) between 7 and 8 pm (Europeans go out later). Again packed the place and I know that many planned to go regularly and most stayed the night. Young crowd again. No problems on the two times I went.

Best “adult” happy hour I went to was at the bar in one of our nicer hotels. Free finger food from 5 to 7. It was a very nice spread. And, a free wine tasting going on as well with the wine rep there. Place was full even though the drinks were pricey.

Also, been to a lounge featuring 2 for 1 martinis from 5 to 7 pm Tuesday and Wednesday. It was a martini bar and the staff would encourage you to try two different types of martinis off their menu. Place was full, but I think they did it because people can get inimidated by martinis so they wanted to promote more of their menu so people would find on they really liked and would buy over and over. These were $9 to $12 dollar martinis poured as triples.

During hockey season in Canada, all you have to do is buy the pay-for-view event. I have friends that won’t go to a bar with multiple big screens showing sports regardless of season.

Coming again and again though, wasn’t about specials or deals. It was about atmosphere, staff service, right music at the right volume (most people don’t like to shout all night, but want their conversations muffled), location and whether it’s a place my friends wanted to go to.

The place we went to most times only had a discounted jug between 5 and 7. We often didn’t even go for the special. We went because the staff made us into regulars. They learned our names, we learned theirs, they knew our drinks and set us up when they saw us come in, they learn enough about us to make small talk and often bought us our third jug. When we left town to go to college, we found out our bartender had moved as well. We found the bar he was working at and became regulars there.

Specials bring people in, but it’s staff, atmosphere and personality that makes them reliable regulars.

The Housemartins – Happy Hour

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Happy Hour [VHS] $9.98 …

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