ShopEatSleep

The downtown location of Chaya, a Japanese-French brasserie mini chain, has recently launched a weekly beer garden menu available on its patio every Monday night throughout the summer. This is a once-a-week special menu offered in addition to its everyday happy hour menu, both of which are available all night from 5:00 p.m. to close. Not too shabby!

The beer garden menu features yakitori skewers ($2 each) grilled on the patio on new hibachis and include chicken, short rib, beef tongue, shrimp and shiitake mushrooms. I was recently invited by the restaurant to try the new skewers, and I liked the chicken the best, which shows mastery in grilling skills, I’d say. All the others were good, too, though the shiitake were a bit dry for my taste. Maybe top them with some of that teriyaki or chimichurri sauce that come on the other skewers?

Yakitori, from top: shrimp, beef tongue, shiitake, short rib and chicken

Keep Reading

Oliverio at Avalon Hotel. From Curbed LA.

Oliverio, the restaurant that took over the old Blue on Blue space at the Avalon Hotel last fall, now has a twice-weekly happy hour. On Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., Oliverio’s bar and cocktail menus are half-off, which means all cocktails are $7 instead of the regularly priced $14. The Lombardia made with bourbon, apple, cinnamon and orange sounds good to me (I love bourbon!). Food includes a goat cheese and black summer truffle pizza for $11 (normally $22) or truffle and parmesan fries for $4 (normally $8).

Note: I haven’t been to the Avalon’s restaurant since it was Blue on Blue under Chef Scott Garrett. Now that the space is Oliverio under Chef Mirko Paderno, I’ll have to go back and check it out.

Plan accordingly.

• Friday: Get into the fall spirit with a free 12 oz. pumpkin ice blended or latte from The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Oh, and did I mention it’s free? It’s free. I love free!

• Saturday and Sunday: Nurse that hangover with a Brats and Beer special at Rush Street in Culver City. For $10, you’ll get a brat, fries and a PBR. You’ll even have your choice of truffle fries, sweet potato or seasoned tater tots. And if that PBR isn’t strong enough for you, for $20 you can get bottomless mimosas or Bloody Marys (you can even build your own at the restaurant’s Bloody Mary bar).

• Sunday and Monday: 25 Degrees, home to a very tasty burger, now hosts NFL nights with game-time specials of $2.50 cans of PBR, half-off all other beer (which comes out to $3.50), $8 for half dozen and $12 for a dozen wings (either buffalo or spicy soy BBQ), and $10 for a plate of chili cheese fries. And for the rest of the week, 25 Degrees has happy hour deals every day — yes, you read that correctly — from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. (early, I know) of half-off selected wines and cocktails, beer, milkshakes, and side dishes.

From Looka!/Gumbo Pages.

Normally I wouldn’t dedicate a whole post to just one cocktail, but the Blood Sugar Sex Magic is like nothing I’ve ever tasted. I’ve been thinking about it, on and off, since first trying it a couple weeks ago before heading over to Rosa Mexicano’s par-tay. And then at a dinner last week, Matt of Dig Lounge brought it up, and now I’m thinking about it a lot again. So now I have to blog about it, plain and simple.

I had some time to kill before Rosa Mexicano, so Caroline of Caroline on Crack met me for some pre-party drinks at Rivera, which is conveniently within walking distance of L.A. Live downtown. After perusing the cocktail menu, my eye landed on the Blood Sugar Sex Magic: a perfect combination of rye whiskey, agave nectar, basil and red bell pepper. Yes, you read correctly. Since Caroline, who knows her whiskey, said she’d had the cocktail and liked it, I though I’d give it a try. And I’m sure glad I did. It’s absolutely amazing: fragrant, well-balanced, intriguing even.

Keep Reading

Pomegranate cosmo (foreground), Berry belini

Like any smart hotel, Le Merigot’s Le Troquet bar in Santa Monica is now offering a happy hour deal, but it’s slightly different: it’s a late-night happy hour, from 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. Food on the bar menu is 30 percent off, and well drinks are 50 percent off.

I had never been to Le Merigot, so when the hotel invited me in to experience the new happy hour deal, I accepted the offer. The hotel is on Ocean Avenue near the Viceroy and Loews hotels, so I figured it would be a nice property and possibly a place I’d go to when I’m in the area.

Keep Reading

I checked out downtown Los Angeles’ The Association bar last week for the first time, and I was pleasantly surprised at finding this hidden gem (just about literally — it’s right next door to Cole’s, but I’ve never noticed it before and passed it by this time because there’s no sign!). Esther of e*starLA and I stopped by the bar for its Twitter Tuesday special: $2 off cocktails from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. and a free plate of cheese, crackers and grapes from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. I love free bar food!

Keep Reading

And in more happy hour news…

I’m a sucker for good, inexpensive food and drink. Cheap eats, as it were. And you can always find deals during happy hour, right? (Sometimes, if I can muster the appetite that early, I’ll make happy hour my dinner. But I digress.)

So e*starla and I went to check out the happy hour at Hokusai, a Japanese restaurant near the intersection of Wilshire and San Vicente boulevards in the space that used to house Continental. It’s pretty darn close to where we live, and just across the street from e*starla’s place of business. (This was a while ago, but you know you still want to hear about it — because it’s happy hour!)

Keep Reading

Asia de Cuba cocktail. From mralenlin (Flickr).

Seems like every restaurant has some kind of happy hour deal these days (as they should!), so here are some of L.A.’s latest offerings:

• Asia de Cuba‘s “Out of Office” Fridays: For those of you who can get out of work early (or if you don’t have that problem, this is great!), this restaurant at the Mondrian hotel is now offering a $5 menu on Fridays from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.: $5 food, cocktails and valet parking. At the Asia de Cuba Bar in the hotel’s lobby, there’s also a happy hour from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. daily, with half-off the lounge’s menu items (excluding bottles); that means just about everything on the menu is less than $10.

• Rowdy Red Wine & Burger Bar: This downtown burger joint tucked away beneath the City National Plaza building has launched a weekday happy hour starting at 4:00 p.m. until close (7:00 p.m.) with $3 select wines by the glass and 30% off all wine bottles. You can also get a can of Pabst Blue Ribbon for $2 and appetizers for less than $5.

Keep Reading

I must have passed by the Hotel Palomar on the Wilshire Corridor so many times, but I never noticed it was there. Now, with the hotel’s restaurant, Blvd 16, offering a happy hour special, I’ll have a reason to stop in.

Blvd 16 calls its happy hour “Rush Hour” and is pushing the concept as a stop during the evening commute. It’s relatively close to the 405 freeway, so I guess this is a reasonable idea. From 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., you can choose from a variety of small plate appetizers ranging from $3 to $5, and from a list of 3 oz. wine flights ranging from $4 to $6. Well drinks are $6, too.

Keep Reading

And in more Kor Hotels news, Viceroy Santa Monica recently announced summer specials (on food and beverage, not room rates):

Starting Friday, May 22, and lasting through Aug. 28, the Cameo Bar is starting a “Summer Fridays” happy hour. From 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., wines by the glass, well drinks and beers will be priced according to the hour they’re ordered. For example, drinks ordered during the 2:00 p.m. hour will cost $2. Prices increase by $1 every hour until the 5:00 p.m. hour, where the drink pricing fun ends at $5. There’s also a new bar menu, with prices ranging from $2 (fried chicken and biscuit slider) to $15 (half dozen oysters). For those with more cash, poolside cabana rentals are $100 plus a two bottle minimum – and bottle service is half price.

Keep Reading