Bars & Happy Hours

North Park’s whiskey lodge

Posted: December 21st, 2012 | Bars & Happy Hours, Communities, Food & Drink, North Park |

Seven Grand 3054 University Ave. (North Park) 619-269-8820 Happy Hour: 5 to 8 p.m., Monday through Friday Come On Get Happy! | Dr. Ink

Soy and cider

Posted: December 7th, 2012 | Bars & Happy Hours, Communities, Featured, Food & Drink, Kensington |

Come On Get Happy! | Dr. Ink

A drinking cohort who recently accompanied me to happy hour at Kensington Café claims he is “allergic to children.” This, after enduring numerous mental bashings in the free-range play land of Chuck E. Cheese’s with his offspring during their younger years.

Fast pass to Argentina

Posted: November 23rd, 2012 | Bars & Happy Hours, Communities, Downtown, Featured, Food & Drink |

Let’s Get Happy! | Dr. Ink
Named after an Italian neighborhood in Buenos Aires, the flavors of Argentina are captured at Puerto La Boca, located without coincidence in our own Little Italy. The family-run operation, famous for steaks teased up with garlicky chimichurri sauce, provides an affordable dabble into several traditional appetizers and wines of South American persuasion during happy hour.

Drinking with ‘man candy’

Posted: November 9th, 2012 | Bars & Happy Hours, Communities, Featured, Food & Drink, Hillcrest |

Come On Get Happy! | Dr. Ink
There are no figs on Fig Tree Café’s happy hour menu. In fact, the only place the fruit shows up is in a regularly priced house pizza with arugula and prosciutto. But if sweet, sumptuous pickings are mandatory requirements when glugging beer and swirling wine, the café still has you covered.

New deals at The Wine Lover

Posted: October 26th, 2012 | Bars & Happy Hours, Communities, Featured, Food & Drink, Hillcrest |

Come on Get Happy! | Dr. Ink
Even though The Wine Lover in Hillcrest has been around since the late 1990s, you might hear lately that it is celebrating its one-year anniversary.

Evil indulgences

Posted: October 12th, 2012 | Bars & Happy Hours, Communities, Featured, Food & Drink, North Park |

Toronado 4026 30th St. (North Park) 619-282-0456 Happy Hour: 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., daily Come On Get Happy! | Dr. Ink The subjects of cars and bars are intertwined at Toronado in North Park, which is named after the classic 1966 Oldsmobile coupe as well as the original Toronado craft beer bar in San Francisco. Shortly before production of the vehicle made its last hurrah in 1992, beer aficionados up north were catching on ... Read More

Whiskey Heaven

Posted: September 28th, 2012 | Bars & Happy Hours, Communities, Featured, Five Points-Middletown, Food & Drink |

The Aero Club Bar 3365 India St. (Middletown) 619-297-7211 Happy Hour: 2 to 7 p.m., daily Let’s Get Happy! | Dr. Ink If you’re a whiskey lover, consider The Aero Club Bar your ultimate candy store. Fans of vodka and other spirits will also feel a rush when laying eyes upon Aero’s in-your-face wall of liquor boasting more than 750 bottles of booze, with about 500 of them revealing whiskeys of every genre. Indecision strikes ... Read More

Meal in a glass

Posted: September 14th, 2012 | Bars & Happy Hours, Featured, Food & Drink, Hillcrest |

Nunu’s Cocktails 3537 Fifth Ave. (Hillcrest) 619-295-2878 Happy Hour: Shrimp Bloody Mary special: 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays; other drink specials, 6 p.m. to closing on Tuesdays Come on Get Happy! | Dr. Ink Look no further than one of San Diego’s most cherished and unpretentious watering holes for Bloody Marys that contain more chewable matter in them than any you’ll find at chic restaurants. The swooped-up double-shot Mary sells for $7.50 ... Read More

Wine bar gives top billing to family vintners

Posted: August 31st, 2012 | Bars & Happy Hours, Featured, Food & Drink, Kensington | 1 Comment

Village Vino 4095 Adams Ave. (Kensington) 619-546-8466 Happy Hour: 4 to 6 p.m., Tuesday through Friday Let’s Get Happy! | Dr. Ink Rita Pirkl remembers fondly sipping from a bottle of sauterne that her high school boyfriend stole from his father. “It was the most amazing thing that I ever put into my mouth,” she said, crediting the moment to a subsequent career in wine selling that culminated in the launching of Village Vino wine ... Read More

Moroccan delights

Posted: August 17th, 2012 | Bars & Happy Hours, Featured, Food & Drink, Hillcrest |

Kous Kous 3940 Fourth Ave. (Hillcrest) 619-295-5560 Happy Hour: 5 to 6:30 p.m. and 9:30 to 11 p.m., Sunday through Thursday; 4 to 6 p.m. and 10 to 11 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays. Come On Get Happy! | Dr. Ink What a shame that subterranean bars are a rarity in San Diego, unlike the basement conversions found commonly throughout the Northeast and Europe. But once you find one, there is an explicit camaraderie that occurs ... Read More