Border Grill

1445 4th St
Santa Monica, CA 90401
(310) 451-1655www.bordergrill.com
www.twitter.com/BORDERGRILLSM

Parking: $6 valet, Promenade parking structures nearby

M-F, 4-7 pm, F/Sa – after 10 pm, $4 drinks (margaritas, mojitos, sangria, beer, and wine!), and $3-8 appetizers.

You gotts to love the Border Grill’s happy hour – even if it is a bit of a challenge for the Hollywood J’s to make it Santa Monica in time to have a drinky-drink (or five) before the 7 pm last call. In our research, we have found that many happy hours are pretty-darn quiet, sometimes there may only be five other patrons at most. Not the case at Border Grill, where a lively contingency at the bar outnumbered the folks dining at the actual restaurant.

With good cause – the happy hour offers a great selection of food items at much better than sit-down dining prices: Border Tacos, Ceviche Shots, Chile Poppers all for $3, other select items from $5-8. And that doesn’t even cover drinks - $4 house margaritas, mojitos and sangria, draft beers and select wines by the glass. We only sampled the terrifically priced margarita, very good, and noshed on the complimentary chips & salsa. However, our new happy hour friend, a former photography teacher from the valley, could not stop extolling the virtues of the great tacos, which we will for sure be sampling soon (Border Grill truck, here we come!).

Ambience was fun and festive, several tv’s played Monday Night Football in the background, but the noise wasn’t overpowering. Service was pretty good, though we did have to hunt down the bartender to grab our check so we could mosey over to Copa d’Oro to finish our SM Happy Hour Tour.

By way of background, the Border Grill is the creation of Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger aka “Too Hot Tamales” from the Food Network. The ladies also run Border Grill’s downtown sister, Ciudad! We can totally get behind a pair of women changing the culinary landscape of a big city – Girl Power!

Rating: 4.5 Martinis