McCormick & Schmick’s

206 North Rodeo Drive
Beverly Hills, CA 90210-5104
(310) 859-0434
www.mccormickandschmicks.com
twitter.com/McandSchmicks

Parking: Beverly Hills parking structures, metered street parking
M-F, 4-6:30 pm and 9-10 pm, $5 red & white house wines by the glass, a snazzy little food menu including a $3 happy meal!
Who in the damn hell thought it would be a good idea for a vegetarian to cover a surf& turf-style restaurant’s happy hour? This ding-dong vegetarian, apparently! But I’ll be fair & honest – even though I didn’t get to partake in the best deal on the menu, I will say they had a bangin’ happy hour meal that puts McDonald’s to shame! More on that later.
The Beverly Hills McCormick & Schmick’s is in a totally chichi location, on the cobbled European-like strip of Rodeo Drive. Happy Hour is served at the bar and our bartender for the night was a friendly guy who worked the entire area like a pro. The crowd was not young by any means, but everyone seemed cool. At least several groups looked like they potentially won their “L.A. Law” case in 1988 and were still celebrating with cheap wine. If this is the case (pun intended) for the Beverly Hills location, I’m dying to see who shows up at the downtown location, it’s a couple blocks from where they actually filmed “L.A. Law.”

Now, for the awesome happy (hour) meal – from 4-6:30 and 9-10 every Monday-Friday, you can get a good-sized cheese burger with French fries for $2.95!! Seriously, is McDonald’s even that cheap? Unfortch, they had just changed their happy hour menu, presumably that day since the bartender seemed surprised as well. I had been looking forward to a cheese quesadilla listed on the website, but was disappointed to discover they had removed it from the HH menu at the actual restaurant. C’est la vie, Jennie & I did it up in good fried-food fashion, we shared an order of Parmesan Garlic Fries and Onion Rings at $1.95 a piece. Other items like hummus and pita chips, spicy chicken wings, salmon coronets, and more went from $3.95-$6.95.

Please note the caveat that the dead presidents you save on the food items will go to your liquor bill – the only drink items at happy hour prices were $5 glasses of red & white house wine. Of course this was absolutely fine w/ Jennie & I, but we know some people will want a cocktail with that happy meal (I mean, I always did when I was a kid). Especially when you see the cute little bottles of soda that look like you’re raiding the hotel mini-bar after you get back from celebrating your “L.A. Law” victory in the 1980s. They did have a decent mixed drink menu with regular cocktails at $8 and specialty ones at $12.

So, even being a vegetarian, I can give props to McCormick & Schmick’s happy hour. And even though it ends early, there’s always a second happy hour awaiting you between 9 and 10 pm. Maybe that’s when those hard-working “L.A. Paralegals” go!

--JB

Rating: 3.5 Martinis