Caffé Roma

350 N Canon Dr.
Beverly Hills, CA 90210
310.274.7834
www.cafferomabeverlyhills.com
twitter.com/caffe_roma

Parking: Nearby Public Parking Lots offer 2-hours of free parking or $5 Flat Fee after 6pm
Days: Daily
Times: 3-8pm
Drink Deals: 51% off drinks (we think this may be all drinks!)
Food Deals: Nice $5 Selection of Bites

Beverly Hills, what a thrill?! Not! Though I wished it was when JG and I took a brief Happy Hour Tour of Beverly Hills on a Tuesday evening after work. We had started at Bar Bouchon and then found our way to a later Happy Hour – Caffé Roma.

It was okay; the food was quite good, but there was little signage about the drink deals – so little that the drink menu didn’t list but one deal – 51% off bottle service, making a $180 bottle of Absolut only $90. What. a. steal. So we stuck with wine and beer as we’d been drinking at Bar Bouchon – a $10 glass of Sauvignon Blanc for JG and $5 Amstel Light for moi. We were very pleasantly surprised when the booze turned out to be ½ off as well - $5 for the wine and $2.50 for the beer.

The better drink prices almost made up for the slightly too-trendy scene. We couldn’t get a good read on the crowd to figure out where they were coming from; it wasn’t a real after-work group and they certainly didn’t seem ready to get down.

Not all was lost though; I did like the open air patio and bar area where Happy Hour was served. And again, the food was really good. Caffé Roma offers a sizable $5 Happy Hour food menu, which JG and I perused for a while, before settling on a Pizzetta Margherita (margherita pizza, duh!) and Timballo Di Melanzane (oven-baked penne w/ eggplant and tomato). Yum & nice portion size - both dishes were a great sharing size given the $5 price!

Pizzetta Margherita -$5

Timballo Di Melanzane (oven-baked penne w/ eggplant and tomato) - $5

Overall, it wasn’t a completely bad Happy Hour; I just wasn’t feeling the life of leisure scene epitomized by not listing Happy Hour prices on the drink menu. The whole Beverly Hills evening was further summed up by the license plate on a sportscar we happened upon in the parking garage – DR HOOHA. Funny? Yes!! But would you want to go to an OB-GYN (or have your spouse go to one) that has that on their license plate? No! Tacky!

--JB

Rating: 3.5 Martinis