Takami Sushi & Robata

811 Wilshire Boulevard, 21^st Floor

Los Angeles, CA 90071
(213) 236-9600

www.takamisushi.com

twitter.com/takamisushi

Parking: $7 Valet

Days: Daily (love it, rare for a DTLA Happy Hour)

Hours: Monday-Friday: 4-7pm; Saturday and Sunday: 5-7pm

Drink Deals: $5 Wines and Bottled Beer; $6 Sake; three $7 Featured Cocktails

Food Deals: 11 Food Options (!!) for $4 each

Gorgeous Views

Like The Huntley Penthouse another high-up bar with killer views, Takami Sushi & Robata is an excellent Happy Hour at which to impress and entertain – out of town guests, prospective mates (like on National Geographic :), local friends who complain that there ain’t shit to do… you catch my Tokyo drift. Takami sits 3 stories higher than Huntley’s Penthouse, up on the 21^st floor of a downtown Wilshire Blvd. building with panoramic views of LA’s downtown skyline*- perfect opportunity to sight-see and get your Happy Hour on.

Entering Takami - Bar Area

Takami shares the floor with Elevate Lounge, which opens later at night on weekends and is probably not so much my scene, like tres club-by. To be fair, Takami after Happy Hour probably isn’t totally my scene either – really, I’m not hatin’, but I’m also not feelin’ the buttcheek-revealing skirts arriving as we left.  Also lending itself to the club vibe is that part of the patio is zoned as a lounge and you can actually smoke on it. I was thankful nobody lit up on my visit, but I know many cigarette-o-philes are always looking for a public space to get their nicotine fix. Cigarette-o-philes, here’s your spot.

  

Takami's restaurant area

Whatever your feelings on butcheek-revealing skirts and cigarette-o-philes are, you will love, or at least very much like Takami’s Happy Hour. Besides the excellent views, HH draws an interesting and diverse crowd and has very nice servers (they took a little warming up, but were perfecto in the end!). 

 Served at the bar and bar patio, The Happy Hour deals are  great – especially for food; it’s ½ off Lounge fare food items which are $8 at full price, so $4 during HH (I did get an A in 4^th grade math). Miss Kitty Packard (link to blog) and I ordered a nice array of items to make a delish dinner:

Calamari Arare 

Calamari covered with Japanese Rice Crackers, served with a Cilantro Aioli

Japanese Fries 
Flavored with Seaweed flakes and served with another aioli

California Roll
Crab, Avocado, and Cucumber in a seaweed wrap

Vegetable Tempura

Not on Happy Hour – full $8 price

Bellini Cocktail and LA Cocktail ($7 each)

Happy Hour drinks are pretty sweet too. Their featured cocktails run $7 each, a little high for Happy Hour – but not so bad considering the food and views.  Kitty had the Bellini Cocktail made with a very dry prosecco sweetened with Pama (a pomegranate liqueur) and St. Germain (elderflower liqueur); and I had the LA Cocktail – a sweet concoction with Absolut Berry-Acai, Pama and St. Germain, made just tart enough with a float of lemon juice.

We thoroughly enjoyed all our bites (though I was a little aioli’d out after the calamari and fries) and drinks and left at just the perfect time – when the buttcheek revealing skirts started to arrive. Just another night in LA!

--JB

Rating: 4.5 Martinis

* You should really take your friends who complain there ain’t shit to do on one of LA Conservancy’s cool walking tours – I learned a lot about downtown on their Modern Skyline tour).

Firenze Osteria

4212 Lankershim Boulevard 

North Hollywood, CA 91602 

(818) 760-7081 

www.firenzeosteria.com  

Parking: Metered Street Parking + Valet (in the $5 range) Days: Daily

Hours: 5-7pm 

Drink Deals: Jacopo’s Martini of the Week for $4 (at the bar), $5 Firenze Wine; on Sundays – Sangria for $5 from 5-8pm 

Food Deals: 4 Food Options for $5

I was catching up with a friend over brunch recently and we both realized that for every pop culture figure/reference we don’t know much about, we default to “I don’t have cable.” For example, if you ask me if I like Nicki Minaj, I’ll probably tell you, “I don’t have that channel.” Well, technically, I don’t. 

This is relevant to The Happy Hour Tour because… when I was telling folks how much I enjoyed Sangria Sunday at Firenze Osteria in the Toluca Lake/NoHo area – they all asked, “oh Fabio’s restaurant?” JG’s and my response was, “the romance novel cover guy who a bird flew into on a roller coaster?” And maybe that Fabio is a Sunday Sangria proprietor (he seems the type), but not at Firenze Osteria. Our friends were referring to Fabio Viviani from season 5 of Top Chef.

I don’t know which Reality Show stock character Fabio played (the Villain, the Wunderkind, the Harlot? We know which the other Fabio would be…), but I do know his imprint on Firenze Osteria is indelible and deliciously edible – offering delightful twists on traditional Italian cuisine – even with the restaurant’s Happy Hour menu. 

Even though we’d been to Federal Bar and already eaten our weight in fat grams, we still wanted to try out some of the yum-sounding $5 Happy Hour options at Firenze, so pal Ad-bot ordered the Fried Potato Skins – tossed in parmesan, truffle essence and served with a smoke pepper aioli, while I tried the Beet Crostini with a ball of fried polenta encrusted goat cheese. I loved the texture of the Potato Skins, just bordering on almost too crunchy, but actually just right! The serving size of those was definitely a good shareable appetizer size. I was very excited that my Beet Crostini was actually made with golden beets, but was concerned that it was only served with one piece of bread – not quite good for sharing, but it was turned out to be quite filling for me alone and the goat cheese in polenta was a great creamy tart complement to the beets’ earthy flavor. JG forwent the Happy Hour menu and sampled the Crème Brulee, a wonderful concoction with fresh fruit topping and that perfect glazed crisp skimming the top!

 

Potato Skins ($5) 

 

Beet Crostini ($5)

Crème Brulee (not on Happy Hour)

Now for drinks, we all tried the Sunday special – Sangria! Firenze Osteria’s sangria is a little different than others that I’ve tried because they make it on site in front of you – no long-marinating fruits. Instead they use a red or white wine (for red or white sangria, duh!) and add fruit juices and schnapps and then top off the whole shebang with a fruit-kebab. Both the white and red sangrias were awesome – the only thing missing was a porch for Sunday Sangria sipping!

White and Red Sangria ($5 each)

The inside of the restaurant and bar is nice enough though – dark ambiance with some nice soft light accents including what appears to be a block of kryptonite behind the bar (I had cable in the 80’s, I know what kryptonite is). And the waitstaff is excellent; we very much liked the helpful and attentive bartender Joe and the other folks who immediately closed some of the blinds when the 6pm June sun nearly blinded me – before I even said anything about it. Gotta love that kind of attention to your customers being nearly blinded! 

All that said, we’d definitely recommend stopping by Firenze Osteria and sampling their Happy Hour fare! And if you see Fabio, tell him we loved him on the cover of “Across a Wine-Dark Sea” – the wine part at least! 

--JB 

Rating: 4.5 Martinis 

The Federal Bar

5303 Lankershim Blvd.

North Hollywood, CA 91601

818.980.2555

www.thefederalbar.com

twitter.com/thefederalbar

Parking: Free Lot!

Days: Daily

Times: 3-6pm

Drink Deals: $2 off Beers, $3 House Wine, $5 Manhattans, Martinis, Margaritas, Mojitos, Old Fashioned, & Side Car

Food Deals: $2-off all “Pass Arounds”  

Last year, I visited The Federal Bar when it first opened. There were many, many kinks to be worked out so I swore off the place until they got a Happy Hour. Well, not only do they now have a Happy Hour, but it’s also daily!

On a Sunday Fun Day, JB & I ventured out to North Hollywood to check out The Federal, followed by Firenze (review later this week!).  We selected a booth in the corner so we could get the full scope of the place and enjoyed our people watching. For a Sunday afternoon, The Federal drew a pretty decent and diverse crowd. 

JG + JB + cool manis + cocktails = a great Sunday Fun Day

I kicked the day off with a minty fresh mojito ($5) to go with the summer breeze; while JB ordered the Old-Fashioned, here made with lots of orange ($5).  The drinks were good, but it was the appetizers that are worth writing home about. You see, the appetizers are humorously called “pass arounds” and they are $2 off during Happy Hour. I joked that it sounds like something a lower class family would call appetizers when they try to impress some bourgeois in-laws to be. I can see the movie now, starring Roseanne with a flashy tray of pigs in a blanket! “Ya wanna pass that pig in a blanket tray around, hon?”

Old Fashioned & Mojito - $5 each!

For “pass arounds,” JB & I ordered the grilled artichoke ($5) and for meat eating me, the mini-stuffed blue cheese burgers ($6).  Although not on happy hour, we also split a cheese plate (3 cheeses for $10) with Old Amsterdam (gouda), Purple Haze (goat cheese), and La Tur (goat, sheep, & cow milk) cheeses.  The cheese plate and artichoke were pretty amazing, but my burgers were not. While they were good, I could not taste a hint of blue cheese. 

No blue cheese here....

...but lots of cheese & treats here!

We were also going to split the fried feta olives ($5) but the server told us that they were out of them so we got some House Fries instead ($5 not on HH).  Maybe they were out of blue cheese, too? And when our friend Ad-bot came to join us, they didn’t have his original dark beer choice and he ordered the special coffee beer, which just wasn’t quite what he was looking for. It was quite disappointing because on my original visit, The Federal was out of a few food and drink items; a year later they’re still running out of items early in the day. The menu was also a bummer for JB with its lack of vegetarian options (thank heaven for cheese plates!).  Even market fresh restaurants with rotating items, like The Yard, keep items in stock so I’m not sure what the story is with The Federal’s inventory.

While the food and drinks were good, I would still only visit for happy hour only. The prices are good and the in-stock food is great, but the service still leaves something to be desired, especially to pay for regular priced items.

- JG

Rating: 3 Martinis

Zapata Vive!!

101 S First Ave

Arcadia, CA 91006

(626) 254-9111

Parking: Free Street Parking for 2 Hours

Days: Daily

Hours: 3-7pm

Drink Deals: Domestic Beer (bottled) for $3; Margaritas, Imported Beer (Bottled), House Wine, and Well Drinks for $3.50; Flavored Margaritas for $4; and Shot of Monte Blanco for $4.50

Food Deals: 4 Food Options for $3.50 apiece or have all of them for $12!

One of the best things about LA is that you don’t have to travel that far not to be in LA anymore. I know that sounds kind of backwards, but it’s really nice to be able to take a somewhat scenic drive on Old Route 66 (Colorado Blvd.) into Pasadena, which is a little slice of non-LA pie unto itself, and sometimes going onto Arcadia – home of the Los Angeles Arboretum and the Santa Anita Parkway. It’s also home to the Santa Anita Mall, which houses a big old movie multiplex Booze and I love!

After a Santa Anita Mall double-feature of SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN (which JG later comically condensed down to “SNOWMAN”) and DARK SHADOWS (which sadly, I want to banish to the Dark Shadows of my memory) – we paid for both, thank you very much – we decided to venture into Arcadia proper for an afternoon Happy Hour.

 Da Cantina

Utilizing trusty Yelp (it is trusty, you just have to find the average review somewhere between those a-little-too glowing ones and those written by the internet trolls who live under internet bridges), we found our way to Zapata Vivee!! on a quiet street in downtown Arcadia. Not that it’s the hottest spot on Yelp, but we did appreciate the helpful Happy Hour information posted by a friendly user. The restaurant and cantina is a pretty quiet affair – there was one older local drinking $3 bottled Miller Lights, but that was it.

Da Restaurant

The restaurant itself reminds me a lot of a mom'n'pop restaurant you’d find in any small town – an older smell to it (not bad, just not new), older décor, cute details like fake flowers in the lady’s room, and even a home-use blender to make the blended margaritas.

 

 House Margarita ($3.50)

Being gals who like the liquor to hit quicker (actually I just don’t like the brain freeze I get from blended ones :), Booze and I ordered a couple $3.50 House Margaritas on the rocks, with salt. I don’t think I’ve paid under $5 for something of that size anywhere in the vicinity and they tasted just right for a warm afternoon, so loving that. For vittles, we shared an order of Cheese Quesadillas, also $3.50 – which were a perfect sharing size, quite tasty, and at a price that can’t be beat.

 

Cheese Quesadilla ($3.50); Complimentary Chips & Salsa

I don’t think I’d ever drive to Arcadia just to visit Zapata Vive!! (seriously, the exclamation points are in the name!!), but I would recommend it for a quick drink and bite if you happen to be in the area and in the market for 4 drinks and 1 appetizer for under $20 (before tip). That’s rad.

-- JB

Rating: 3.5 Martinis

Fresh & Easy Twitter Wine Tasting: Summer Spirits

A new season, a new Fresh & Easy Wine Tasting Twitter Party! To kick off summer with their new wine specialties, Fresh & Easy grocery store invited The Happy Hour Tour and a mix of other food & drink bloggers to join in for their 3rd Twitter Wine Tasting Party. For this party, F&E mailed out gift cards so we could all pick up the wines at our local stores and recommended some delicious bites we could pair with the wine selection. Here’s all the wonderful stuff we tried: 

• Charonge Wine – just kidding, we didn’t try this one as our Hollywood store didn’t carry it (we got you, didn't we?!). But what we did learn was that the Charonge wine (Chardonnay with pure distilled orange) was dreamed up whilst its inventor was drinking Blue Moon, the perfect beer to drink with a slice of orange – he just figured why not try it with wine. Most of the group really enjoyed the wine though one Debbie Downer asked “so it’s basically just chardonnay and triple sec?” Fresh & Easy wine master Richard Wherry answered humorously, “Basically.” Wherry also discussed a possible 2nd wine blend – Lemon Grigio! My recommendation of Shirazberry was not responded to :).

• Big Kahuna Red Sangria – An awesome sangria that comes in a large plastic bottle and retails for $4 here in California, this sweet treat would be an ideal summer picnic or barbecue wine. A lot of us in the Twitter party have made our own sangria, but most of us agreed that the Big Kahuna version would be an easy and fine substitute if you’re low on time. We enjoyed our sangria with Manchego cheese and stoned wheat crackers along with Dalmatia Fig spread. So good I could cry!

  

The Vittles - Cheese Plate and Pizza!

• I Heart California Red Wine Blend – Here at HHT, we are true lovers of red blends and this Fresh & Easy brand bottle was a delight – full bodied and round with a smooth red fruit finish. We loved this with Fresh & Easy’s Tomato & Basil pizza and its almost-sweet crust.

An hour in and 2 bottles half-drank, the party wrapped up with talk of a Beer Tasting Twitter party later this summer. We might need to find some nice beer menz to partake in this gastro-culinary endeavor! If you know any, send ‘em our way!

--JB

The Spare Room

Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel

7000 Hollywood Blvd.

Los Angeles, CA 90028

323.769.7296

www.spareroomhollywood.com

twitter.com/SpareRoomHwood

Parking: $6 w/ validation

Day: Wednesday

Time: 8-10pm

Drink Deals: $3 Beer, $7 Featured Cocktail

Food Deals: $5 Featured Bar Bite

When I told a coworker that I was going to the Roosevelt Hotel for Happy Hour, he had a pretty strong reaction that they had no such thing.  Obviously, he’s no fan of The Happy Hour Tour because then he would know that this historical Hollywood hotel has Happy Hour at 25 Degrees, Public Kitchen, and even at The Spare Room, home of the $100 bowling.

Boom! Happy Hour proof.

Every Wednesday night, The Spare Room features a seasonal $7 cocktail and a $5 bar bite. There’s also $3 beers and half-priced bowling, but the real draw is the cocktails. For spring, the featured cocktail is the Barbarossa, a black tea gin cocktail mixed with lemon juice, sugar, and cabernet.  It is topped off with a Tarragon Meyer shrub and sweet & sour pickled peppadew pepper that.  Those two additions made me feel like I should be sitting on the large porch of a Southern estate, gossiping with the ladies of Steel Magnolias.  It’s nice to have a unique, refreshing cocktail on special because I might not be so adventurous to purchase the drink at the regular $14 pricing of all other cocktails.

I was too busy enjoying the drink to get a prettier photo.

For $5, the spring bar bite is a crispy falafel sandwich. I expected something that looks like it’s straight off the corner of a NYC vendor… not that there’s anything wrong with that.  Instead, I received a nice presentation of 2 small sandwiches served taco style with a fresh serving of sweet potato chips.  Rumor has it that the $5 lobster rolls from last year’s menu may be back soon!

Another plus to the deep dark bar, there’s a photo booth… hidden in the wall!  I’m a sucker for a bar that has a photo booth so it’s another reason I’ve been so eager to check out Spare Room.  When I couldn’t find the photo booth, I was a little worried that it was no longer there. The case was solved when one of the friendly lady bartenders came from around the bar to show me the hidden handle so I wouldn’t have to look like a pervert feeling up the wall. Once found, The Minty and I had a photo booth session. $5 gets you 2 strips!

All in all, I would definitely return to The Spare Room. Maybe I should place a friendly bet on whether or not there’s a happy hour here so I can score some free drinks!

-JG

Rating: 4 Martinis