"Where everybody knows your name"

Our group of friends has always wanted a place like MacLaren’s on How I Met Your Mother (or as we more familiarly call it – Himym). For those who are old as dirt and don’t get the Himym reference – think Cheers. 

How I Met Your Mother

In a perfect world we’d all live in the same building and all meet downstairs at the local bar, nightly. But alas we are spread across the city and all have different spots we like to haunt – most of which are close to our own apartments so we don’t have to worry about DUIs.

But when we all do meet up on weeknights for a drink – we almost always go to Oak Fire Pizza.

We each have our own reasons for loving the place: V and I love their happy hour (50% off pizzas, apps, beers, wines, mixed drinks) and consider it one of the best deals in town. Our buddy Drew (who’s birthday is today!) loves it because one of the hostesses mercilessly flirts with him. My guy Mike likes it because there are lots of flat screens and they are always tuned into sports. For those of us who live in WeHo - we love it because can walk/stumble home after dinner.

Long story short – it’s our meeting place.

So if you’re looking for a great happy hour spot after work come join us at Oak Fire. We’ll even be there tonight for Drew’s Bday – just look for the rowdy group that’s disproportionately male.

Cheers!

Oak Fire Pizza (Formerly Stone Fire Pizza)

829 North La Cienega Boulevard

Happy Hour: 4pm - 7pm

Recommended Pizzas: Four Seasons, No-Name, Perfect Pie, Chicken Pesto

Eat and Drink for Haiti

A few ways you can get great food and drinks while also donating to Haiti disaster relief:

FIG Restaurant (Santa Monica): Saturday, Jan 23rd. All wine proceeds will go to "Share Our Strength"
Locali (Hollywood): Sunday, Jan 31st. 11am - 4pm, LA Bake Sale for Haiti.
Isla Cantina (West Hollywood): TONIGHT, Wednesday, Jan 20th. 20% of all food and beverages sales go to the Haiti Relief efforts. The restaurant is also offering a special "Haiti Relief" cocktail where 50% of sales will be donated.
Haven Gastropub (Orange): Monday, Jan 25th. ALL proceeds to go Haiti Earthquake Relief.
Susan Feniger's STREET (Hollywood): 15% of all gift card sales go to Doctor's Without Borders. 
Barbrix (Silverlake): Sunday, Jan 24th. 5pm - Closing, 10% of gross sales will go to Doctors Without Borders to benefit the victims of the earthquake in Haiti.
Beach Pit BBQ (Orange County - 3 Locations): Thursday, Jan. 21st. 100% of food sales go to helping Haiti Survivors.

For a list of more restaurants donating proceeds to Haiti Relief check out the list compiled by CitySearch.

http://losangeles.citysearch.com/list/172921

Deal Alert!

Here's a great deal at West Restaurant and Lounge in the Hotel Angeleno:

$60 worth of food/drinks for only $30!
We've never eaten at this spot before but its a lounge too - so if you're don't want to eat dinner there you can use all $60 on drinks!

The deal is available at Groupon - to sign up click here: http://www.groupon.com/r/uu310080.

You can only purchase the deal today so hurry up!!

Note: Even if you're not interested in today's deals - Groupon has great offers (a new one every day) on other food/services/events in and around Los Angeles (as well as in tons of other major cities around the country.) So its definitely worth signing up so you can take advantage of future offers.

Expensive... But Worth It

This is in no way a ‘deal alert’. This place is expensive (i.e. the $12/beer, $19/martini kind of expensive…) However, if you limit yourself to one drink, or you toss a few back at home before you head here, this place is definitely worth the money.

The Place: Four Seasons Beverly Hills  (300 S. Doheny Dr.)

The Time: Thursday – Sunday nights in the Windows Lounge.

The Reasoning: There’s a live band and they are great. The lead singer rotates throughout the weekend but the guy who is there Thursday nights (tonight!), who also plays guitar, is amazing.

You feel swank as soon as you arrive here – a great high-end lounge feel. And you really never know who will be in the crowd on any given night. One night we had a friend buddy-ing it up with Cuba Gooding Jr. and Stanley Tucci, another time we made friends with an exec from William Morris, and last year we watched James Brown’s son cut a rug to the band’s rendition of ‘It’s a Man’s World’ (We highly recommend you request they sing this – its their best number).

And the snacks must be mentioned – not beer nuts – but when you order a drink you’ll get a selection of snacks: fried snap peas, sesame snack mix, and terra chips. The waiters recognize us at this point and usually fill our trays with just the snap peas – our favorite by far. (Wow we sound like cheap dorks getting excited over bar snacks...)

We’ve taken friends, parents, and dates here before for after dinner drinks and just about everyone has had a great time. So have a few glasses of wine at dinner then head over here for your $12 Stella… you will not regret it.

(Warning: consuming copious amounts of alcohol before you arrive at the Four Seasons may impair your judgment and result in the purchasing of multiple $15 rounds of booze… don’t say we didn’t warn you…)

Happy Hour Alert

4 - 5 - 6 Happy Hour at Susan Feniger’s STREET

Here’s the deal: STREET’s entire menu is based on street food from around the world and normally its pretty pricey. However from 4-7pm, Monday – Saturday, you can try selected items from the main menu for just $5 per plate. Each plate is small but they are meant as tastings (i.e. three hors d' oeuvres sized pepper poppers per plate…) A selected menu of drinks also comes at $5/glass.

The offer is only valid at the bar though so make sure you can grab a stool.

From our experience last night the place is pretty empty until around 7:30pm so grabbing three bar stools during Happy Hour was no problem. We shared all five of the menu items (Chile feta poppers – delicious, Kobe beef chili dogs – delicious, Shishito peppers – bland, Brazilian acaraje fritters – good, Burmese lettuce wraps – delicious) and we each had a few drinks. The drink options included a Gin Rickey, a ginger/lime/vodka drink, a rum based drink, and a red and white wine option (I had the red – it was great).

We definitely recommend checking this place out for Happy Hour if you want to try STREET without spending next week’s pay check. However – avoid the valet, its $8+tip, which is the equivalent of two delicious chili dogs…

Susan Feniger’s STREET

742 N. Highland (Just above Melrose)

Los Angeles, CA 90038

323-203-0500

Happy Hour Alert

Do the Humpty Hump...

I'm pretty sure this would be Wednesday's favorite song were the day to have emotions and a personality and what not... and if Wednesday had a favorite thing to do in the evening it would be to enjoy happy hour deals.

In honor of Wednesday/Hump Day Taste on Melrose is offering Happy Hour specials all day long. Specials include $3 Beers, $4 Wells & Wine, $6 Speciality Cocktails, and a limited menu of food items for $4-$5 (pizettes, mac n' cheese, calamari, shrimp...)

Normally their Happy Hour is a measly two hours, just 4pm - 6pm, which is impossible to make it to unless you work in WeHo (we don't) and have a cushy job that actually lets you leave at 5pm (we don't).

With an all day Happy Hour it might be one of those days you call in sick from work and enjoy this rainy LA day on the Taste patio, sipping discounted cocktails and nibbling on discounted mac n' cheese (its delicious there).

Enjoy & good luck in surviving the last 50% of your work week!

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