It’s not often I emote publicly. I’m not an advocate for telling your coworkers what you think of your boss on Facebook (while secretly hoping he or she doesn’t send you a friend request requiring you to back-edit up to several months); I won’t follow someone who gives a weekly sappy relationship update on Instagram. I won’t even open stories to give people the satisfaction of knowing I’ve viewed them. Yet here, in this public forum, I would like to personally thank you Happy Hour for being my best friend. You’ve seen me through terrible meetings (which could have been an email, Gary), long hours, weekday online dates, and yes, have kept me company more often than many a friend. Your craft beers and draught beers have hope, your select wine list is always intriguing, and your martinis, much like my thought process, come with a twist.
Happy Hour: Monday – Friday 12-7pm (Until 8pm on Thursday)
It’s not just Happy Hour, it’s several hours of happiness.
Happy Hour NYC
Happy Hour Really Is The Finest Hour.
Best Happy Hour Lower East Side
Happy Hour is offered on every civilized block, so how does one separate mediocrity from the superb? Easy—it’s a simple algorithm of variety over cost, divided by duration of stay. Or in other words, what can I get for how much and how long? One of my favorite happy hours near Union Square, located between the neighborhoods of East Village and Gramercy, is The Winslow. It is a lovely gin house and eatery that offers not only everything in that description but also a plethora of other spirits, select wines, craft beers, bar snacks, entrees and more. The blueprint of their happy hour stays true to form but they often switch up the variety, which I enjoy. For example, from Monday- Friday (all day from 12pm-7pm except on Thursdays when they extend it to 8pm) they always have a gin and tonic of the day. The NYC gin bar boasts over 40 kinds of quality gins that are often rotated through this particular special. This way, depending on when you come in, you can sample London Dry, Plymouth, New Wave, Navy Strength, Old Tom or some other style on special offer. If you’re not in to gin, worry not, they also offer select draught beer (again from a rotating variety of craft beer) as well as wine. Instead of bringing in cheap product just for happy hour, The Winslow offers their quality items for happy hour specials, because there are drink specials and then there are making lives sustainable.
It makes a difference in both one’s experience during his or her stay, as well as how one feel’s the next day. It’s not a “Why ask why? Drink Bud Dry” kind of place. You should ask why, especially if you’re in an establishment that has Bud Dry in its selection of beers. At The Winslow it is always a choice amongst quality items, not the lesser of two evils.
Never do anything by halves if you want to get away with it. Be outrageous. Go the whole hog. Make sure everything you do is so completely crazy it’s unbelievable.
Roald Dahl, Matilda
Late Happy Hour NYC
I remember when I first met you; I was still so young and impressionable. Sure, I had heard of happy hour specials before, usually a regrettable shot that helped me pinpoint where I went wrong the night before. But you, Happy Hour with your consistency and loyalty stood above the rest. You show up every workday, on time and know when to say “when.” After our first several encounters all I could think, besides the fact I had solidified a life-long friendship, was there by the grace of God go I. By “there go I” I of course mean I go to The Winslow, especially for their happy hour. It is not a beer hall, but it has a huge selection of craft and draft beers. It is not a wine bar but offer a decent selection of quality wines. It is not a full fledged restaurant but the food menu and bar snacks are so amazing you’ll wonder why you haven’t been eating the entire time you’ve been drinking (for a myriad of reasons). It is not a gin house—wait—got carried away—it is in fact a gin house which explains the glorious amount of gin they have in their arsenal.
(Actually, can we go back for a second and talk about their food menu? Their food is so far superior to the normal pub grub one has come to expect. Executive Chef Nathan Pauley’s dishes are both creative and delicious. If it weren’t such a great bar and cocktail lounge, you would forget you were in a bar the food is so good. You should eat something when you are drinking and probably will eat something when you are drinking so make it worth it. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk)
I’ve been to bars without you, happy hour, and sure, some of them are adequate, but I far prefer your company. Bars without you is like always being asked if I’m okay getting charged extra for guacamole. I absolutely am not I mean we both know you’ve backed me into a corner to where I have to agree to this coercion as “obviously, obviously I’m going to get the guacamole, Carol.” I’ve sprinted off on a tangent, and it’s okay avocado, I’m extra too, but it’s still nice to know you exist in the world, great happy hour. Sometime the little guy can win, and get more for less, and not have to be reminded as to why. You are an island of yourself in a sea of mediocrity. I shall call your island the Isle of Mixed Metaphor.
I shall stop comparing you to other things and get back to the root of my point: friendship. Friendships come and go, but you have always been by my side—meeting me after work to help me drink away the day’s woes. (Sometimes, when I’m least expecting it, you even surprise me on a weekend.) Just you, the many drinks fitting within my budget, and me– I enjoy drinking with you as it still allows me to make rent. You, as well as many scientists would concur alcohol is in fact a solution.
Happy Hour NYC
Whether it is the regular all day early happy hour Alphabet City’s The Winslow has every weekday, or even the late night happy it has on Mondays and Tuesdays, happy hour does not discriminate. It is equally lovely over sips of select wine, gulps of craft beer or nips of spirits. I appreciate your openness, happy hour, your versatility, and most importantly, your frugality. My favorite place, I would even go so far as to call it our place, would be The Winslow on 14th St. in Manhattan. It’s so convenient to meet you there as we both work near Union Square and live off the L Train and by far one of the best happy hours in East Village, Gramercy or even the Lower East Side, or entire East side. We can go anytime during a weekday and let the fates decide how our night is going to go. If we just want to see each other we can do so over draft beer, if we want to tell each other how pretty the other is we can do so over select wines, and if we want to tell each other how much we love the other, over and over again until the bartender hands us our tab, we can do so over gin.
Best Happy Hour In The City
Happy hour in The Winslow is the only time going out and drinking actually make me feel like I am making adult decisions. I’m slightly sophisticated while ever remaining fiscally responsible. The friendly and attentive staff know my drink (or drinks to be more accurate), the prices are more than reasonable, especially in this city and for what you get, and I wouldn’t want to cap off the work day with any other Happy Hour in any other bar in Alphabet City.
I love you Happy Hour, and I always will. Talk Soon.
C.M. Moorhead – Is a writer, author and lives in New York City.
p.s.
Dear Bar Patrons—
The Winslow loves and appreciates you as customers. This being said, I was shocked to discover that were some of you Saturday Frequent Fliers who were not in fact only children.
The reason for my surprise is clearly from a young age how much of shiny shiny star you alone were and around whom the rest of the universe merely revolved.
The bar industry is the only industry in which people feel entitled to treat employees of said industry in a certain manner.
Allow me to elaborate thusly:
If I were to venture into Staples for all of paper supplying needs, I would immediately be escorted out by security for any of the following actions:
- “I come in here all the time, I feel like I deserve some free paper. Can you hook it up?”
- pounds on counter I’ve been here almost a minute, can someone get me a GD pushpin?”
- “Who do I have to screw to get some ink?”
- “I love that red polo, when do you get off?”
- “I don’t remember not paying for my pens, I blame the White Out.”
- “I wouldn’t have vomited all over your workspace if you hadn’t let me purchase so many reams.”
- “Can I give you $50 for that $200 printer?”
- “I know the owner of Staples so I’m pretty sure he would just let me have this copier.”
- “Do I have to by a marker just to hang out here?”