Bee Scene: Drinking on the Cheap

Finally, I have a forum to write about one of my absolute favorite activities: happy hour!

I know, I know. I’m supposed to write about “events.” But doesn’t planning a mass gathering where everyone drinks affordably qualify as an event? Yes, I think so.

Now that summer is approaching, bars are accommodating the drinking crowds by offering some thirst-quenching specials. I polled many of my libation-loving friends and they offered up their favorite cheap drink joints. (This is what you call “blog-phoning it in” when your flight to New Orleans leaves in a few hours!)

And now, I present to you many frosty reasons to leave work on time.

Around 14th Street:

Benny’s Burritos: $4 margaritas every day (113 Greenwich Avenue)
Just don’t think about how many calories are in three raspberry margs.

Flight 151: $1.50 drafts from 5-7 p.m. (151 8th Avenue, no website)

Greenwich Village:

Fiddlesticks: After Work Happy Hour Monday-Friday from 4-8 p.m. (56 Greenwich Avenue)
All beers, house wines and spirits are $4. Once I saw a rugby team here; I keep coming back with hopes of seeing them again.

Down the Hatch: Half-price bar Monday-Friday from 2-8 p.m. Additional drink specials every day but I noticed Ladies Night on Tuesdays, which offers $1 drafts, and $2 draft Sundays.
DTH claims that their basement bar offers “a dirt-cheap reason to party.” I wholeheartedly agree, considering I spent most of my early-20s here.

Off the Wagon: Half-Price Happy Hour from 4-8 p.m. Monday-Friday (109 Macdougal Street)
Doing a waterfall with underage college boys: free.

Lower East Side:

Verlaine: Happy Hour with $5 lychee martinis, sangria and Vietnamese bloody marys, house wines and $3 Yuenglings until 10 p.m. every day (110 Rivington Street)
Try the lychee martini. I dare you to drink only three.

Welcome to the Johnsons: Monday-Friday Happy Hour, $1.50 PBR cans from 3-9 p.m. (123 Rivington Street, no website)
They have other drink specials as well ($2 Buds, $3 bloody marys), but I prefer to waste away my weekend afternoons here, when their PBR special goes from 1-9 p.m.

East Village:

Arrow Bar: Two for One Happy Hour until 9 p.m. daily (85 Avenue A, no website)
Come on Monday nights at 8 p.m. for East Village Idiot’s weekly Triviotic game!

Bar None: $2 Bud drafts, $3 well drinks and other drafts from Noon-8 p.m. every day (98 3rd Avenue)
Bar None advertises that they host “NYC’s Longest Running Happy Hour,” but I cannot stress enough the importance leaving the minute this happy hour deal ends. For a good two years, my friends and I would meet here after work and stay a bit too long until the bar turned into “Club None.” As soon as the velvet rope came out, we made a run for it.

Blue Owl: Free well vodka from 5-6 p.m. and $5 specialty cocktails until midnight on Wednesdays (196 2nd Avenue)
My friends tried to tell me how awesome this deal was, but their heads were still pounding. You can love vodka, but vodka won’t love you back.

Bua has $5 cocktails till 8 p.m. on weekdays and 5 p.m. on weekends (122-126 Saint Marks Place)

Company: Two for One Happy Hour until 8 p.m. (242 E 10th Street, no website)

Finnerty’s Irish Pub: $7 Red Wolf pitchers, every day (221 2nd Avenue, no website)
A personal plug for my favorite beer, even if it does give me vivid nightmares.

Hop Devil Grill: Weekday Happy Hour featuring $3 pints, $4 wines and $5 mixed drinks from 4-7 p.m. (129 Saint Marks Place)

Rue B: Two for One Happy Hour from 4-8 p.m. daily (188 Avenue B, no website)

And if you have Summer Fridays (you lucky person):
Key Bar: Two for One Happy Hour every day from 5-10 p.m., and now on Fridays starting at 2:00 p.m. (432 East 13th Street)

My advice? Visit your favorite bar or lounge’s website and sign up to receive their e-mail alerts. It’ll be worth your while and your wallet will thank you.

Leave your favorite bar deals in the comments section.

Coming soon: uptown drinking! (Yes, there is life above 14th Street. And they also enjoy a cheap brew.)