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Where Is the Best Happy Hour in Downtown LA?

Where: 633 West Fifth Street, 4th Floor [map], Los Angeles, CA, United States, 90071
February 9, 2009 at 2:23 PM | by | Comments (0)

Take the 400,000 people who commute into downtown Los Angeles every weekday. At 4:30pm every day, present them with this little brainteaser: either you can sit on the freeway for two hours inhaling smog while the seconds of your life slowly tick way or you can throw back a few cocktails at one of downtown's fine dining establishments.

The resulting situation is what economists refer to as a "market opportunity" and predictably there are a number of restaurants that have opened after-work happy hours in recent years. These are much-needed bright spots in the lives of those who have to work in downtown LA and the unlucky business travelers who have to shack up there instead of Santa Monica or Beverly Hills.

That said, we sought out the best happy hour in downtown LA and it all comes down to the cheeseburger.

During normal hours the McCormick & Schmick's in the US Bank Tower is a seafood restaurant with white table clothes and market price lobster. But between 3pm and 7pm, and then again between 9pm and 10pm, they offer a quite simply spectacular happy hour menu.

The $1.95 section of the menu includes quesadillas, chicken wings, a bunch other things, plus - crucially - the McCormick & Schmick's cheeseburger. That's a gigantic cheeseburger plus fries for exactly one US dollar and ninety-five cents. There's also a $5.95 section of the menu that includes things like pork sandwiches, calamari, and chicken nachos. We think that this is for people who don't know about the cheeseburger.

Downtown has gotten big enough that there are now even weekend happy hours, for those days when McCormick's stubbornly insists on being classy. Bar food can be had at Weiland Brewery, a downtown fixture with daily happy hours from 3pm till 7pm and from 10pm till closing. A little higher up the restaurant food chain, Wokcano also has a daily happy hour from 3pm-7pm. Even the upscale Ciudad - a downtown foodie destination that specializes in Cuban fare - has a Sunday happy hour from 4pm-9pm.

We only bring these to your attention because, in these tough economic times, it's important to make sacrifices.

Related Stories:
· McCormick and Schmicks [Official Site]
· LA Live Gets Percolating But Watch What You Are Wearing [Jaunted]

[Photo: Erin.kkr]

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