NIGHTLIFE

Happy Hour in Hartford: Lower Asylum

Unwinding at Mayor Mike's, Pig's Eye Pub, Tapas on Ann, America's Cup and The Red Plate

April 25, 2007
By DAVE MORAN, Special to ctnow.com

With its close proximity to the Hartford Civic Center, the restaurants and bars that occupy the section of Asylum Street west of Trumbull Street in the downtown area are always pretty busy whenever there's an event or a game in town.

And, since several of the most popular restaurants in the Hartford area also happen to call that particular stretch of street home, lunch and dinner time hours tend to find those same establishments extremely crowded as well.

But what about Happy Hour?

Those two to three hours smack-dab in the middle of the week day, usually between 4 and 7 p.m., when the job's done for another one, but dinner's still too early to go home and start.

How does the lower end of Asylum Street stack up to the rest of downtown during happy hour? Well, not bad, actually. It depends on the day that you go, who you go with, and whether or not you plan on sticking around for dinner afterwards.

America's Cup Bar & Lounge
1 Haynes Street (inside the Goodwin Hotel), Hartford
860-246-7500
Happy Hour: 5-7 p.m. Wednesday - Fridays
Specials: $4 glass of featured wine on Wednesday; $5 specialty martinis on Thursday; $3 domestic beers, $4 imported beers on Friday; free hors d'oeuvres

To be perfectly honest, I had no idea that this tiny little hotel bar existed, although I've walked past the Goodwin Hotel dozens and dozens of times. I think that's mainly because the entrance to America's Cup is restricted to a side door off the hotel on Haynes Street. That door locks after dark, so if you want to enter after hours, you have to use the Goodwin's main entrance, walk through the lobby, then hang a left once you pass the elevators.

Cozy would be the adjective that I'd use to best describe the interior of the place, with a very short bar and only a few small tables. And that's pretty much the whole set up. There's a big screen TV mounted over the bar area, so you can catch a game if one's on…and, due to the size of the place, you're pretty much guaranteed a good seat.

Happy Hour runs from 5 to 7 p.m. Wednesday through Friday, with different specials each day. Wednesdays are $4 glasses of featured wine, Thursdays are $5 specialty martinis, and Fridays are $3 domestic beers and $4 imported offerings. And there's always some sort of free hors d'oeuvres in the warming plate by the door. Hot wings were served the Friday I visited. Monday through Wednesday there is also live piano entertainment in the outer foyer.

But I was a little disappointed to find America's Cup had no taps, so all the beer comes poured from bottles, and the offerings weren't anything that I couldn't have poured myself at home.

If you go with a group of friends after work to kill some time before dinner, or if you're staying in the Goodwin from out of town, the relaxed, relatively subdued atmosphere of America's Cup might be appealing and enjoyable. But, to me, on that Friday afternoon, all that quiet seemed more sleep-inducing than soothing.

Tapas on Ann
126 Ann Street, Hartford
(860) 525-5988, www.tapasonline.com
Happy Hour: 4-6 p.m. Monday - Friday, all day Saturday
Specials: $3 drafts, $5 specialty martinis, bar snacks

The interior of this Mediterranean eatery and bar, situated just around the corner on Ann Street, is very small , so when it's packed, it is packed, with elbow room at a premium. But for good reason. The food at Tapas on Ann is great. Happy Hour, however, seems to be largely a hit-or-miss affair.

On the recent Friday when I showed up at 5:30 p.m., it was a definite miss. Apart from the waitstaff and myself, the place was empty. But the manager didn't seem too worried about it. "It'll pick up as it gets closer to dinner," he told me. Plus, the Wolf Pack were in town, so he seemed confident that after the game let out it would be standing-room only.

Tapas' runs its happy hour from 4 to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday with $3 drafts. Note: Tapas only keeps four varieties on tap. There are $5 specialty martinis, and some sort of bar snack to munch on.

If you plan on going to Tapas for happy hour with a group of friends from the office, or if you wanted a few drinks before dinner, I'm sure Tapas' intimate, laid-back atmosphere would be very appealing. But for a livelier crowd (or a crowd period), I had to look elsewhere on that particular late Friday afternoon. Sure enough, though, when I passed by Tapas later on in the evening, it was indeed packed - standing-room only.

The Red Plate
253 Asylum Street, Hartford
(860) 524-8635, www.theredplate.com
Happy Hour: 4-6 p.m. Monday - Friday
Specials: $2.50 drafts

Much like Tapas on Ann, The Red Plate is a restaurant first, and a bar second. The restaurant serves some of the best and most interesting varieties of pizza in town. (If you're feeling particularly adventurous, try their Lighthouse Pie with clams, parsley and lots of garlic.) The bar can be found to the immediate right as soon as you enter, and can accommodate about a dozen people. A few small tables and chairs scattered nearby seat a few more, but the majority of the place is restaurant. People primarily saddle up to the Red Plate's bar to wait for friends before dinner, to grab a quick bite and maybe catch some of the game, or to wait on a pick-up order that's not quite ready yet.

So the Red Plate doesn't seem like much of a hang-out place. But maybe it could be. It's got a great view of Asylum Street and passers-by through the floor-to-ceiling windows. The happy hour runs from 4 to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, with $2.50 draft beers (six on tap). Unfortunately, no discounts on any of the delicious pizzas or appetizers during that time.

Mayor Mike's Restaurant
283 Asylum Avenue
Hartford, CT
(860) 522-6453
Happy Hour: 4-7 p.m. Monday - Friday
Specials: $4 cosmopolitan & sour apple martinis, $3 drafts of Coors Light, Blue Moon & Guinness

Until I walked into Mayor Mike's Restaurant that Friday afternoon, my search for people enjoying happy hour in this part of downtown proved to be more elusive than I expected. But I soon realized that, yes, there were plenty of people enjoying happy hour. They were all at Mayor Mike's.

The bar side of Mayor Mike's was seriously packed. Seats at the bar were filled to capacity, as were any nearby tables. Most everyone seemed to be enjoying the atmosphere with large groups of friends or co-workers. The crowd seemed to be pretty diverse as well, with people of all ages and occupations. Guys in blue jeans and t-shirts who didn't look much older than their mid-20's sat at the bar beside much older gentlemen in heavily starched suits, white shirts and power ties.

I squeezed myself into a spot at the end of the bar as best I could, and it wasn't long before the bartender and some of the surrounding patrons made me feel right at home. Which is another thing I quickly noticed about Mayor Mike's: it had the definite feel of a neighborhood bar and seemed to be populated by a slew of regulars whose names (and beverage of choice) were known by most everyone in attendance.

Happy Hour runs from 4-7 p.m. Monday through Friday, with $4 cosmopolitan martinis, $3 drafts of Coors Light, Blue Moon or Guinness. Sadly, no food specials or live entertainment. I didn't really see where a band could fit anyway. But almost everyone there seemed to be filling up on some sort of appetizer from the adjacent restaurant's menu.

I liked the vibe and the scene at Mayor Mike's a whole lot, and easily could have sat at the bar and chilled out with a few cold drafts and several games on the TV sets scattered around the place. But I had one more place that needed to be scoped out.

Pig's Eye Pub
356 Asylum Street, Hartford
(860) 278-4747, pigseyepub.com
Happy Hour: 4-7 p.m. Fridays only
Specials: $2 drafts, free buffet after 5 p.m.

The Pig's Eye Pub is one of the most popular spots in downtown Hartford for late-night fun. On any Thursday, Friday or Saturday night you'll routinely find this spacious bar jam-packed with college-aged partiers and the young professional set. But I was curious to find out whether Pig's Eye could draw a crowd while the sun was still up, and whether the place's rambunctious, free-spirited vibe would also appeal to downtown office workers as an after work diversion?

I can happily attest that the Pig's Eye makes a very strong effort to reach out to tired and harried workers of all types as a potential oasis from the grind of another long, hard work week. The bar provided one of the more impressive and entertaining happy hours I've encountered in downtown Hartford.

Happy Hour runs from 4 to 7 p.m. Get any of the 18 drafts for $2. The free buffet included hot wings, potato skins, meatball subs, chips and dip, and several varieties of pizza after 5 p.m., as well as a live solo acoustic performer playing popular cover tunes.

And the interior of the Pig's Eye is large enough to really spread out and relax with friends. Pool tables in the rear are available for anybody looking for a game. TV sets screen a bunch of the latest games, and the Pig's Eye covered patio area is a great fresh-air retreat, open rain or shine, summer or winter. The crowd at Friday happy hour seemed pretty diverse as well: a good mix of age groups and occupations, suits and ties beside jeans and t-shirts, with everybody kicking back and forgetting about the past week.

The only real drawback about the Pig's Eye happy hour is that they only host it on Friday afternoons from 4 to 7 p.m. Besides that, I can't think of anything else to complain about…well, okay, the food wasn't that great. But hey, it was free.

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