NIGHTLIFE

Happy Hour on Union Place

April 9, 2007
By DAVE MORAN, Special To ctnow.com

Whether you are in the market for a good meal or a place to unwind after work, Union Place in downtown Hartford is a safe bet and a solid destination for fun. From the upscale Hot Tomato's to the blue collar vibe of the Federal Café, this short street to the rear of Union Station is crammed with restaurants, bars and night clubs each offering their own distinctive ambiance and atmosphere appealing to just about any and all tastes.

The establishments that make up Union Place uniformly seem to know how to host a pretty happening Happy Hour party, too.

Here's the rundown:

Hot Tomato's
1 Union Place, Hartford
(860) 249-5100, www.hottomatos.net
Happy Hour: None
Specials: None

Now that the weather's improving, Hot Tomato's patio overlooking Bushnell Park should soon be opening up again, and it's one of the best places in downtown Hartford to kick back and relax with a few good friends and a bottle or two of wine (Hot Tomato's has an impressive wine list).

The interior of this swanky eatery is geared toward the young and the hip. Museum-like exhibits of tomato pop art adorn the walls, and the small bar area is set towards the rear of the restaurant.

Hot Tomato's serves some of the tastiest food in the Hartford area, (especially the garlic bread,) but the popular restaurant doesn't do much to commemorate Happy Hour – in fact, they don't do anything at all. No drink or food specials, and nothing in the way of live entertainment. There were a few people pulled up to bar when I popped in late Friday afternoon. The bartender said that things tend to pick up as it gets closer to dinner time and folks start to queue up for their tables.

I know from personal experience that the food is fantastic at Hot Tomato's, but I was in the market for Happy Hour fun that particular day, and not a good meal.

So I moved myself a little further on down the street…

Up Or on the Rocks
50 Union Place, Hartford
(860) 247-6257, www.uporontherocks.com
Happy Hour: 4-8 p.m. Fridays only
Specials: $2 drafts, $4 mixed drinks; free buffet catered by Randy's Wooster Street Pizza

I was a little surprised to find this popular nightspot open with the sun still up (since, you know, it's a night club). But Up Or on the Rocks host a Friday-only happy hour to kick-start the weekend.

Specials include a wide and eclectic variety of $2 pints. I was surprised, and happy, to discover that they keep Dogfish Head's 60 Minute IPA on tap, a delicious microbrew that you don't often find on tap, anywhere. There are also $4 mixed drinks and a free buffet catered by Randy's Wooster Street Pizza of Manchester. Several TVs are scattered around the bar area as well, so you can catch the game now that baseball season is here.

The buffet included an impressive-looking spread of pizza, chicken wings, a pasta dish, garlic bread and a very large, vegetable-filled salad. I promptly dove right in, and I'm happy to report all the food was delicious, especially the pizza.

As the summer approaches, the upstairs patio will also open up, and there's occasional live music performances during Happy Hour. This varies from week to week, and nobody could give me any solid information on upcoming performances. While I was there, a band was setting up in the upstairs level, but they were scheduled to perform later in the evening.

The bartender informed me that it's not unusual for people to pop in for a few drinks after work on a Friday, only to wind up staying and partying until last call at 2 a.m.

Bourbon Street North
70 Union Place, Hartford
(860) 525-1014
Happy Hour: 3:30-7 p.m. Fridays only
Specials: $1 bottles of Bud Light, $1 Apple Martinis; free buffet

Another popular nightspot trying to cash in on the Happy Hour crowd is Bourbon Street North, just a few short steps from Up Or on the Rocks. Like its neighbor, Bourbon Street is another Friday-only happy hour destination. The bar offers $1 Bud Light bottles or $1 Apple Martinis from 3:30 to 7 p.m., but I must admit that I was a little disappointed to discover that the place doesn't keep any beer on tap at the moment. "We're sort of in the process of retooling," the bartender told me.

Bourbon Street also puts out a free Happy Hour buffet, too, usually starting around 5 p.m. or so. The choices consisted mainly of chicken wings, a pasta dish, vegetables and dip, and a giant ham & cheese grinder. It didn't look as tempting as the food at Up Or on the Rocks, plus I was already pretty full, so I can't tell you how it was. But everybody else seemed to be enjoying it.

The place had an upbeat vibe to it, with almost everyone looking forward to the weekend. A few people seemed to be doing a pretty good job of getting an early start on it. Bourbon Street gradually became more and more crowded after the 5 p.m. hour. Fortunately, the layout of the place is large and spacious, and folks were settling comfortably into couches and large plush chairs in groups of threes, fours or fives to eat and drink.

KISS 95.7 was on hand after 5 p.m. to help get the party started. From the looks of things, though, the patrons were already doing a pretty good job of that on their own - with a help from those dollar drinks.

I was a little disappointed that I couldn't stick around longer, but I still had me two more stops to make.

Mad Dawg's Rock N' Roll Saloon
76 Union Place, Hartford
(860) 244-DAWG
Happy Hour: 4-7 p.m. Fridays only
Specials: $1 Coors Light, Miller Light or Miller High Life drafts, $2 Narragansett drafts, $3 well drinks. Free buffet.

Mad Dawg's Rock N' Roll Saloon is little more than one long hallway with a jukebox, some video games and a pool table in the rear. Seat 8 to 10 people around the bar and the place seems crowded. But by 6 p.m. Friday, there were easily three times that many people crammed into the place to the point that it was standing room only. It might have been the $1 domestic drafts (Coors Light, Miller Light and Miller High Life), or the $2 Narragansett drafts, or the $3 well drinks.

Maybe it was the free happy hour buffet off to the side, which looked remarkably similar to the spread at Bourbon Street North, because, apparently, they are both catered by the same place, Smokin' Mo's Catering.

Maybe it was the friendly and jovial demeanor of Jen the bartender, who I would later discover also owns the place.

Whatever the reason, Mad Dawg's was rockin' on that late Friday afternoon, and more than living up to its name.

I noticed a collection of ties hanging up around the bar. A peculiar decorating choice. So I asked Jen what was the deal.

"Oh, anybody who comes in here with one of those on," Jen said, flapping one of the ties. "We make them take it off."

"Why?"

"Because Mad Dawg's isn't a board meeting, it's a bar!"

That's a rule I can definitely get behind. So I settled on in for another drink with a smile on my face. It wasn't long before I'd struck up a conversation with the guys to my immediate left and right. Another drink later and we were the best of buds. Hey, in a place as small and intimate as Mad Dawg's, you can't help but get to know your neighbors – because they're practically sitting on top of you.

The Federal Café
84 Union Place, Hartford
(860) 527-0394, www.federalcafe.com
Happy Hour: 4-7 p.m. Monday through Friday
Specials: $2.25 domestic drafts; free buffet Fridays

I have to confess that I've had my share of…interesting times at the Federal Café, Hartford's oldest, and in my opinion, most colorful bar. Most of my experiences probably wouldn't be fit to print here, so I purposely saved the Federal as the last stop on my tour of Union Place.

The Federal is the only place on the street that runs its happy hour five days of the week. It's got $2.25 domestic drafts from 4-7 p.m., and $5 23 oz. drafts of Blue Moon ($4 refills). The domestic offerings on tap consist of Bud, Bud Light, Coors and Milwaukee's Best (yeah, that's still around). On Fridays, the Federal also serves a free buffet catered by downtown Hartford's The Red Plate, and all the free peanuts you can eat…provided you're willing to toss the shells on the floor when you're done with them.

Yup, the Federal is that type of place. A lot of people would probably refer to it as a "dive bar," but I prefer to think of the Federal Café as a "diverse bar." It's one of the only places in the city where white-collared corporate types mingle freely - and sometimes amusingly -among backwards-baseball-capped college kids and guys looking like they just stepped off the cover of a Tom Waits album.

On the Friday I stopped in there were even a couple of sailors at one corner of the bar who'd just started in on their shore leave.

As always, my Happy Hour experience at the Federal Café turned out to be both fun and interesting...

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