Kitsap Dining

When I think of “Happy Hour”, I am fondly transported to my college days at the University of Montana in Missoula, MT during the early 1980′s when Happy Hour meant drinks were 2 for 1 or 1/2 price and appetizers were free.  Not only were appetizers just free, I recall most of the bars we went to for happy hour had an entire spread – one could have an entire meal from the appetizers given.  If you’ve ever been a college student, you know how important “free food” is to your budget… not to mention 1/2 price drinks.

Now I am transported to present day and my quest for decent happy hours in Kitsap County.  My daughter is living in Northern Minnesota where I moved here from and raves about her new hang out which she dubs the new “McLarin’s” – her take on the pub in “How I Met Your Mother”.  She raves about the appetizers and often eats her dinner off that menu because it is so great according to her.  However, it is far from free – gone are those days… the high economic times we experienced in the 80′s clearly are with us no longer… and as a dear friend often reminds me, nobody rides for me any more.

So what of Kitsap?  While work hours have been extended, happy hour times have not and the average worker bee who puts in a 9 to 5/6 will have trouble making it to a happy hour during the week I would suspect… or perhaps that’s the plan?  I have discovered that some venues have happy hour 7 days/week which is nice.  Just last night I went to Applebee’s with some friends for their “Girls Nite Out” specials which occur every Wednesday until closing.  Although the drinks on the menu of specials didn’t appeal to us, the Wednesday night specials did so we got a good deal on Margaritas and they were spectacular and I must say, I’ve not run into so many flavors anywhere else.  The choice of appetizers on special was quite adequate as well.  As a happy hour venue — the Girls Nite Out at Applebee’s scored high marks with us.  Our server did a fantastic job considering we had such a large group – we were never lacking for anything we requested/needed.  The only issue/complaint we had was that the music tends to be quite loud for a restaurant/bar – it had more the volume of a club scene which was a bit intrusive.  I do put this on my recommend list however.

I’ve been to Bremerton Bar and Grill on the weekend for happy hour and was totally dissatisfied.  The food was not made to order or satisfying and wait times were overlying excessive.  Although the environment and ambience is very metropolitan and what I miss from Seattle, I would be inclined to not return and recommend others not either…. unless of course you have several hours to sit and wait.

I’d love to hear recommendations for happy hour in the area… word of mouth is always a better referral!

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This entry was posted on Thursday, September 29th, 2011 at 10:59 pm by kitsapdining and is filed under Restaurant Review. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.