Get Happier

Happy Hour Promotions That Don't Suck


By Steven Bevilaqua

Perhaps the easiest and most popular promotion in the entire nightclub and bar industry is a simple happy hour promotion. Slash the prices, throw out some extra drink specials mid-day or after work, and soon enough there will be a steady crowd of devoted Happy Hour patrons. When drinks are a bargain, people tend to flock toward them, especially when those discounted libations will help them to relax and enjoy themselves.


There are literally thousands of Happy Hour promotions all over the country. Most cater to the lowest common denominator, as mentioned above. Less expensive drinks mean lots of sales.


Magnetic Sales

The daily Happy Hour promotions at Magnetic Field in Brooklyn Heights, N.Y., are just a tease for the all-day Happy Hour on Tuesday. At the Rock 'n' Roll-themed bar, Happy Hour runs from 5-8 p.m. and has done so every day for the past two years, since Magnetic Field opened. At Magnetic Field, Happy Hour features $3 pints for the more than 14 rotating tapped beers, but otherwise, they don't need to specify, as owner William Crane says they've got, "a plethora of drinks" and a full bar.


Tuesday's at Magnetic Field is all about roping in customers on a slow day. Not to say that Tuesday is regularly a slow day. It's just that, so early in the week, a drink deal is the best incentive someone can have to stop in after work. Another incentive at Magnetic Field is the Rock 'n' Roll combo that is run on occasional evenings. Crane says it is specific to the night but generally includes a beer and a shot of whiskey for $5.


Magnetic Field doesn't do much by way of paid advertisements, but they have an e-mail list they send out Happy Hour notifications and other promotion information on. There is a running signup list in the bar for new patrons. Other lists, such as New York's online craigslist, provide helpful, free advertising for Magnetic Field.


Cuba's Finest

There is a sign at Little Havana that may have immortalized its presence in Dallas, at least to some people. Actually, Dallas Mayor Laura Miller is one of those people. The restaurant and bar, which boasts the "most authentic Cuban food in the city," has a sign up depicting a military fatigued Miller pointing at a cigar-smoking Fidel Castro, and the sign reads "Madame no is banned from Little Havana Restaurant." This is in fact owner John Leatherwood's version of a no-smoking sign. Of course the sign comes with an added controversial twist that literally bans Dallas's mayor from the restaurant.



Though Little Havana has only been open a short time, they began running Happy Hour promotions immediately. Leatherwood says they're pushing Happy Hour promotions hard because it's one of the easiest ways to bring in the after-work crowd, especially on Mondays.


"We're doing a lot of things to get out there and get noticed, but we've mainly been pushing the "Monday Night Football" and the Monday night $2 beers." For Monday, reduced-price Happy Hour runs all day long and for a bar that is open till 2 a.m., that's enough Happy Hour to float even the most depressed among us to our happy place.


Leatherwood says the $3 Mojitos during Happy Hour have quickly become the biggest seller, as it is one of Little Havana's specialty drinks. So, maybe there's no smoking allowed but, oh well, a mouth plugged with a $3 Mojito is a mouth unable to smoke.


In addition to bargain drinks, Little Havana treats customers right with a random Happy Hour party given to a group of patrons in the bar. The special goes out to good customers to show appreciation and to promote the general well being and kind treatment of the regular Happy Hour customers.


"We pick certain customers and give a Happy Hour special for them and their friends where we'll provide a cocktail hour for them," Leatherwood says, "We'll do drinks and appetizers just to help promote and give thanks to some of our good customers."


Get Snowed In

Since 1978, Westport, Conn. has seen a daily Happy Hour from 4-7 p.m. brought by the Black Duck Café, a waterfront-drinking hole, which is an actual barge reinvented as a bar with a rustic atmosphere, a 90-item menu and a 40-foot bar.


Sure, the daily Happy Hour is nice and all, as owner Peter Aitkin says, "It's a good time to get people in. They've just gotten out of work and if you get them to your place first then they're probably going to stay there until they go home. It's just to entice people from the office or coming along."


But it's an entirely new event at the Black Duck Café on Fridays. They put out a hot and a cold spread that is free for anybody who comes in during Happy Hour. Aitkin says it could be anything the staff chooses from the menu, but it's "usually a long sandwich that we make ourselves and a hot dish that could be anything from a hamburger to meatballs. We put it out and Happy Hour on Friday runs from 4-7, and we keep it going till 7."


There is no need to advertise, as a free meal is generally known to attract countless numbers of people to any establishment. Aitkin says he tries to do as much promoting as he can in-house and on the Internet but doesn't feel the need to do much by the way of print newspapers or radio advertisements.


Finally, one of the more bizarre Happy Hour specials that Black Duck runs is the original, Get Snowed in at the Duck promotion, where all drinks drop to Happy Hour pricing every time it snows. As long as it's snowing, the drinks are cheap. That accounts for quite a fair amount of cheap drinks when the average East Coast Connecticut snowfall is 30-35 inches. NCB