Live Music @ The St. Julien

Last Tuesday evening, the exceptionally pleasant weather left me no choice but to arrange a last minute happy hour outing. Seeing as it was already after 5 o'clock when inspiration hit, and my partner in crime wasn't free until 6 pm, AND we wanted to sit outside, our search for the perfect happy hour venue led us to the patio of the St. Julien Hotel.

Were we ever glad that our narrowed options led us to what might be Boulder's best kept happy hour secret. Not only does this happy hour run from 5-7 pm (click on the link above for details), but they also feature live music Tuesday thru Sunday. On this particularly perfect evening, AfroSamba provided jazzy tunes under a Flatiron backdrop while we enjoyed cold beer, frothy margs and a plate of nachos (I know, this is probably not what most people order while at the St. Julien, but sometimes you just want beer and nachos).

As hard as it was to resist the temptation to sit there all night enjoying the band, the cocktails, and the yummy bistro menu, all good things must come to an end. The good news is, you can have this same happy hour experience almost any night of the week at the St. Julien. Check out their website, http://www.stjulien.com/events.cfm, to see who's playing and to browse their extensive menu and creative cocktail list.

*Note: We were psyched to stumble upon AfroSamba! If you have a chance, definitely try to go to happy hour on a night when this stellar band is in the house.

A Euro Summer

If you're lucky enough to be going on a European vacation this summer, ciao! The rest of us are just happy enough to be able to get to the mountains for the weekend, thanks to steadily climbing fuel prices. But, this is a happy hour blog, so who wants to hear more about that? The point is, if you can't make it to France or Spain or ride your bike through Italy, you can still have a little European experience at Amante, and it'll only cost you from $2.50-$3.50 if you go during happy hour. Merrilee, of Amante Uptown on North Broadway tells me, "We're all Euro, so we show the bike races like the Tour de France and the Giro, and we show soccer games on two different TVs."

You'll forget that you're just sitting around Boulder if you visit Amante from 4-8 p.m. any day of the week and enjoy one of their refreshing cocktails and a scoop of gelato while watching European sports channels. It'll feel just as though you're soaking up the flavor and culture of the Mediterranean without the jet lag.

Oh, and P.S. Beyond their regular happy hour offering, you can get Moretti Lager on tap anytime for just $3.50, all summer long. We say, Molto Bene! to that.

Trattoria on Pearl

We at Happy Hour Boulder have always loved the Trattoria on Pearl. It was there, in fact, that we had dinner after conceiving our happy hour idea at Trilogy over bottomless glasses of wine (amazing that we ever launched a site after that). Sadly, we were never really able to celebrate happy hour success at this location, as they did not have a happy hour. Happily, they have remedied this situation and come up with something that looks worth our celebration. While we have not tried it out yet (according to our sources, it just recently launched), we have spent ample time fantasizing about the limoncello margarita. And, I'm done. You'll have to click on the link above to see what else their happy hour has to offer. I simply can't move on from the limoncello marg once I've gotten to thinking about it.

Cheers!

Welcome to the HappyHourBoulder.com blog. We invite you to join us as we discuss happy hours in Boulder and beyond, covering topics like deals, drinks, food, style, dating and whatever else that $3 dirty martini inspires. Here's to enlightening discourse on all things happy hour - cheers!

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