Happy Hour or Happy Day?

Last night, for the first time since 2001, I attended Happy Hour. I remember my preceding Happy Hour pleasantly. We parked ourselves on the patio of the Kona Grill at Fashion Square Mall in Scottsdale, Arizona. This award winning Happy Hour offered specials including deals on Bud Light, selected martinis, sake bombers, frozen drinks and $1.99 Ladies’ Margaritas. I cannot say for sure but we might have stayed for the reverse Happy Hour that took place Monday-Thursday from 9-11 p.m. 10 p.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday.

I still remember sake bombs, making friends a guy in a mullet so we could share an outdoor table, and picking on a guy wearing a bright blue Ralph Lauren Polo T-Shirt and a white coral necklace. I know that we started early and stayed until way after dark to be driven home by Amy’s now husband, Todd. And, at some point in the evening I drunk dialed my mom.

So how can I not have been back to a Happy Hour in the better part of a decade? See, I lived in a Chicago, a town where St. Patrick’s Day is a month long event. However, we did not have Happy Hours. In fact, they are illegal. The Happy Hour Law, which was passed by the Illinois General Assembly in 1989, “is designed to eliminate the over-consumption of alcoholic liquor and to eliminate promotions that encourage over-consumption. ”


According to the State of Illinois Website activities prohibited by the Happy Hour Law include the following:
1. Serving two or more drinks to one person for consumption by that person.
2. Serving an unlimited amount of drinks during a set period of time for a fixed price.
3. Reducing prices of drinks during a specified period during the day or to a specified group of individuals.
4. Increasing the volume of alcoholic liquor contained in a without proportionately increasing the price regularly charged for that drink on that given day.
5. Encouraging or permitting games or contests which involve drinking alcoholic liquor or awarding drinks as prizes.
6. Advertising, in any way, any practice prohibited by the Happy Hour Law.
7. Serving traditionally “individual” drinks in carafes, pitchers, etc., is considered by the Commission to be a violation of Happy Hour.
Further information on liquor license laws can be found by visiting the Illinois Liquor Control Commission website: www.state.il.us/lcc

The inadvertent consequence of the law is, in the effort of not “reducing prices of drinks during a specific period during the day,” bar and restaurant owners design drink specials lasting from open to close. So instead of promoting people to drink a lot of alcohol in a short period of time due to price reductions, people are welcome to drink as much as they want all day long should they choose. Happy Hour can become Happy Day.

I will let the irony speak for itself.

Upon moving to California, for my job, I worked well past Happy Hour’s last call. So yesterday we met at Ztejas in South Coast Plaza where we drank, we joked, we laughed and I experienced being sophisticated and social. I indulged my first Happy Hour in over 9 years.

Next objective, to locate one not at a mall! Any suggestions? What are you favorite Happy Hour memories?