The Happy Hour

Happy Hour is a marketing term made by a genius for geniuses.  In theory, it is a brief period of time in which a restaurant or bar offers discounts on alcoholic drinks, such as beer, wine, and cocktails. But, that’s all about the bar isn’t it? Happy hour is for getting … happy. We know that. Under most circumstances it is in the late afternoon Monday through Thursday. The ritual time is usually at some period between 4:00 pm and 7:00 pm.

Happy Hour is also a term used to describe the gathering of work colleagues at a restaurant or bar after work hours. This is where office hook-ups happen and many marriages go sour – but, hey we were happy, right? In the glitzy and excessive 1980s, the bars started providing free hors d’oeuvres to patrons in order to reduce the rate of absorption of alcohol into the bloodstream, in an attempt to lower blood alcohol content.

All those freebies were offered because bars were pitching 2-for-1 cocktails or sometimes 3-for-1 cocktails. Any kind of drink, and at a discount too. This, of course, happened before the laws caught up with all the fun. Oh, and food too. The food stopped with the drink specials. They don’t even want us eating as much as we used to.