San Francisco Food Blog

sirgious/Flickr

Gas up and go.

​Now that the bridge is open, reacquaint your Hyundai with the span by taking a little road trip to Oakland tomorrow: Take a late lunch (or leave work early, we dare you!) and hit Taco Tuesdays at The Dock at the Lake Chalet Restaurant (1520 Lakeside at 17th St.), in Oakland tomorrow. Tacos are $2.50, draft pints of Lady of the Lake, Lake Merritt IPA, and Regatta Red beers are $3, and tequila-lime-agave margaritas are half off, ringing in at $4.50. Taco selections include blackened fish with corn salsa, carne asada with white cheddar, or seasonal veggie and black beans with queso fresco. The Taco Tuesday promotion is special enough to warrant opening The Dock space two hours early, starting at 2 p.m. Plan accordingly -- but then, after nearly a week of bridge closures, you got used to that.

T. Palmer

Candybar's Nacho Sundae: Papaya, mango, kiwi, cilantro, avocado yogurt, candied jalapeño, horchata ice cream.

​Kung Fu Tacos, the Pan-Asian taco truck serving the lunch crowd at Montgomery and Sacramento streets in the Financial District, now motors over to Candybar (1335 Fulton at Divisadero) every Tuesday and Thursday from 6 to 8 p.m. for happy hour.

We discovered that Candybar's current menu of eccentric sweets contains a perfect pairing for your mu shu veggies or war shu char siu tacos: chef Kyle Caporicci's nacho sundae ($8), which lands on the table in a characteristic red plastic basket, filled with cinnamon sugar crisps dusted with cilantro and topped with a salsa of kiwi and papaya, mango matchsticks that look like cheese, avocado yogurt in place of guac, and horchata ice cream masquerading as sour cream. A jalapeño slice is coated with sugar, but not enough to disguise its zing (we love it.)

Happy hour also features a number of drink specials: $2 for Pacifico, $3 for sangria and house sparkling wine, and $4 for a choice of four sparkling wine cocktails. SFoodie was curious how this cool cross-pollination came to be -- that is, until Candybar proprietor Tan Truong told us he also happens to be the owner of Kung Fu Tacos.

Lawrence Sinclair/Flickr

See? Just like home, but without the thrift-store couch and murky bong.

​Potrero Hill's Axis Café calls itself "the neighborhood living room," which is immediately evident when you walk in and see the roaring fireplace -- even in the middle of the afternoon. But unlike, say, our living room, the décor here is industrial chic: huge windows, vaulted ceilings, and concrete walls. Comfy couches and armchairs take up space between the tables, and it's perennially breezy thanks to the large outdoor patio. The California-style food (soups, salads, and sandwiches) is fairly sophisticated, at least for a coffee shop. Everything's fresh and presented well, though it's relatively pricey.

Topped with crème fraîche and a bit of crostini, tomato basil soup ($4) was light and flavorful. The grilled cheese with tomato ($7) was buttery and crisp on the outside, gooey on the inside. Its blend of Swiss and cheddar stood up to the flavor of the sourdough, and the tomato added freshness. Of all the deftly made coffee drinks, our favorite is the simplest: Axis' house blend drip ($1.75) comes with free refills, something we'd like to see become a habit at other coffee shops. If you're looking for more of a kick than caffeine can provide after a day of work, Axis has a happy hour from 5 to 7 p.m. that features $2 off glasses of wine and $3 beers. Monday evenings at 5 p.m. it's family night, with toys and games for kids to play with. It could be nice -- in the comfort of someone else's living room, when it's not you who has to pick up the scattered game pieces.

Axis Café 1201 Eighth St. (at Wisconsin), 437-2947.

pestochampionship.it

Epic pounder Danny Bowien

​About a year and a half ago, a 25-year-old Korean American from San Francisco won the Pesto World Championship in Genoa, Italy. Call it the Miracle on Ice of Italian regional cookery contests, but Danny Bowien, then chef at Farina (now at Magnolia), thoroughly mortared and pestled his mostly Ligurian competition in a dramatic upset, taking home the grand prize -- which was not, sadly, a gigantic gold-plated basil leaf suitable for wearing on a heavy, low-hanging chain around the neck. If you want to sample this man's silken pesto -- on some Tartine bread, no less -- you don't have to drop major ducats at Farina. Instead, visit Agrarian Art Labs' pop-up bean restaurant The Spotted Rooster when it flaps and hoots over to Gravel & Gold's BYOB Happy Hour this Friday, Oct. 16, beginning at around 5 p.m. Pesto, meet bread; bread, meet pesto. How do you all do? We think we saw a bean you'd love to get to know.

Lea Suzuki/Chronicle via Yelp

The $10 deal is available in the lounge at 1300 on Fillmore.

​For the rest of the month, $10 will get you an ample dose of jazzy -- we'd even say sexy -- atmosphere, along with an andouille hot dog and Oktoberfest Spaten beer. The lounge at 1300 on Fillmore (1300 Fillmore at Eddy) is celebrating beer month by giving lounge patrons (only) a relatively cheap deal. What makes it all a little more special is knowing that the kitchen makes its andouille in house, as well as the soft and buttery brioche buns and tangy country chow-chow relish (i.e., pickled cabbage) that go with. Creole mustard and potato chips are also included. A source at the restaurant confirmed via phone that guests can indulge an unlimited number of 10-buck specials, available from 4:30 p.m. till closing. By the way, according to a recent profile in the San Francisco Chronicle, 1300 on Fillmore chef David Lawrence has taken up running of late and has lost 20 pounds. But rest assured, the source said, that the svelte new Lawrence "does taste-test all of the food we produce." So there.

Swig: The backpack.

​Timbuk2 so loves its local drinking establishments that it has named a series of backpacks after S.F. watering holes (even the -- shall we say -- overly loved Grubstake and Endup). The company has named next week, Oct. 12-16, Timbuk2 Bar Week, and is offering some pretty sweet freebies during five days of happy hour specials.

On Monday, Oct. 12, the first three people to show up at the Blue Light (1979 Union at Buchanan) with customized Timbuk2 bags will win a Dolores Chiller pack. Tuesday, be one of the first three to donate your old T2 bag to At the Crossroads at Swig (561 Geary at Jones) and receive a Custom Swig pack. Wednesday, first three with a T2 bag to Dalva (3121 16th St. at Albion) get a Bag in a Box. Thursday, head to Hemlock (1131 Polk at Sutter) and find Tae; whisper "I love Timbuk2" and get a Hemlock pack. Finally, visit the T2 store (506 Hayes at Octavia) on Friday, October 16, wearing your T2 bag and you'll score a visit to the impressive factory, where you'll watch the customization of your new bag.

Each event takes place from 6 to 8 p.m., but you know how rabid people are for freebies, so show up extra early if you want a shot at winning.

T. Palmer

Kim chee mini-burger and sweet potato shoestrings.

​The S.F. location of Noodle Theory (3242 Scott at Chestnut) just launched a mini menu of $5 appetizers for its weekday happy hour, 4:30-7 p.m.(closed Tuesdays). We were definitely hungry when we heard about it. The apps sounded so good we made the trek over several hills to what for us is the other side of town. Luckily, it was all worth circling surrounding blocks for parking.

A hamburger dressed with kimchi on a rosemary roll and served with shoestring sweet potato fries was big enough for two of us to have a couple of good, juicy, zingy bites. A bowl of little shrimp and jalapeño slices were fried to a pleasing crispness, with extra credit for the inclusion of bacon bits in the tempura batter. Two soft corn tacos, brightened with Asian slaw, could barely contain their heaps of fluffy ahi tuna. 

T. Palmer

Bacon-tempura shrimp and jalapeño

​We bypassed the half-order happy hour special of noodles with ground Niman Ranch pork and spicy bean sauce only because we'd had it before and knew how good it was. We also held the garlic chicken wings and watermelon salad in favor of a whole, non-happy hour portion of the salad, presented with crumbles of feta, pine nuts, and a dollop of chili sesame oil ($9).

The $5 price also extends to a newly created white-wine soju sangria with Asian pear, lychee, and orange, in which the whole lychee becomes the equivalent of the mezcal worm. Singha and Lost Coast Great White beers are $3.

artandresistance/Flickr

Wear your crunchiest outfit.

​Big Ag sucks, high-fructose corn syrup is toxic like antifreeze, and even a cursory look at the American food system is enough to make any thinking person yearn to be a hermit goat farmer in Humboldt. That's why we often turn to Grist food editor Tom Philpott. A farmer-philosophe from North Carolina, Philpott has a way of breaking down monumentally unpalatable issues of food politics into Scooby-sized blog snacks, with opinions that sometimes waver from the progressive recipe book. He's smart.

Just so happens Philpott is in town at the moment -- he swung by SFoodie world headquarters yesterday, for an illuminating chat about current thinking around school lunch and the state of the American Slow Food movement. You'll have your own chance to chat tomorrow evening, when Philpott and Grist CEO Chip Giller host a (no-host) happy hour at 111 Minna Gallery (111 Minna at Second St.), 6-8 p.m. You'll leave feeling better, we promise. And not just from the Coronas.

Jeremiah M./Yelp

​First of all, the place isn't remotely cool. No antler chandelier like at Bloodhound, no horizontal slats of blistery wood like at Blackbird. Hell, it's not even instructively divey like Dave's. It's hung with vaguely creepy houseplants trailing fleshy tendrils, just like in your Aunt Linda's family room. Tiffany knockoff lamps on chains (again: Aunt Linda), the lights are turned up way too high, and there's nowhere you can stand where a TV screen isn't flashing a score or hyping Girls Gone Wild. But it's precisely Yancy's refusal to pander to a world that's moved far beyond 49ers jerseys and painter's pants that makes it, if not cool, then quirky. Comforting as thrift-store flannel, and just about as fusty. Show up weekdays between 2 and 7 p.m., and the prices get practically 70s-Nova nostalgic: a buck off drafts, and $3.50 single-liquor wells from a list that includes Jim Beam, Cuervo, and Smirnoff. Remember your last Smirnoff? Neither do we, but there's a couple jiggers of the stuff waiting for you in the Inner Sunset, and just in time for football. And you know what? Nobody cares what the hell you're wearing.

Yancy's Saloon 734 Irving (at Eighth Ave.), 665-6551

shirley77/Flickr

Doesn't this look better than those itty-bitty seats at the Opera House?

​Here's the thing: Unless you're able to manage that willing suspension of disbelief better than we are, you might love opera, but you don't love LOVE opera. Yeah, you enjoy dressing up and milling around before everyone sits, mingling with other so-called opera lovers. And the first act is always cool, just to grok the sets. But the thought of sitting more than two hours in those torture seats (your man parts getting all damp and bunchy) while singers vocalize in Italian? Give us a cocktail and a plate of fried olives anytime.

That's exactly what you can get at tonight's kickoff to Jardiniére's "Mid"-Night Happy Hour, 8-10 p.m. in the J Lounge (really, that's just another way of saying Jardiniére's bar, though it sounds cooler). In the middle part of the evening (get it? Mid-night?), just about the time the curtain rises on tonight's three hour and 20-minute performance of Puccini's Il Trittico at the Opera House, you can be sucking down $8 cocktails and appetizers: Wagyu sliders and Gruyère grilled cheese, among others, and drinks like the Bay Area Burro and Tickler's Delight. The offer continues Tues.-Sat. through December, possibly even beyond. Your man parts - or, um, the equivalent if you're a lady -- will thank you.

J Lounge at Jardiniére 300 Grove (at Franklin), 861-5555

T. Palmer

​If it's been a while since you had those perfectly crispy Belgian fries at Frjtz (581 Hayes at Laguna; 590 Valencia at 17th St.), the restaurant -- which actually serves quite a bit more than fried potatoes, by the way -- has a cool happy hour promotion. Score a small Frjtz and a Pilsner Urquell for $5 (plus tax) from 3 to 6 p.m. daily. There's a wide variety of dipping sauces, from good ol' standbys to the more adventurous (strawberry mustard, bacon mayo, ponzu ketchup). It's hard to choose just one.

J. Birdsall

Ribs should be an essential part of your strategy for happiness tonight.

​Today kicks off more than just the slightly hungover-around-the-edges start to the weekend. It's also the first day of Town Hall's patio happy hour. You know, just like the lunchtime outdoor barbecues the restaurant's been doing all summer, only with drinks. From 4:30 to 6 p.m., you can score the same house-smoked St. Louis ribs you get at lunch ($8 for a quarter slab, $15 for a half), as well as pulled-pork sliders ($3). And you can wash it down with a $3 beer of the day and $5 margaritas. Plus the way we see it, all that condensation from those beer bottles and cocktails glasses will help wash away all that delectable rib goo from your fingers (sort of) so you won't stain your Banana work slacks quite so much. Then again, you might end up so happy -- if you catch our drift -- you won't even mind lurching home on the N-Judah in sauce-stained chinos. Not till you get home and your partner sees them, anyway.

Town Hall 342 Howard (at Fremont), 908-3900

Rice Bear/Flickr

Yeah, baby.

​How'd the Tuesday back from your three-day turn out? Brutal? Even if you don't normally go all gushy over, oh, that Lady Gaga "Paparazzi" video, or spending daylight hours in a bar with a dance floor that flashes hard enough to induce seizure, you can find some measure of weekend extension at the two-for-one well-drink happy hour (3-8 p.m.) at Badlands. Yeah, we know: BOGOs are as much a cliché of gay bars as the mirrored pee trough, or the tragically hammered queen intent on sloshing every goddamn drop of her vodka-tonic on the blue suede of your new Adidas. But the vibe here is so amiably teadance-in-Ptown -- a Ptown inhabited by Asian guys who shop exclusively at H&M -- that it all feels vaguely vacation-like. Exactly what you need to rinse the taste of Tuesday out of your mouth. Just in time for Wednesday.

Badlands 4121 18th St. (at Castro), 626-9320

T. Palmer

New Orleans crawfish at CoCo's: A bargain for early birds.

​When we visited "Crawfish Happy Hour" at CoCo's Crawfish (2333 Irving at 24th Ave.), the hip-hop beats were blaring, the Cajun spices were sizzling, and the prices were a steal. Every Monday through Thursday from 3-6 p.m., crawfish are half-price according to market value; the current full price is $12.99/pound, so the corresponding happy hour price is $6.50/pound. This amounts to about 15-25 crawfish. The restaurant serves a few other entrees, such as Dungeness crab and fish and chips, but the crawfish actually comes from New Orleans.  We splurged and added a couple pieces of corn and snappy sausage (60 cents each) to our pound of craws and went for medium-level spice despite being warned that this is actually pretty hot. After letting it simmer in the plastic bag that arrived at the table for a few more minutes, it was exactly the burn we wanted, but now we're morbidly curious how scorching the hottest level must be.

gretchen robinette/Flickr

Things can get messy.

​ Even if you only aspire to the whole neckbeard and ink-sleeve look, and haven't yet wangled the sort of job (bread delivery guy? A.M. barista? ) that affords afternoons off, you can feel totally at home at this scuffed slice of Mission real estate. Especially on a swelter-y day like this, slip into a ribbed beater and hoist buck-off drafts and $3 wells (4-7 p.m.) in a sprawling room that's dim, cool, and more than slightly biker edgy. Plus it's Whiskey Wednesday, when you can get a shot and a PBR for a mere $5, all night long. Slink off to a table, or out to the tiny back patio, and remind yourself why you moved to this city in the first place, despite rents that tend to dash those barista dreams: its ability to totally effing chill. Pity the bridge-and-tunnel fools sweating the BART ride home to Concord, and get another beer in your system.

Bender's 806 S. Van Ness (at 19th St.), 824-1800

Kenn Wilson

​It's La Escuelita night at Pisco Latin Lounge, a kind of aural bouquet of lush paper roses with a heady whiff of retro Latino, pop sintetico, and old school dance stuff (DJ Juan Data starts up about 8 p.m.). Meantime, you can suck down drink specials spiked with Lotus vodka: a cucumber martini and a pomegranate vodka mojito (both $7). We know -- a bit pricier than two-buck PBRs, but Pisco is a classy place, and it's altogether likely that if you do meet somebody, he'll be a lot classier than some beercan crusher in bad sneakers. If you really want to impress, you can order an Anti-Todo, a mashup of vodka, raspberry liqueur, and a boatload of antioxidant juices -- kind of like Botox you can sip through a straw. It's $12, considerably cheaper than a trip to some plastic surgery clinic in South America.

Pisco Latin Lounge 1817 Market (at Guerrero), 874-9951

Aaron Gustafson/Flickr

Like a beacon of hope.

​We know it doesn't make sense in a city where the sweltering starts with the autumnal equinox, more or less, but there's something about the slipping away of August that feels like the end of a summer that never was. (Poignant, right?) The last thing you want is to be stuck at home after a night of crappy TV, with the inexorable start of the 11 p.m. news signalling a quick slide into Tuesday morning's grind. That's why the late-night happy hour at Velvet Cantina can feel like deliverance, especially on this last day of August. Check in for $3 margaritas, $2 beers, and -- if you're particularly depressed -- $3 Fernet shots (Sun.-Thu.). It's not too late to get giddy before bed, and on the cheap, too. Think of it as a particularly fitting way to mark San Francisco's actual summer solstice -- even if you'll have to wear your down parka for the long walk home.

Velvet Cantina 3349 23rd St. (at Bartlett), 648-4142

frankfarm/Flickr

The Grand Pu Bah: Trust us, the guys behind the bar have heard all the Flintstones jokes.

​The name's ridic ( it means "great, crazy crab," apparently, which, if you think about it, is even more absurd than "Grand Pu Bah"), but the place feels suave and design-y, all hushed lighting, hanging silk lanterns, and glowing bar. Happy hour (3-6:30 p.m.), it fills with designer types from nearby SFDC, folks who, while they might not think twice about ringing up $300-a-yard upholstery fabric, are all over a buck-oyster deal when they see one. That's right: you can get $1 select oysters from the crushed-ice pyramid near the bar, as well as $2 off cocktails and beers. While that's not the cheapest drink deal in town (regular cocktail prices clock in around $10), you never know: Get all flirty with the right liquored-up designer, and it might just lead to a discount on some sweet Anne Sacks tile. Worth a try, anyway.

The Grand Pu Bah 88 Division (at Henry Adams), 255-8188

Vintage Roadside

​We know. Unless you decide to cash out what's left of your 401(k), chances are you won't be commandeering a table in the dining room anytime soon. Don't despair. The Holy Cow! happy hour at Epic Roasthouse damn near deserves the kind of hyperbole an exclamation point confers. Weekdays from 3 to 6:30 p.m. in Epic's Quiver Bar, score $5 Sazeracs, Dark and Stormys, and certain vodka cocktails, or $7 selected vodka martinis. Or, if you roll spiritless, $3 bottled beer and $5 wine specials. Special prices on food, too, just so you can grab a toothpick on the way out, same as the big spenders in the restaurant downstairs -- $3 house-made soft pretzels and potato skins, and $5 smoked drumettes (classy). With prices like that, you'll be able to stick around a while for the view.

Epic Roasthouse 369 The Embarcadero (at Folsom), 369-9955

cat-chitchat.pictures-of-cats.org

​On Thursday, Pacific Environment will toast the survival of Siberian tigers while honoring Russian tiger conservationist Sergei Berezniuk at a happy hour at 111 Minna. Organizers are promising complimentary "light bites" in addition to the usual cash bar.

We don't know what those snacks will consist of, but if we could just imagine for a moment, we'd recommend Tiger Tails Twinkies, the Bay Area specialty of tiger bread (aka Dutch Crunch rolls), or Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon rolls (shrimp tempura, avocado, cucumber, and unagi) from Sushi Bistro (431 Balboa at Fifth Ave. and 2809 24th St. at York). Hopefully, organizers will be serving Tiger beer, too. Have a grrreat evening this Thursday, August 13, from 5 to 9 p.m. at 111 Minna Gallery (111 Minna at Second St.).

Rebekah T. via Yelp

Bender's Bar

Why cook when you can let someone un-cook for you? Try "recession-proof sushi" with an "adventurous" crowd from ICHI Sushi tonight from six to nine p.m. at Bender's (806 S. Van Ness at 19th Street).

Bender's is an unassuming, at-times rocking watering hole favored by hospitality industry peeps. Oh yes, there will be sake. The Bloody Mary, with sausage stick, or tap brews also offer liquid refreshment. ICHI's happy hour prices are low enough to allow for adventure: Rolls cost $4 and are six pieces each. Roll it any which way: Salmon avocado, spicy California (spicy crab, avocado, and cuke), tuna, and more. Nigiri comes in two pieces and costs $3; maguro (tuna), sake (salmon), shiro maguro (albacore), kani (crab legs), and inari (stuffed tofu pocket) round out the list.

ICHI Sushi was the winner of SF Weekly's "Best Traveling Sushi" award this year, and is tonight manned by newlyweds Tim and Erin Archuleta. Tim was a sushi chef at Tokyo Go Go for 13 years and Erin manages the business ops. Erin confirmed to SF Weekly that the traveling sushi idea started at the request of their bartender friends. "It's a good way to see people since we do catering so much," she said.

Triple Crown (1760 Market at Octavia), which was awarded Best New Club in the most recent edition of our Best of SF issue, offers some tasty snack and drink specials during what it calls its Happiest Hours. While the drinks and the music lineups vary daily (Fridays: $2 pints and the chilled grooves of DJ Darren D), the menu is buy one, get one half off on weekdays, 5:30-9:30 p.m.

SFoodie slid into a comfy seat there last Friday to enjoy some relaxing rhythms, suck down Stellas, and munch on plates of pleasingly crisp fries with spicy aioli and fresh mozzarella simply dressed with mint, basil, sea salt, and olive oil (both $7 before discount). Other menu items might include thin-crust pizzas with toppings like butternut squash and bacon or truffled mushroom ($10), veggie or slow-roasted pork tacos ($8-$9), or the hearty namesake burger ($12).

The "Happier Hour" at Basil Canteen (1489 Folsom at 11th St.) has an awesome menu of $5 snacks that captures the breadth of street-food offerings in Thailand, from Bangkok to Chiang Mai. The sai ouah pictured is a cavalcade of flavor, as you layer slices of Chiang Mai curried pork sausage with peanuts, ginger, lime, peppers, and onion. Other cheap stunners include the sakhoo saimu (pork and nuts encased in tapioca dumplings), peurk tod (taro fries with sweet sauce), and giow grob (fried shrimp and pork wontons). They're available Sundays through Thursdays from 5 to 7 p.m.

SanFranAnnie via Flickr

The Sidecar: A classic for shaky times

On Monday we blogged about Ronaldo Colli, the Americano bartender who walked away with both the technical and overall awards locally in this year's US Bartenders' Guild Association contest during Cocktail Week (he won another technical award in the national competition). We checked in with him today, post victory, to see what's shakin' -- and being shaken - behind his bar.

Happy-hour specials are the sliver lining of the economic crisis. At Americano they're taking the form of $6 cocktails inspired, appropriately enough, by the Great Depression. There's the Sidecar, a drink said to have been invented by an American army captain living in Paris during World War I. Americano's version is classic to the core: brandy, oj, Cointreau, and lemon juice, shaken and served up in a sugar-rimmed martini glass. It's a warming beverage for chilly nights when you want to pinch a penny (assuming you consider a six-dollar cocktail affordable). Colli's brandy of choice is Italian label, Stock 84.

Though its perch on top of the Moscone North complex might be hard to find the first time you visit, B Bar is worth seeking out at happy hour, when this Boxed Foods spinoff offers some of better values in the generally not-cheap neighborhood, as well as a great view and both indoor and outdoor seating. While officially located at 720 Howard (between Third and Fourth), it might more helpfully be described as in the Yerba Buena Gardens complex, between the Metreon and the Center for the Arts Theater, above the waterfall. If you know where Samovar Tea Lounge, B Bar is just at the other end of that rooftop plaza.

At happy hour, Orson (508 4th near Bryant) offers "classic cocktails" (i.e. well drinks) for $5, your choice of a martini, Manhattan, margarita, or southside (a Chicago specialty made from gin, lemon juice, mint, and simple syrup). These drinks are good, but note that the regular specialty cocktails, such as the "black Manhattan" made from top-shelf rye and Averna, still cost $9, and are arguably worth the higher price.

There aren't any discounts on the food, either, but the duck fat fries ($7) are definitely a good value. These are a perfected, grownup version of the McDonald's style, thin and crisp with a creamy center, and the browned-butter béarnaise dip served with them is amazing stuff. Orson's happy hour runs from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday.

The spread of free eats during the early-evening and late-night happy hours at Adesso (4395 Piedmont, Oakland) goes far beyond anything in SF proper. For the first two hours of business (5 to 7 Monday through Saturday), and then again for the last hour (10:30 to 11:30 Monday through Wednesday, 11 to midnight Thursday through Saturday), the buffet counter at the back of the room offers platters of house-made salumi and pâtés, panini, crostini, stuffed piadine (flatbreads), deep-fried croquettes, and salads.

This isn't one of those not-so-happy-hour deals where the food comes out once and disappears. The kitchen keeps it coming, constantly bringing out new items and replenishing old ones. In the course of an hour and a half at the bar, I sampled at least 20 different items, completely stuffed myself, and paid only my $12 bar tab. Quantity doesn't trump quality, either: this food is as good as you'll get at any Italian restaurant in Bay Area. If you've eaten at Adesso's parent restaurant, Dopo, you know what to expect.

For years the cognoscenti's choice for Union Square happy hour snacking has been Morton's, the swellegant Chicago-borne steakhouse at Post and Powell, where the hungry imbiber can enjoy a complimentary and absolutely tender and smoky filet mignon finger sandwich (or two or six or seven) with her $15 martini.

Those freeloading days will draw to a close at the end of the month when the restaurant expands upstairs into the old Disney Store location, taking the bar and dining room with it. (The downstairs will host enhanced banquet facilities.) The good news is that the free sandwiches are being replaced with a brand-new happy hour menu of top-shelf burgers and such, each costing a mere $5. If those enormous 5-7 p.m. cocktails take a cut in salary as well, we guzzlers just might break even.

Here's a new addition to the Financial District happy hour scene: Gaylord India ("promenade" level of 4 Embarcadero Center, across from the Landmark movie theaters). The drink specials include Indian bottled beers for $4 ($8 for large bottles), house wine for $5.50, and selected cocktails for $6, but the real draw is the selection of $4 appetizers.