Happy Times! The Happy Hour ...

I love everything about "Happy Hour". Having an early drink after a long day of work (well, for some people, I don't currently have a full-time job but I can still enjoy happy hour...), deals! (one of my favorite things ever), food, and friends. When I was in Vietnam with my parents we took a cruise where they had a happy hour. Our tour guide, Ruby, or Ngoc - his Vietnamese name which American's cannot pronounce correctly, must have forgotten the term for "Happy Hour" because he informed us that from 5pm-7pm there would be the "Happy Times!". This sounds equally as wonderful as a happy hour - if not better! Happy hour sounds so limiting, just one hour? Well, luckily that is not the case most of the time. Most places have several hours of happy so maybe "Happy Times" was more appropriate.

Bangor, Maine is not exactly a hot spot for restaurants and bars but it certainly could be worse! Being from New Jersey, I was a bit spoiled in the restaurant department - not to mention a serious food snob. There are definitely some perks, however, to living in a place with such a limited restaurant scene - I save money, I am getting pretty good at cooking, and my waistline appreciates not eating out all the time as well! But once in a while it sure is fun and relaxing to grab an after work drink and snacks with the ladies. 

That being said, there is a serious lack of the happy hour in Bangor. I feel this could be due to the fact that there are so few places to go, they don't really need to compete for your business with something like a happy hour. However, lucky for me, there are still several establishments that are willing to give me a half-priced appetizer and a cheap cocktail around 5pm during the week!

One small problem I've encountered is the lack of information on our local happy hours. Sure, if you go to a restaurant around the time of the happy hour you may get lucky and find out they have some deals, but not all of them do! As a result, my friend Christina and I have decided we'll take it upon ourselves to sample as many happy hours as we can (which could very easily be all of them) and report back! Fear not, we will let you know where the happy hours are and if they are any good! So that's my little intro for this blog. I hope it provides some valuable information for having the Happy Times!