I'm a baker,
Which means that I am always in bed by 8pm so that I can be awake by 2:30 in the morning. This leaves very little time during the week for "dating". (You know, that thing all of our husbands are so good at? ;)
After spending many nights of early evening frozen meals due to my, "no cooking is possible due to my exhaustion" syndrome we discovered, Happy Hour.
You know, Happy Hour. That thing that you used to go do with your buddies when you were in college on weeknights at 11pm? Where you would all pile into a car together, order a bunch of, frozen, fried to order foods, all to spend only $5? Yea those good times. Well little did I know there were two versions of happy hour. Late night happy hour from 9-11pm for the college crazy kids or the 4-6pm happy hour for the early bed-time, AARP card holding, LifeLine Alert sporting old folks ;)
And this led us to our first, grown up version of happy hour, at Manitou Station in White Bear Lake. We went at 4:45, starving, (my eating schedule has changed a bit :) ready to be disappointed. I felt that going earlier would lead us to less quality service and not as tasty food. Because you know, my grandpa's version of spicing food up was by sprinkling pepper on something. But what we got was an eye opening experience into the food realm!
To begin with, our server was completely attentive due to the fact that the dinner rush was still over an hour away and she wasn't trying to balance five other tables. She took the time to take us through the drinks menu and returned with our order within minutes. The menu consisted of a few new items that we had never tried before, like clams in a white vodka sauce and scotch eggs! If we had been out to dinner during regular hours we would never embark on such foreign food adventures! Spending full price on something you may or may not like is not necessarily appealing to your wallet. Our food came out shortly after ordering piping hot and ready for tasting. After our meal was finished we concluded that the clams were delicious, along with our drinks, but our scotch eggs were not our favorite. But you know what, we weren't that upset about it! We spent way less then we would have, even got drinks out of the deal, our food was hot and had the chefs full attention, and I was still going to be able to head home and get a few things done before my early bedtime!
We started trying even more adventurous restaurants, fancier, higher end, with a little bit of wow factor! But with these fancier places we found that the appetizers and drinks can still be priced kind of high. So here are just a few more secrets to keep you, the classy cheap date ;)
-Forego the drinks during the meal. Stick with the uniquely awesome appetizers then pick up a nice bottle of whatever looks good on your way home. (9 times out of 10 you will find this is your husbands favorite option :P)
-Get dressed up and ready to go then cut you and your date a nice little cheese platter at home using up all those obscure crackers and little wedges of cheese at the bottom of your dairy drawer. Or prepare a nice little side salad. That way you won't head to the restaurant starving and spend more then you'd like!
-Lastly, get dressed up, head to the swanky place downtown order one drink each and one appetizer to share. Then when you get home get comfy in your pjs and start watching a movie. Halfway through the flick order a nice cheesy pizza (you know, one of those $5 deals they have everywhere now) and stuff yourself nice and full.
I guarantee with any of these options you won't feel cheated out of a great date.
So it's ok to be a cheap date! Just as long as you know the right tools to keep you classy!
Eating is an adventure meant to be shared with those you love!
Below is a list of the Happy Hour hot spots we love!
Rojo Mexican Grill
http://rojomexicangrill.com/happy-hour
Tria
https://www.triarestaurant.com/_asset/fzrmd8/TRA-_-Tria-Happy-Hour-Table-Tent.pdf
Masa
http://www.damico.com/menus/092712-HappyHour.pdf
Psycho Suzies
http://www.psychosuzis.com/menus.html
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