City Sip

Gosh golly, it sure is hard to find a good happy hour in the Echo Park area. I knew City Sip was in Echo Park and I've heard good things about them so I called my favorite wine-guy, Shaun-Mathieu, and we headed on down.

City Sip's happy hour runs from Tuesday -Friday from 5:30-7pm and offers a nice selection of wine, beer, and small plates starting at $4.

On our visit, we definitely did our best to try as many different wines as possible (hehehe). We had red, white, and sparkling wine and draft beer. City Sip does a nice job at offering good wines at happy hour, which I think is a must for a wine bar.  And starting at $4?? Well done, City Sip!

Their beer selection was also nice. I got the Allagash Curieux (loved), but they also offered:
-The Bruery Orchard White
-Taps Cream Ale
-Strand 24th Street Pale Ale
-Coronado Islander IPA
-Bootlegger’s Black Phoenix (...which is a Chipotle Coffee Stout. I'm trying that on my next visit!)

 For food, we began with the Trio of Olives, Almonds, and Cornichons. The almonds were warm and I just love those little pickles!

And then we moved on to the cheese plates. You can select any two cheeses for $5. We couldn't decide so we got all five and each one was great. Great quality cheese! (See above menu for choices.)

Then we had to order the Charcuterie platters. That's a no brainer!

The Bean and Cheese Crostini was delish! I loved the white bean topped with Burrata.
Mmmm, mmm.











The last thing we got was Caprese Sliders. Don't forget to dip it in the Balsamic on the plate. So good!














 
And if you can't make it out during the week, here are some cool weekend specials:
Saturdays: 5pm to 7pm, a wine tasting of 3 wines and 2 cheeses for $15! 
Sundays: 9p-11pm - ALL open bottles are half-off by the glass! Wow! That's a great deal!!

We were definitely happy with found City Sip. It's definitely a great spot to meet up with friends and have some good wine. If you are a wine lover, you should really try this place out!

Happy Hour

Tu-Fri 5:30-7pm
$4-5 wine, $4 Draft Beer, and $5 plates

City Sip

2150 W Sunset Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90026-3148
(213) 483-9463


citysipla.com 

Mediterraneo

As you may have read in my last post, me and the happy hour crew have headed to the Southbay to find all of their wonderful happy hours. We did a mini happy hour crawl to Mediterraneo and Sharkeez, and we loved both! We started with Mediterraneo because it's Love's favorite out of all of Hermosa Beach.

Mediterraneo's happy hour is Monday through Friday from 5-7pm and they offer 1/2 off house wine and all drafts beers, and selected tapas are 2 for 1... and they are great!

For happy hour drinks, House Wine and draft beer is half-off so they'll run you about $3. Their Sangria isn't discounted, but it's Love's favorite and wants me to tell everyone to try it. I tried it and it was really was good.

 Draft Beer is 1/2 off

Now on to the food!!! Here's what we had:

 Caprese $6*

*This is the regular price but remember it's 2-for-1!!

Mozzarella, Tomatoes, Basil, Olive Oil

 Sunchoke Pintxo $4*

Roasted Sunchokes, pesto

 Spanikopita $6*

Spinach, Feta, and pinenuts baked in Phyllo dough

 Polpette - $6*

Italian Meatballs in Tomato Sauce

Tortilla Espanola $6*

Potato omelette with piquillos, mushrooms, 

fontina cheese served with garlic aioli

So my favorite out of all of these was the Tortilla Espanola. It was sinfully good. And I could have eaten that Garlic Aioli with a spoon. Mmm-yum! I liked all the other plates except the Sunchokes. Not that they were bad, they just didn't float my boat. We ordered two of each of the plates above (so 10 plates total) and it only came to $28. We split that four ways so with my $3 glass of wine, I only paid $10 before tax and tip. WOW!!

So check out the rest of the tapas available for happy hour. But if ya see two asterisks (**) next to an item, it's not available for the 2-for-1 discount.

Mediterraneo also has some other cool deals that run ALL NIGHT:
-Sangria Sundays: 1/2 off Sangria
-Draft Beer Mondays: 1/2 off Draft Beer
-Tapas Tuesday: 2 for 1 Tapas

Definitely a great find!!!

Happy Hour

M-F 5-7pm
2 for 1 Tapas and
1/2 off draft beer and house wine
*See above for other specials
(All Night on Tue. for 2-for-1 Tapas)

Mediterraneo

73 Pier Ave.
Hermosa Beach, CA 90254
310.318.2666

mediterraneohb.com

Ugo Wine Bar

A few months ago I saw that Ugo's happy hour was something like "Free Passed Appetizers".  Whatever it was, it didn't sound like we needed to rush to check it out. But about a month ago,  one boozer member of our happy hour crew, Christopher, decided to scope it out. As soon as he got there, he texted me pics of the menu right away.  The selection of food was awesome and the next day we planned a trip for all of us to head out there.

Ugo's happy hour is Monday through Friday from 4-7pm (and happy hour food is all night on Mondays) and offer pizzas, paninis, appetizers, and wine. And the ingredients to some of their items are re-donk-u-lus! One of their pizzas is drizzled with White Truffle Honey.  Soooooooooo good! My friends have been telling people that I licked the honey off the plate once the pizza was gone, but I beg to differ. ; ) 

 Quattro Formaggi $7

Pizza w/ mozzarella, parmigiano, pecorino, romano, gorgonzola dolce 

and drizzled with white truffle honey

SO GOOD!!!

 Bowl of Crack - No Charge

The White Truffle Honey was practically like crack and we couldn't get enough of it so we got extra!

Alto Adige $7

Speck, grana padano, hard cooked egg, mozzarella, grilled asparagus, 

rosemary, and black truffle paste

The Alto Pizza was also incredible. So which pizza was better??? It's a hard call because they are so different, so order both! Especially since they are only $7 each. We were also quite surprised how large they were for that price. Another good deal was their paninis. Only $5!! We had the Portobello Panini. It couldn't compare to the pizzas but it was still a winner.

Funghi Freschi $5

Grilled portobello mushrooms, grana padano, and sun dried tomato pesto

 We tried three of the appetizers and they were okay, but next time I'd rather save room in my belly for my pizza drizzled with Crack.

 

 Datteri Rapieni $4

Medjool Dates stuffed with gorgonzola, bacon, and rosemary

I wished the dates were wrapped in bacon. 

 Veal Meatballs $6

Burrata e Pomodoro $8

Burrata cheese and fresh heirloom tomatoes drizzled with olive oil

See? Great food selection! We also liked the wines they offered, which ranged from $5-10. I liked the Malbec. Here are both the food and wine happy hour menus.

Now the restaurant next door, Ugo Cafe, also has a happy hour so we hope to be trying that soon, too.  I breally hope theirs is as good as the Wine Bar though. We'll see!

Happy Hour

M-F 4-7pm
*HH Food goes all-night on Mondays

$5-10 wine, $5 paninis,

$7 pizzas, and $4-8 appetizers

Ugo Wine Bar

3865 Cardiff Avenue
Culver City, CA 90232

cafeugo.com/winebar.html 
 

Mignon

***Update: All glasses of wine are just $5 in the month of December!***

One of my favorite little wine bars is Bacaro LA and now Barcaro's owners have opened up another wine bar called Mignon. And YES they have happy hour!!!

Mignon's happy hour is Mon-Fri 5-7pm and all day Sunday (Love!). All glasses of wine are $2 off (which will start at $6) and selected small plates for $5. You can also get 1/2 sandwich or tartines for $5 also.

“Mignon” means cute or dainty in French and this wine bar fits that description. It's a small, little place and seating is only at the bar. I like this because you can talk about the wines with the sommeliers. The only downside of it is that it might be hard to converse if you are sitting with a large party.

Our sommelier, one of the owners in fact, was very helpful when choosing our wine. He asked what we like and what we were interested in having. And since you are sitting at the bar, he pours you a taste to make sure you like it. Nice. I went with a Beaujolais and a Sangiovese.

                                           All wines by the glass are $2 off. 

And now for the food! Man, we feasted! Here's what we had:

pate de campagne
I really liked it!

Famer's Market Melon and Prosciutto
Simple yet good.

Chicken Liver Crostini with Red Onion Confit
The onion confit made it for me. They should bottle that up and sell it!

Goat Cheese Crostini with grilled radicchio and balsamic
Another favorite!

Mac and Cheese
It was okay. Probably won't order it again though.

Prosciutto with Fig Mascarpone
A tasty dish.

Autostrada
Salami, mortadella, and prosciutto with provolone and spicy pepper relish
Loved it!

Olive-oil cured Tuna
w/ rouille, fennel, and orange
It was nice. The orange was a nice addition.
(1/2 sandwich is $5, but we got a full one for $10)





Here are Mignon's full menus. Anything with an asterisk (*) is $5. Click on picture to enlarge.

So the next time you are Downtown and would like a little vino or some tasty bites... head on over to Mignon. I'll be back!

Happy Hour

M-F 5-7pm
All Day Sunday

Mignon

128 E. 6th St
(Cross St: Los Angeles St & Next to Cole's)
Los Angeles, CA 90014
213.489.0131

mignonla.com