Palomino | happy hour

Hey, I've found my new favorite happy hour hang. But actually, since I didn't have a happy hour place to begin with, I guess I've found my one and only.

Palomino has wonderful locational attributes, being located between my work and my castle, which makes it quite easy for my driver to take me there.* But the fun doesn't stop there--it features a fabulous hard-to-find deal: the "double happy hour." This is when a restaurant realises that a happy hour that ends by 7pm is inadequate, considering most people get off work at 7pm these days anyway. Instead of taking merciless advantage of our late schedules, hunger desperation and thirst for swift libation and just charging full price around the clock, some spots think twice and say, "Hmm. If I get them to come back before they go out...I might convince them to duck out of work early a different night!" Hence, at Palomino and a few of Fire City's similarly savvy drinking holes, happy hour is from 4-7 and from 10-12midnight. Thanks, Palomino.

Having visited for both installments of this happy happy hour schedule (on different occasions, mind), I have to say the late night version tends to be a little less full and a younger crowd--but on Saturday night, they carded us and gave us wristbands. What? If this counts as a club experience for the nearby college kids, I do not envy them their night lives. I therefore prefer the early showing--the crowd is a little more "business" and the wait staff a little less friendly, but I at least didn't feel like a freshman with a fake ID sneaking into a fancy place with plans to scrimp on tip after eating a five-dollar pizza.

Oh--that's right, pizza. FIVE DOLLARS. Drinks: FOUR DOLLARS. I recommend the pomegranate margarita. Goes down like juice, though, so watch yourself. My friend Fratlet (who "never gets drunk") put four away in short order and suddenly was asking me for a ride home. He fiercely recommends the cranberry mojito, by the way.

Food-wise, there was more than pizza to be had--which is a good thing, since the pizzas really only seemed to taste as good as we thought they did because they were five dollars. (They weren't bad at all--they just were what they were: big, five dollar pizzas.) The rave-worthy happy hour dishes are really (1)the always $4 hummous appetizer and (2)the hot crab and artichoke dip, served with salty, garlic flatbread. Actually, everything at Palomino (for better or worse) kind of smells and tastes like salty garlic. Though delicious, it is a flavor that will eventually limit your repeat visitation for its lack of flux. It makes Palomino good for a once a week or once every other week stop, should you like, but probably not a daily fixation as a libation station. Which is probably best, since those $4 drinks do eventually add up.

spot: http://www.palomino.com/index.php?cook=1&locations=Los+Angeles
in five: 4/5

Palomino, I will return to you. And soon. My driver will bring me there.

* = Yeah, you didn't know? I'm rich, bitch!