If you play your cards right, you can turn happy hour into dinner hour.
It’s all a matter of going to the right happy hour, one that offers discounts on appetizers alongside your adult beverages. Put a few appetizers together, and voila! Dinner is served.
Here are a dozen Tucson happy hours that we’d love to visit for dinner.
Flora’s Market Run
2513 E. Sixth St., 520-771-9141
You gotta love a restaurant that names its signature cocktails “Lips Pursuit” or “The First Dance.” And when Flora’s Market Run gives you $2 off those cocktails and throws in $5 beer and $6 wine for happy hour, we’re all in.
The restaurant, in the former Rincon Market, adds a full happy hour eats menu drawn from the main restaurant menu. To be honest, you’re only saving a couple of bucks off regular menu prices, but a couple bucks is a couple bucks.
Choose from a pair of salads, including the chopped market salad, wood-fired pizzas, appetizers including mussels in an elote broth, a grilled-cheese sandwich and the Flora animal-style burger with pinot noir caramelized onions.
Happy hour is from 3-6 p.m. daily.
Korean wings marinated in tequila and then grilled is part of the happy hour menu along with pizzas at Charred Pie, 12125 N. Oracle Road in Oro Valley.
Charred Pie
12125 N. Oracle Road, 520-395-2232
At Oro Valley’s Charred Pie you can get a single-serve 6-inch wood-fired margherita or pepperoni pizza for $7.90. They also offer $2 off appetizers and beer, wine and specialty drinks. We paired the pizza with their spicy and sweet Korean Gochujang chicken wings and split a salad off the regular menu for a reasonably priced dinner for two.
Happy hour is from 3-6 p.m. daily.
Bottega Michelangelo
420 W. Magee Road, 520-297-5775
You can totally create an early date night at Bottega Michelangelo, where appetizers are half off, well drinks and wine are $5 and beer is $4 from 4-7 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays.
Start off with a lovely fried calamari appetizer and glass of wine, followed by the Panzanella salad with fresh mozzarella and basil. Add an order of their house-special black pepper and parmesan fries to go with the meatball or porchetta sliders, then finish with mini cannolis drizzled with an amarena cherry glaze.
Postino's $25 wine and bruschetta board on Monday and Tuesday nights makes for a perfect date night.
Postino
2500 E. Grant Road, 520-342-0098
For late-night noshers, Postino has a $25 bottle of wine and bruschetta board featuring your choice of four bruschetta and a house wine after 8 p.m. Mondays and Tuesdays.
This summer, Postino is hosting “Battle of the Bruschetta” to gauge customer interest in eight limited-time seasonal bruschetta recipes, including Mexican street corn, chicken curry, spicy Brussels sprout and strawberry cheesecake that includes fresh strawberry. Customers can vote for the ones they would like to see on Postino’s menu.
Grilled Jalapeño Poppers, sriracha cream, Asiago foam, candied bacon and red peppers is one of the plates available during happy hour at Dante’s Fire, 2526 E. Grant Road.
Dante’s Fire
2526 E. Grant Road, 520-382-9255
Tucson Iron Chef Ken Foy gets all fancy on his happy hour menu, with escargot and Thai curry shrimp among the seven items for $7 served from 4-6 p.m. daily and all day Sundays at Dante’s Fire.
There’s also grilled jalapeño poppers, buffalo chicken strips and Southwest deviled eggs. The happy hour menu is an intro to the chef-driven, scratch kitchen that features inventive fare like deconstructed beef Wellington and mussels Newburg alongside hand-cut pappardelle pasta bathed in a vodka Cajun cream sauce topped with lump crab and chorizo.
Happy hour includes $1 off craft cocktails and bottled beer, $2 off wine and $1.50 off draft beer.
Blanco Cocina + Cantina has $6 tacos on its happy hour menu.
Blanco Cocina + Cantina
2905 E. Skyline Drive, 520-232-1007
During happy hour at Blanco Cocina + Cantina at La Encantada, tacos are $6. The happy hour menu, served from 3-6 p.m. weekdays, features five varieties of tacos, including ground beef in a crispy shell, pastor, barbecue pork and grilled avocado.
There’s also a quartet of appetizers, including a roasted poblano and tomato crisp and the house favorite nachos con queso blanco.
Wine is $7, specialty cocktails are $8, and beer is $5.
Social hour at Union Public House flows out into the patio and the courtyard at St. Philip's Plaza.
Union Public House
4340 N. Campbell Ave., 520-329-8575
Union Public House in St. Philips Plaza has a daily social hour from 3-6 p.m. with a decadent menu (items run $4-$12) of comfort food faves from poutine to mac and cheese alongside a house Caesar or garden salad, salmon cakes and little mason jars of veg or straight up housemade pickles. Add a burger or pulled pork sandwich, and you’ve got a meal to go with your $7 wine or cocktail, $3-$6 for beer.
Union Public House has indoor seating as well as one of Tucson’s largest patios in the plaza courtyard.
The Delta Bar & Grill
135 S. Sixth Ave., 520-524-3400
Happy hour at downtown’s 16-month-old The Delta Bar & Grill is reminiscent of New Orleans’ Bourbon Street without the mardi gras beads and jazz band. But the Southern-inspired menu that borrows bits and pieces from its sister restaurant The Parish can inspire folks to get pretty loud and lively during happy hour from 4-6 p.m. Tuesdays-Thursdays and until 7 p.m. Fridays.
Get $3 off beer, wine and cocktails that you can pair with the $6 menu of select appetizers, including cast iron cornbread served with that decadent candied pecan honey butter; the sweet-and-spicy hushpuppies; and the housemade pimento cheese dip served with Tennessee-buttered crackers.
The Parish
6543 N. Oracle Road, 520-797-1233
The Parish hosts happy hour from 3-6 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays, with $5 draft beers and $2 off cocktails and wine to go with a menu of $6 noshes including the restaurant’s world-famous (OK, maybe Tucson famous) and addicting bacon popcorn and traditional gumbo with chicken and Andouille sausage.
A Margherita pizza and natural wine are part of the menu during happy hour at 5 Points Market & Restaurant. It hosts a happy hour Thursday through Monday from 3 to 5 p.m.
5 Points Market & Restaurant
756 S. Stone Ave., 520-623-3888
5 Points Market & Restaurant rolled out its first-ever happy hour a month ago, offering $2 off wine by the glass, half-priced bottles and $1 off staff-picked cans in the cooler, all of which can be paired with food from the happy hour snacks menu.
Co-General Manager Herb Calleros said the most popular item on that menu is the 5 Points handcrafted Neopolitan-style pizza and Niçoise salad, both of which are exclusive to happy hour. You also can get smaller versions of 5 Points Smashed Jerusalem Artichoke and the bread and cheese plate that comes with Castelvetrano olives.
Happy hour is from 3-5 p.m. Thursdays-Mondays.
Zinburger's happy hour includes "Zini burgers," five sandwiches including buttermilk fried chicken and cheeseburger.
Zinburger
6390 E. Grant Road, 520-298-2020; and 1865 E. River Road, 520-299-7799
Zinburger’s daily 3-6 p.m. happy hour menu includes ice cream floats, which is a sign from the happy hour gods: Bring the kiddos. Hey, while they slurp down root beer and orange dream floats while nibbling on the $7 cheeseburger or fried chicken sandwich and $5 loaded fries, you can indulge in a glass of wine or beer or a cocktail ($4-$7). Zinburger also offers chocolate and banana cream pie.
Happy hour at Growler's Taphouse in Marana was the perfect venue on May 25 for a group of elementary teachers celebrating the last day of school. Growler's offers happy hour discounts on its appetizers and craft beer.
Growler’s Taphouse
8275 N. Silverbell Road, 520-389-8232
Growler’s Taphouse in Marana has $1 off all draft beer and wine and $2 off appetizers from 3-6 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays.
Here’s the thing about Growler’s: 99% of the 30 beers on tap are intriguing craft brews and their appetizers come from their scratch kitchen. That means we’re not talking the ubiquitous buffalo wings and nachos. There’s crispy beer-battered mushrooms oozing with cream cheese, and diced jalapeños and spinach-artichoke dip that offers a quasi-healthy complement to an order of “Flappers” — eight jumbo chicken wings in your choice of flavors from traditional buffalo to Chiltepin peppers.
The family-owned Growlers is in the Continental Ranch area of Marana.
