Each week City of Ate will give you the lowdown on a local happy hour in Quittin' Time, with the details on why you should or shouldn't take up the featured bar or restaurant on its drink specials.
Where: Adair's Saloon, 2624 Commerce St., 214-939-9900.
When: Happy hour 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day.
What: $2.75 domestic cans (regularly $3.50), $3.25 premium cans (regularly $4), $2.50 PBR cans (regularly $3.25), $1.50 drafts (regularly $2.50), $3.50 wells (regularly $4.50) and $7 pitchers (regularly $9).
Additionally, Adair's offers $1.50 drafts all day Wednesdays, happy
hour prices on cans and well drinks all day Thursdays, $3 you-call-its
from 8 p.m. to close Sundays and Tuesdays, and a cheeseburger or
chicken sandwich with chips and a regular draft beer for $6 on Mondays.
Why: Because it's one of the greatest honky-tonks in the Dallas area, arguably the best in Dallas (we've said so a couple times recently), and it's right in the heart of Deep Ellum.
The long happy hour makes it easy to fit a cheap beer into your day, whether you have a cold one with lunch or don't get off work until after most bars' happy hours end at 7 p.m.
It's a great country-music venue, but with its quick bartenders and policy of never charging a cover, Adair's feels more like a neighborhood dive than any other Deep Ellum venue. And unlike other dives with live music, such as Lota's Goat in East Dallas, the band probably won't be a cover act going through the motions of "Mustang Sally" for the thousandth time. Jack Ingram got his start here, and some of Dallas' most popular groups still play there regularly long after gaining followings big enough to fill larger rooms.
But if you don't find the music entertaining, there's always the graffiti. Years' worth of Sharpie scribblings coat every imaginable surface. And you're free to add your own artistic renderings, if you can actually find a blank spot. They'll even give you the marker.
As much as we enjoy a good beer with live music, sometimes an ice-cold draft or can of something cheap and light is all that's called for -- especially when they're $1.50 all night, as they are tonight.
