Evaluating Saint Rocke's Happy Hour
Hermosa Beach Bar Has Music With Specials
A DJ plays Friday Happy Hours at Sanit Rocke and there's bands other nights.
Music and munchies.
That's the soundtrack to a somewhat different kind of Happy Hour in the South Bay, at Saint Rocke.
Beyond the food and drink specials, there's music to accompany the meal. There's bands Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays and a DJ on Fridays. For the most part, it's light sounds, acoustic or other background sounds (the DJ does start to crank it up a bit the last half hour of Happy Hour on Fridays).
The live music venue, which is somewhat like a large living room with its soft lighting and comfortable tables and booths, has a very popular Happy Hour weekdays, often luring locals off the beach to Second Street and Pacific Coast Highway proving that there is, at least occasionally, life east of PCH.
Appetizer items like teriyaki skewers are $5 until 7:30 M-F.
Saint Rocke attracts them with $5 drinks and $5 appetizers (two is sufficient for a satisfying meal). And it goes until 7:30, which takes the pressure off of rushing there right after work and then scanning the menu as if it were an item in a grocery store just to get in the order before it expires.
On Tuesdays, in order to compete with the highly popular Taco Tuesdays throughout the South Bay – like at OB's in Manhattan Beach – it has $1 tacos and $2 beers.
Here, there's enough time to find a seat (at a table or the long L-shaped bar), order a drink and casually evaluate the offerings from more than a dozen choices on the appetizer side of the menu.
The sliders are the most popular Happy Hour choice.
Still, most people wind up ordering the Kobe beef sliders. This is, without a doubt, the star food attraction. The high-quality Kobe beef on a small bun (it's two bites, about 3/4 the size of a White Castle or Krystal burger for those from the Midwest or the South. Also available with grilled chicken and served with string fries on the side, the sliders come with cheese, bacon and enough mayonnaise to keep Hellmann's in business the next 50 years.
The Baja chicken tacos are another tasty menu item.
A less popular, but no less tasty, choice are the Baja soft tacos. This is three tacos stacked tall with chicken and full of flavor. There are also nachos, teriyaki skewers (flavorful, but a tad dry), spinach dip, hummus, seared Ahi tuna and crab and spicy tuna rolls, all at that wallet-pleasing $5.
Overall, the food quality is good but make no mistake. This is no Chez Melange or Cafe Pierre. Nor should it be, of course. Especially for $5 a plate. It can take some time to receive food after ordering and if you're in a group (large or small) the items are likely not to come out at the same time.
As far as drinks go, most of them are covered, along with a good selection of red and white wines. Saint Rocke has several beers on tap; at $5, its not that huge a deal off the regular price (a Stella Aritos is normally $6, for example) but still five bucks for a quality. And you can get a king can of Budwesier, 16 ounces, for just three bucks. That continues even when the bigger bands take the stage.
An added bonus to Happy Hour at Saint Rocke is that once you're in, you're in, meaning whatever bands come on stage later you have a seat and have slid by the cover charge.
Saint Rocke rates #5 on PubClub.com's picks of Best Happy Hours in the South Bay, For the complete list click here.
Happy Hour Particulars: M-F, 5-7:30 p.m. Beers, wines and cocktails $5, plus all appetizer menu items $5.
142 Pacific Coast Highway. (310) 372-0035.
The PubClub.com Tab: Two appetizers, four Stella Aritos: $30.
PubClub.com Happy Hour Rating: 4 of 5.
The PubClub.com Happy Hour rating is on a 1-5 scale and measures price, quality, the crowd, the popularity of a place and service. |
