Get happy at Denver's fifty best happy hours

DAZZLE

930 Lincoln Street, Denver

303-839-5100

www.dazzlejazz.com

Happy-hour hours: 4-6:30 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-6:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday, midnight-12:30 a.m. Saturday

Happy-hour deals: $2 bottled beers, $3 drafts, $4 premium well drinks, $5 premium wine, $5.15 food

Dazzle is the town's best jazz bar — but this comfortable, classy place dazzles in other ways, too. During happy hour, not only does it offer great deals on drinks — which show off Dazzle's devotion to Colorado-based liquors and wines, if not from this state, at least from this country — but an incredible array of plates large and small that are more than enough for a meal. They range from three kinds of sliders (salmon, pork, pot roast), at just $1.95 each, to $5.15 plates of mac and cheese (an award winner), pizzas, burgers and a mountain of onion rings. Bonus points for the housemade ketchup.

DELITE

32 South Broadway, Denver

303-722-1278

www.deluxedenver.com

Happy-hour hours: 4-7 p.m. Tuesday-Friday

Happy-hour deal: appetizers $2-$4, well drinks and select wines at half price

Chef/owner Dylan Moore's Deluxe is a perfect spot for an intimate meal. But at Delite, the bar he opened a few years ago next door, you can sample some of the fare coming out of the Deluxe kitchen at bargain prices, and in a hale-fellow-well-met atmosphere that lets in all the color and character of Broadway. Sometimes a few characters, too, when the garage-door windows are up. The booths are great for a group, the tables up front a perfect place to make a few new friends who might want to share your fried oysters and deviled eggs.

DIXONS

1610 16th Street, Denver

303-573-6100

www.dixonsrestaurant.com

Happy-hour hours: 3-6 p.m. daily

Happy-hour deals: $1 tacos, $3 cheesesteak or nachos, $3 drink specials (pint-o-rita, Ketel One John Daly, Coronas).

Talk about street smarts! Dixons has always been a go-to spot for power breakfasts, power lunches, pre- and post-sporting events dinners, last-call drinks. And last year, when it finally decided to add a happy hour, it introduced one of the best deals in town — made even better when you enjoy it on the patio, where you can watch all those office workers who wish they could be spending a few happy hours with you. Get a $15 bucket of Coronas, a happy-hour version of Denver's Best nachos and a couple of dollar tacos, then drink to the passing parade.

ELWAY'S DOWNTOWN

The Ritz-Carlton, 1881 Curtis Street, Denver

303-312-3107

www.elways.com

Happy-hour hours: 2-7 p.m. daily in the lounge

Happy-hour deals: $3 draft beers, $5 select wines by the glass, $7 martinis, half-price bar menu appetizers

The bar at Elway's Downtown isn't exactly the first booze stop that leaps into your brain when you're searching for a bargain buzz, but every day from 2 to 7 p.m., the sophisticated lounge, full of moneyed leather and dark woods, hops with flirty socialites, Learjet-owning businessmen bunking at the Ritz-Carlton, and downtown loft-dwellers who get bleary-eyed from $3 draft beers, $5 wines by the glass and $7 martinis. The model types bypass the discounted chicken wings, flatbread, bison quesadilla and crab dip for an extra shot of vodka, though you may spot the odd one out delicately lifting a small forkful of tuna tartare to her lips.

GOVNR'S PARK

672 Logan Street, Denver

303-831-8605

http://govnrspark.com

Happy-hour hours: 4-7 p.m. and 9-midnight daily

Happy-hour deals: 2-for-1 drafts, wells, margaritas and Long Island iced teas; $5 snacks

Let's be honest: You don't go to Govnr's Park for the ambience. Its beer flags, big screens and cross-section of prepsters, sports fans and office workers are a dime a dozen. No, you go for the two-for-one Cuervo margs and Long Islands. You go for the two-for-one 24-ounce steins that almost always dwarf their bearers. You go because you know those two patios will be pretty sweet on a sunny day and just as welcoming at night. You go because for more than thirty years, this has been one of the best, most consistent happy hours in town. The faces change; the value does not.

HAPA SUSHI

1117 Pearl Street, Boulder

303-473-4730

www.hapasushi.com

2780 East Second Avenue, Denver

303-322-9554

5380 Greenwood Plaza Boulevard, Suite 101, Greenwood Village

303-267-8744

Happy-hour hours: 2:30-5:30 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 10 p.m.-midnight Thursday-Saturday

Happy-hour deals: $3.50 sake, $3 beer, 2 for $7 sushi rolls

Don't worry, be Hapa. No matter which good-natured location you visit, Hapa Sushi's happy hour is always crowded with pretty people. In Boulder, sweatshirted coeds sip Kirin and toss back Multiple Orgasm rolls, stuffed with crab meat and baked in The Sauce — savory, creamy, and strongly reminiscent of Japanese mayonnaise. In Cherry Creek, twenty-somethings in cocktail dresses zealously shoot rice wine. In Greenwood Village, Tech Center professionals in business attire display raw courage as they order their way through the specials. Conveniently, both beer and sake are on special during happy hour, in case you want to scratch the sake-bomb itch.

HAPPY (THE BITTER BAR)

835 Walnut Street, Boulder

303-442-3050

www.happynoodlehouse.com

Happy-hour hours: 4-6 p.m. Monday-Friday; 3-5 p.m. Saturday-Sunday, 4-close Tuesday.

Happy-hour deals: $3-$4.50 beers, $4 wine, $4 sake, $3 cocktails, $1-$4 snacks

In a low stone building on a quiet block of Walnut Street, a team of all-star mixologists works behind a long wooden bar to put — and keep — Colorado firmly on the cocktail map. During happy hour, this Bitter Bar crew draws from the cuisine of Happy, the appropriately named home restaurant, to craft twists on classics that feature the flavors of Asia, incorporating such ingredients as orchid liqueur and cherry-infused gin. With drinks starting at just $3, happy hour is a frugal way to sample the capabilities of these award-winning bartenders.