A Week of Happy Hour Specials
You can eat (and drink) cheaply every day of the week in Sarasota, if you are an early bird. Menus change, especially for happy hour specials, but here’s a sampling of daily deals as of January 1st, 2025. With these options you could theoretically eat out for an entire week for around $100. Amazing for being in a city, and during their high season, too!
Monday
Food+Beer offers Cheese Burger Mondays from 11am–1am. A hand-made burger (order pink or no pink) along with a good size order of fresh cut fries is $6.99. The cheeseburger is normally $9 without fries. There are lunch specials every weekday and happy hour heavily discounted drinks (rum, vodka, gin, whiskey, tequila or house wine all $5.50) from 3–6pm Sunday through Thursday.
Food+Beer offers Cheese Burger Mondays from 11am–1am. A hand-made burger (order pink or no pink) along with a good size order of fresh cut fries is $6.99. The cheeseburger is normally $9 without fries. There are lunch specials every weekday and happy hour heavily discounted drinks (rum, vodka, gin, whiskey, tequila or house wine all $5.50) from 3–6pm Sunday through Thursday.
Photo by Sarasota Magazine
Photo by the Sarasota Herald-Tribune
Photo from Food+Beer website
Tuesday
It’s taco Tuesday everywhere in Sarasota. A favorite place is the Circo, 1435 2nd Street, a Tex-Mex taco and bourbon joint downtown. They have two-for-one tacos for $5. And,
they also have a great happy hour from 2–6pm Wednesday – Friday with BOGO options for drinks and food items like edamame or Mongolian tacos. They also specialize in a large bourbon menu.
On Tuesday, the previously described Food+Beer offers two tacos + chips & pico sauce on the side for $5.00. Or, their cheeseburger (no fries) $6.99, Chicken Tinga $7.99 or an Avocado BLT $7.99.
Wednesday
Classico, 1341 Main Street, has happy hour Monday through Friday from 3:00–6:00pm. The menu varies, but we especially like the meatball egg rolls and a charcuterie board of bread, cheese and Italian cured meats. Their website isn’t working well to show menus, so just go.
Friday
Hyde Park is one of the best, and most expensive, steak houses in the city. Their happy hour is Monday–Thursday from 4–6:00pm, but on Fridays is starts at 3:30pm. It’s available at the bar or on the sidewalk patio. My go-to is the grilled sirloin sliders which comes with onion straws for $8, while beef tenderloin sliders are $12. Also available is a 5-cheese spinach dip ($11), tuna wonton ($7) and more.
Their cocktails are amazing: have a Bee’s Knees or a Black Cherry Old Fashioned for $8; or, the “best ever” Espresso Martini for $10. Sitting in the bar area is a trip. They make a martini with a giant bubble on top of it. It’s fun to watch a newbie puzzle how to drink it until it suddenly pops on its own! Even weirder was their “smoked” Old Fashion which they put in a glass box and inject smoke from a burning torch. The room fills with aromatic smoke when they put the
box on the bar in front of you and then open it.
Photos from TripAdvisor.com
Saturday and Sunday
Up to bat again is the 1592 Wood Fired Kitchen close to our condo. Their daily happy hour covers weekends from 3–6:00pm Saturday and 4–5pm Sunday. See photo above under Thursday. They offer lovely sidewalk dining. No cocktails or martinis are included but a pint draft is $4, house wines and
Once again, Food+Beer shows up in our listing of favorites. They have amazing brunch specials Saturday and Sunday from 10am–3pm. In addition to a bottomless Mimosa ($15) they offer the “Best Damn Bloody Mary” for $10. You can share biscuits and gravy $8 or avocado toast $13. Blueberry French toast $13, eggs benny $14, or steak and eggs $22 can be had or a a burger or chicken sandwich with an eggs and cajun potatoes for $11.
Be aware, it is a sports bar with many TV’s all showing different games. Tampa Bay games get very loud. We like their delicious curry butternut squash soup and huge rice bowls, especially the Korean Beef Bowl ($16 everyday). They have pretty exotic menu for a joint called Food+Beer.
Bone Fish Grill, 3971 S Tamiami Trail, is out of town but warrants mention as their “Social Hour” runs every day from 3:00–6:30pm, including weekends. Shown below are their Ahi Tuna wonton crisps $14, Sliders–Beef/cheddar $15 or grilled Mahi-Mahi $17, and bangin’ chicken bites $12.
Unsourced Photos above from restaurant websites
Late Night Food
While the bars stay open late, the kitchens do not. If you are a late eater an option is the cheaper, late night menu at the elegant State Street Eating House at 1533 State Street which has a bar late menu until 11:30pm. The multi-award winning restaurant can be sampled from the late night menu offering glazed ribs $13, wings $14, shrimp tostada $14, fried bread pudding $10 and more.
How about checking out rooftop bars? It can be a hobby, as shown in the next section.
Late Night Food
While the bars stay open late, the kitchens do not. If you are a late eater an option is the cheaper, late night menu at the elegant State Street Eating House at 1533 State Street which has a bar late menu until 11:30pm. The multi-award winning restaurant can be sampled from the late night menu offering glazed ribs $13, wings $14, shrimp tostada $14, fried bread pudding $10 and more.
How about checking out rooftop bars? It can be a hobby, as shown in the next section.
