Archive

September '10

"Los Angeles' Sexiest Happy Hours"

July '10

"WELCOME"

"The Happiest Tradition"

"Best Happy Hours in West Hollywood"

June '10

"There's More Than Booze in Bouzy"

"LA's Longest Happy Hours"

"The Secret is Out: Happy Hours at LA's Speakeasies"

May '10

"Classic LA Happy Hours"

 

Most Happy Hours focus on drinks, maybe offering a snack or two, finger food-style. Most Happy Hours offer a small selection of beverages, a house wine by the glass if you’re lucky. Most Happy Hours exist exclusively in the lazy hours after lunch and before dinner. The Happy Hour at Bouzy, A Gastropub—part of Chez Melange in Riviera Village, South Redondo Beach—is not most Happy Hours.

 

Bouzy, named for the wine-producing commune of the same name in the Champagne region of France, is perhaps the South Bay’s best Happy Hour. Taking over the front room and patio of the family-run restaurant Chez Melange, Bouzy is Chez’s rebellious little sister, using the same high quality, locally-produced ingredients as the upscale Chez to create top notch gastropub-style food in a casual environment sans placemats and servers in ties. A roughly finished wooden horseshoe bar hugs one of the several quick-witted bartenders in the center of the room, and big red leather booths line the walls. Wood tables dot the remaining floor space close enough to create a feeling of crowded but cheerful camaraderie. Smiling locals stand up from their tables to hug the owners as they cruise the dining room asking after the families of people who have been patrons of their business for 30 years.

 

To keep a patron for 30 years, of course, takes more than a warm and friendly atmosphere. It takes good food, rocking drinks and one heck of a Happy Hour.

 

Seven days a week Bouzy boasts their food-centric Happy Hour from the classic 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., and then again for a “Late Night Happy Hour” from 9 p.m. to close (which varies but is typically not very “late night” at all, hovering somewhere between 10 and 11 p.m.). The food and beverage Happy Hour menu changes slightly daily, always featuring what is fresh and in season. The offerings, however, are consistent. A selection of draft beers and specialty cocktails are available at $4 a pop. Beers include local California microbrews such as Green Flash IPA and Lagunitas Pilsner, and cocktails speak to the classics (The Margarita) as much as to the co-owner’s British roots (The Vesper: Snow Queen Vodka, Right Gin and Lillet Blanc, normally $10).

 

And no discounted glasses of cheap wine in sight here. In keeping with their ‘local and sustainable’ theme, Bouzy and Chez focus their wine list on “local” wines, primarily Santa Barbara and San Louis Obispo Counties as well as a handful of oddballs from elsewhere in California and the occasional European bottle. In fact, gracing the walls are portraits of Santa Barbara winemakers whose bottles grace the wine list. Instead of sacrificing quality for economics for Happy Hour wine, Bouzy offers every wine by the bottle on the menu at retail price, meaning no restaurant up-charge, knocking off a good $12 or so on a mid-priced bottle. After all, wine is meant to be shared.

 

Happy Hour food is structured as such: three items that are available for $3 each, and five items that are available for $5 each. The three-buck options include such simple tidbits as Chips and Dips, homemade potato chips and papadums with a spicy Sriracha aioli and black bean dip. For $2 more, you can get the likes of Meatball Sliders (two miniature meatball subs with one big meatball each covered in melted provolone and marinara sauce), Chili Verde (slow cooked pork in a tomatillo-based green chili, served with flour tortillas), or a colossal three-cheese, jalapeno and bacon Mac & Cheese.

 

Vegetarians beware: There are few options for you on the Happy Hour menu. Everyone else: Come hungry, because while the ingredients might be fresh, the fare is anything but light. Luckily, in Bouzy’s laid-back pub, you’ll feel at home enough to take your time and you’ll be able to afford a few extra drinks to wash it all down. And if you take long enough, you just might be there when Round 2 of the Bouzy Happy Hour rolls around.

 

 

Bouzy, A Gastropub is located in the front of Chez Melange on 1611 S. Catalina Avenue, Redondo Beach, CA 90277. Happy Hour is seven days a week from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. to close. For additional info call 310-540-1222.