A high-end happy hour you must experience is lurking behind the doors of Hyde Park Prime Steakhouse at 35 S. Lemon Ave. in downtown Sarasota. STAFF PHOTO / WADE TATANGELO
Don’t be fooled by people professing otherwise when it comes to happy hour. You should never, ever, have doubts about arriving the moment the drink deals commence. If a bar sells bargain beverages, and especially if the place also peddles discount bar bites, I have no problem with getting there unfashionably prompt.
The term “happy hour,” Wikipedia says, dates back to William Shakespeare’s “Henry V.” But we can’t credit The Bard, an imbiber himself, with its modern usage as a marketing term for that magical period of time when bars are practically begging us to catch a buzz. Happy hour, as we know and love it today, didn’t really become a thing, a thing of beauty if you find the right bar, until the 1950s.
The Hyde Park Prime Steakhouse in downtown Sarasota offers a high-end happy hour, which, dare I say, is a thing of freaking beauty. I arrived on a Wednesday at approximately 4:02 p.m. Happy hour is available weekdays for two and a half hours starting at 4 p.m.
James Durrance makes a Blackberry Bulleit at Hyde Park Prime Steakhouse. STAFF PHOTO / RACHEL S. O’HARA
My recent visit started with a Blackberry Bulleit, one of four exciting items featuring top-shelf booze in the $5 section of the cocktail menu. Hyde Park uses a nice 1.75 ounce pour — a shot is one ounce and many bars use 1.5 ounces or less in cocktails — in its cocktails. The bartender mixed my bourbon with fresh lemon, blackberry and ginger beer.
Think Moscow Mule meets Old Fashioned. Think this might be your new favorite. Think I’m manly enough to pull off this drink that’s bright, lawn-flamingo pink.
Seriously, though, the Blackberry Bulleit is not only tasty but cheap, in the greatest way possible. For instance, just the other day I had a Manhattan at a nearby bar during happy hour that also cost $5. I turned to my amazing wife Kristin and said something really profound like, “This is a good deal.” But that Manhattan featured Jim Beam, a bourbon that will more than get the job done but nothing close to the classy Bulleit Bourbon, which costs about three times as much.
Blackberry Bulleit in all its bright pink glory. STAFF PHOTO / RACHEL S. O’HARA
A Bombay Sapphire Gin beverage also caught my eye in the $5 section and all the items in the six dollar range are vodka drinks including, yes, a Moscow Mule, this one made with Tito’s. In the $7 range there’s a delicious sounding margarita made with Don Julio Silver, an enticing Grey Goose and St. Germain union, a Ketel One martini and, my second and final drink of the visit, a Vesper; because after my pink drink I needed a martini so masculine it has been endorsed by James Bond. Differing a bit from the one described by Ian Fleming, Hyde Park’s is a perfect concoction of Belvedere Unfiltered Vodka, Bombay Sapphire Gin, dry and sweet vermouth.
The Vesper paired quite well with the $5.50 plate of two sliders made with grilled, dry-aged sirloin and topped with Tillamook cheddar and tangy aioli, served with a side of boardwalk fries and your own individual-size ketchup bottle. I also enjoyed the flatbread covered with blue cheese, horseradish sauce and spinach with slices of rib eye excelling in the role traditionally reserved for pepperonis or prosciutto. Calamari, four oysters, shrimp wonton and a margherita flatbread were the other bar plates, ranging from 5 to 7 dollars served during happy hour and then again on weekdays starting at 9 p.m.
Grilled Dry Aged Sirloin Sliders all part of the fun during happy hour at Hyde Park. STAFF PHOTO / WADE TATANGELO
So you get all of these terrific tipple and nosh deals, which would be reason enough to visit, but then there’s the setting. A dark, elegant room with a copper bar counter, removed from the dining area and with minimal distractions thanks to the curtains, low music and muted flat-screen television placed inconspicuously on the wall. Hyde Park’s bar is the kind of spot where you go with someone who appreciates quality beverages and appetizers as well as good conversation. By the time I left the other day around 5:30 p.m. the bar was nearly full. There were couples and singles, friends and lovers, people of various ages, all looking really, well, happy.
Hyde Park Prime Steakhouse
35 S. Lemon Ave, Sarasota; 366-7788; hydeparkrestaurants.com
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WADE TATANGELO is a content producer who has been an entertainment editor, reporter, columnist and reviewer at publications nationwide. He is a Hershey, Pa., native who grew up in Tampa and graduated from the University of South Florida. Wade joined the Herald-Tribune in 2013 and writes the weekly Bar Tab column. He can be reached by email or call (941) 361-4955.Follow @wtatangelo
