Atlanta’s Best Happy Hours: 8 Must-Try Spots

Technically, traditional happy hour with drink specials is outlawed in Atlanta, but many area establishments have found ways to skirt the system by offering weekly specials and all-day discounts. Here are eight of our faves, many of which involve oysters. Skip the rush hour traffic and head to happy hour at these bars and restaurants instead.

Alma Cocina

For a Latin-inspired happy hour, head to Alma Cocina in the heart of Downtown. Select cocktails like a dark and stormy or El Clásico margarita (frozen or rocks) are just five bucks a pop on weekdays from 4-6pm. Or, enjoy a glass of pinot grigio or tempranillo wine for the same low, low price of one Abraham Lincoln. They don’t start serving dinner until 5pm, but the kitchen is open for appetizers, including chicken quesadillas, spicy chicharrones, and chicken tinga tostadas. Look out for Alma Cocina’s second location, coming soon to Buckhead.

C. Ellet’s Steakhouse

This swanky steakhouse at Battery Atlanta’s daily happy hour is aptly named “The 4 to 6”. Get half-off premium oysters and discounts on small snacks such as hushpuppies with sorghum butter ($5), bacon caramel popcorn ($3.75), or peel and eat shrimp for just a buck! A glass of the house red or white will only set you back $7, while the house rose is even cheaper at $6. The 4 to 6 martini is six bucks, while an Ezra Brooks Manhattan will cost you $7. The kitchen is helmed by James Beard award-winner Chef Linton Hopkins, so you might want to stay for dinner.

Dantanna’s

With two convenient locations, one in the trendy Buckhead area and one Downtown, you’re never far from this upscale sports bar’s all-day happy hour. Make a meal out of half-priced appetizers during Dantanna’s “Appy Hour” on Monday through Thursday. Have the seared beef carpaccio, made with rare beef tenderloin for nine bucks instead of $18! Or, try the fries piled high with smoked rib, horseradish dijonnaise, pickled red onions, blue cheese crumbles, bacon lardons, jalapeño, and scallions for just eight dollars. 

On Tuesdays, you can get half-off high-gravity beers, and on Wednesdays, Dantanna offers half-off of their selection of 100 bottles of all-American wines. Head there on Friday between 4-6pm for dollar oysters and peel-and-eat shrimp for $0.50! 

Kimball House

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Housed in an old railroad station in Decatur, this James Beard Award semi-finalist serves farm-to-table entrees with French flair, but we’re here for the half-price bivalves. Each weekday from 5-7pm, the raw bar offers more than a dozen varieties of oysters from the Gulf, Pacific, and Atlantic for about $1.50 a pop. While there aren’t any drink specials, the eponymous Kimball House cocktail, made with Miller’s Westbourne gin, Cocchi Americano, Dolin dry vermouth, and housemaid orange bitters, will only set you back $10. There are reasons this bar is a favorite among Atlanta locals.

One Eared Stag

This quirky Inman Park eatery serves American cuisine, including house-cured meats and pickled vegetables, but we come for the beer and bi-valves. On weekdays from 5-7pm, One Eared Stag serves dollar oysters and dollar Miller High Life ponies. The oysters are chef’s choice and are only available in the bar area, front outside tables, and on the back patio.

Watchman’s Seafood and Spirits

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Kimball House’s more locally/regionally focused sister restaurant at Krog Street Market in Old Fourth Ward offers high-quality oysters from North Carolina, Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and nearby for $1 each, every day from 5-7pm and 10pm until close. While Watchman’s doesn’t have drink specials either, they do have an eight dollar rum and tonic, the G&T’s sweet but sultry sister.

Red Pepper Taqueria

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Red Pepper Taqueria offers one of the best happy hours in town, with half-off appetizers from 4pm to 6pm at the bar, Monday through Friday. During this time, you can also get a dozen oysters—12 shucks for six bucks (limit two dozen/person). They also offer daily specials on food and drinks. 

On “Manic Mondays,” get a $10 fajita skillet paired with a Tecate for just a buck. “Taco Tuesdays” means two-dollar tacos and five-dollar red sangria. On “Wine Down Wednesdays,” bottles of wine are half-off, and a prime burger costs only $5. For “Skinny Margarita Thursdays” get a skinny marg for just five dollars, while Coronas are $3 a pop. Not happy hour-related, but they also offer $15 bottomless mimosas until 3pm on weekends.

The Optimist

The raw bar at The Optimist in West Midtown offers fresh oysters from the Alabama coast for one clam a piece, Monday through Friday from 5-6pm and from 3-5pm on weekends. You can also get a baker’s dozen of the rotating selection of fancy raw mollusks for $12. The Optimist doesn’t offer discounts on their beer, wine, or handcrafted cocktails, but you can get a glass of punch for five bucks or share a pitcher of it for $20.

Find your new favorite happy hour spot in one of these places. Need a place of your own? Check out thousands of apartments for rent in Atlanta on Zumper.