la.foodblogging

Border Grill used to be one of my favorite Happy Hour spots. I say “used to” because when we went there on Friday evening, we were surprised to see that the menu and prices had changed, in some cases pretty drastically.

In the old days, there were two menu sections, the $3 section and the $5 section. For the most part, we would stick to the $3 section, filling our bellies with plantain empanadas, chicken panuchos, tamales, quesadillas, etc. Drinks were $3.

Now, most of the $3 items have either been eliminated or moved to the $5 menu. Drinks are now $4. A new $7 section has been added and the biggest travesty of all, the plantain empanadas have been moved to the appetizer section, at a price of $7.95!

OK, we thought, don’t panic. I’m sure that for more than two and a half times the price, they must just give you a double order of empanadas. We always order at least two plates, so no big deal. If they used to serve three per order, surely now there are six per order. Wrong! There are only four per order. So you get one more empanada for the extra $4.95 they tacked on the price. We still ordered them and they were still awesome, but not quite the deal that they used to be. This Happy Hour was making me feel melancholy.

Now, there was one shining star. A new item was added to the $5 section - Cayenne Duck Wings. Think buffallo wings, but with plump duck drumettes covered in a flavorful, medium spice level sauce. The dish came with a healthy portion of six wings and a creamy sauce. The wings were filling and were a great addition to the menu.

Two of us had a glass of sangria each and enough food to be full before a movie for $30 before tip. A deal? Probably. Happy hour rates? I don’t think so. We will probably go back, but when we’re thinking of happy hour places, I don’t think Border Gril will top our list. From the lack of the usual crowded communal table and bar, it looks like others are taking the same stance.

By Jonah (see more of his posts). Jonah is the founder of la.foodblogging and also created Digesty, a food blog aggregator and Cheww.com, a spam free foodblog search engine.