Mortons power hour is great!

[wojiparu]

Mortons in great has great deal going on, was there last night. Any appetizer $6 bucks from 5pm to 630 and 9 till closing! Also $7 martinis and $4 beer drafts. Great time thought I mention it!

[danieljdwyer]

I've seen ads for this, and I can't believe they're calling it power hour. Do they not know what power hour means? Or do they just figure their customers don't?

[Brianne920]

I thought the same thing. A shot of beer a minute for 60 minutes, set to a soundtrack?Being a recent college graduate/current law student, I am still regularly shamed by my friends for not ever having made it through a Power Hour without quitting. The department store Kohl's also advertises "Power Hour" sales in newspaper ads! I always giggle.

[Fibber McGee]

We didn't have Power Hour, we just had Century Club. Maybe Morton's did, too. Thus . . .

[Brianne920]

We had both. Century Club was DEFINITELY something I left for the boys :)

[jeanmarieok]

I suspect they don't know what it means.

[Fibber McGee]

Of course they do. It's their version of happy hour, isn't it? ;)

[southernitalian]

I give up. What does it mean?

[Fibber McGee]

See Brianne's first post.

[mrbigshotno.1]

$7 martinis and $4 drafts is why I drink at home.

[alanbarnes]

But compared to $14 martinis and $8 drafts...

[wojiparu]

Its a great deal to me! great cocktails and great apps! Smiles

[invinotheresverde]

This is only true at some Morton's, as some states (such as MA) don't allow varying prices on alcohol.

[reiflame]

I didn't know that and it sounds like the saddest thing ever.

[danieljdwyer]

It's a very easy law to get around. Most of the bars I went to happy hours at in college (in Boston) just had certain drinks they only sold during happy hour. They could even do dollar drafts during happy hour by serving them in 12 ounce Solo cups. If Morton's can't get around this law, they're just not being very creative.

[invinotheresverde]

Or, they're not willing to risk their liquor license. Any place that does this is blatantly breaking the law, as any alcohol specials must be offered for a minimum of thirty days and during all business hours.

[danieljdwyer]

I don't know the specific wording of the law, but just about every bar in Allston and Brighton gets around it without getting in any trouble. A few in Back Bay do the same.

[invinotheresverde]

They haven't been caught yet.

[danieljdwyer]

If that's the case, then I can't imagine what you have to do to get caught on this. Quite a number of these places have been running the same specials for at least a decade, with very obvious signs out front announcing the specials.

[alanbarnes]

We can go back a bit further than that. I had a bit of familiarity with the bars of Cambridge in the mid- to late-80s, both when I was in college and even more so when I took a sabbatical and drove the truck that delivered much of their liquor to them. I don't know what the laws were then, but happy hour specials were not uncommon.

[invinotheresverde]

Which places are still running these specials?

[danieljdwyer]

Basically, name a BC or BU dive, and I've partaken in drink specials there (with the exception of MaryAnn's, since you can't get much cheaper than their regular prices anyway).
This is probably begging to get my post yanked, but to actually name some names: Roggie's (which also raises prices by more than double during BC home football tailgates and games), The Kells, Wonderbar, Great Scott, Sports Depot, Big City, Avenue, Green Briar, Soho (which seems to have closed), Cactus Club, Foggy Goggle, and Pour House. I haven't been to most of these in five years or more - and, if I had, I probably wouldn't admit it - so I can't confirm they're all still running specials. The Pour House, to my knowledge, only did drink specials during the 2004 World Series, so maybe that doesn't count. There are a lot more that I think I remember having specials, but I don't want to list places I'm not 100% sure of. I've been told about specials at most of the sketchier places around Fenway (think Who's on First), but haven't been to any of them.
Also, the list gets a whole lot longer if you take in to consideration brunch specials. That's part of why I thought you could get around the law with availability. A lot of places only make Bloody Marys or coffee drinks during brunch, just like a lot of places buy cases of Busch Lite bottles, bring them in at 4pm on Friday, and sell them for a buck a pop until they run out around 8pm or so.

[invinotheresverde]

Yeah, totally illegal.

[invinotheresverde]

Here's the law:

http://www.mass.gov/abcc/pdf_frm/happ...

I was off on the 30 day thing. I thought it was a month, but it's a week.

[invinotheresverde]

Because I'm a nerd, I called the Back Bay location. The woman I spoke to said these specials are good during all hours of operation, but in the bar only.