The Place: B.B. King's Restaurant & Blues Club, 550 Rosemary Ave., West Palm Beach. Call 561-420-8600.
The Hours: 3 to 7 p.m. every day.
The Deal: Half-off drinks and appetizers.
The Digs: With locations already in the two music capitals of Memphis and Nashville and in the two tourist-trap capitals of Orlando and Las Vegas, B.B. King's opened a fifth location last December in West Palm Beach. (There is also an independently owned franchise in New York City's Times Square.)
This CityPlace venue features an expansive main room containing the stage and a sea of dining-style seating. There are two bars in the main room, a bar down a hallway and a bar outside. There is also a secluded dining area removed from the noise of the stage. Although the outside looks like a theater, the inside is done up in a faux-shotgun-shack-style -- oddly enough its similarly themed cousin, the House of Blues, reverses the formula with faux-shack-styling on a gargantuan scale outside and classic music-hall styling inside.
The Verdict: If you like your blues like you like your bars, franchised and slightly impersonal, you'll love B.B. King's. There is live music throughout the week, featuring a regular rotation of local blues and smooth jazz musicians and the occasional touring act. Just remember proper attire is required, though the Blues Brothers (and the artists they parodied) might have something to say about the ban on sunglasses.
Note: The venue website mentions a late-night happy hour, but it no longer exists. In fact, they now close at 11:30 p.m. Sunday through Thursday (2 a.m. Friday and Saturday.) So a late-night happy hour that ran from 11 p.m. to close Monday through Thursday would surely be a race against the clock.
