Miami's New Restaurant Mantra: 2-for-1 Booze

If our local restaurants can't succeed in giving us great value for our food, the next best thing is to give us great value for our drinks. This way we can get drunk and forget how much we're paying for dinner. And so in this spirit of cut-rate spirits, we present the following quartet of deals for your perusal:

Downtown's Area 31 dubs the hours between 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. "The Blissful Sixty". Never mind that the folks here are bad at counting time -- what's important is that during these blissful 120 minutes, cocktails, house wines and domestic beers are $5, and chef John Critchley sets out a special menu of $6 nibbles(including white fish ceviche, Iberian pork paletta with Manchego, marinated cow's milk cheese from Menorca, and fish and chips). The party pours out onto the outdoor terrace and pool deck, which is a very cool place to watch the sunset. Spoiler Alert: You can keep reading on, but in our opinion this is by far the best deal of this particular batch.

Andu Restaurant and Lounge calls its' special time "Choose Your Hours Wisely: Bites & Booze Happy Hour". Granted, in the history of the world nobody has ever come up with a worse name for a happy hour, but, again, let's keep our eyes on the deal: Tuesday to Friday from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Andu offers half price on signature cocktails ($8), premium well drinks ($6), and domestic beers ($3); in case you weren't sure, the prices in parenthesis have already been halved. The "bites" part of the happy hour just means that you can order from the bar menu.

Red,The Steakhouse, is touting twofers on specialty cocktails, wine and draft beer every Monday through Friday from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., with a special menu of $9 snacks. Buy a draft beer or well drink during 8 oz Burger Bar's dual happy hours (4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. until close) -- and the next one is on the house.