Happy Hour Scene: Voice

Photos by Paul Knight

​The Place: Voice Lounge at Hotel Icon
220 Main St.
832-667-4470
www.hotelicon.com

The Hours: The "Traditional Happy Hour" at Voice runs on Fridays 4-7 p.m., but drink specials also are offered on Wednesdays 4-7 p.m., and Thursdays, for the "legal community," 4-9 p.m.

The Deals: Martinis are $1 on Wednesdays, and on Thursdays, draft beer is $4, wine is $5 and "Legal Eagle Cocktails" are $6. Fridays feature $3 drafts, $4 wells and $5 wine.

The Scene:  The bartender at Voice Lounge stood over three stainless steel shakers on Wednesday evening and, thinking out loud, went over possible headlines for the next day's newspaper:

"Bartender goes on rampage," she said. "Throws martini glasses at her customers."

​The bartenders at Voice don't seem to enjoy $1 martini night very much. After all, $1 anything is sure to draw a "certain" kind of crowd -- a lot of them, too -- and making and shaking all those martinis, even for a short three hours, has to get old.

One of the bartenders working on Wednesday sweated constantly.

But in reality, the $1 martini crowd wasn't that bad. At least it wasn't any different than the crowd that might show up at Voice on a different night.

Other than ourselves, there was only one group that looked out of place at the ritzy Voice. They were three young men, possibly homeless, and they ordered three martinis then paid with three crumpled $1 bills.

The worst offense we witnessed after that was a man in a yellow shirt who ordered a $45 glass of Johnny Walker -- Blue Label, we believe -- then drink it with ice. 

Drink here? It's impossible, literally impossible, to beat $1 martinis. But Voice won't let you drink more than three while you're there (we saw a woman get cut off).

Voice is a cool spot, though, and even if you're not staying at the hotel and can't use the parking garage, finding a space on the street isn't too hard.

So yes, we will be back.