I mean, I can't...

Happy hour is most definitely my favorite part of any day -- is that bad? Don't answer.

I love checking out new places, of course, but there's nothing like going back to an old favorite. And right now, I can't stop thinking about one of my all-time favorite spots: Reef's 3rd Bar -- the swanky side bar attached to the seafood restaurant that has some of the best deals in town.

You should probably be thinking about it, too. Here's why:

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I'm fairly certain I've reached pro status when it comes to the Saint Arnold Brewery Pub Crawl. Quite the feat -- I know. I'd like to thank my friends, the good people at Saint Arnold and myself for having way too much time on my hands.

Texas's oldest craft brewery will host the infamous pub crawls a few times a year, usually at the beginning of a season to showcase their latest brews.

The crawls are always a good time and, in my opinion, the perfect way to spend a Saturday -- show up to the first bar on the list, get a punch card and a beer, follow the crawl to the next bar and repeat. If all goes well, you'll finish the day with some good stories and one of the brewery's highly coveted souvenir pint glasses in your hand, further proving your worth and dominance over your sucker friends who stayed home.

Yes, it sounds easy in theory -- but it does take a bit of expertise to successfully complete one like a boss. And because I like you guys, I'm sharing my pro tips on how to do just that:

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Photo by Troy Fields

See our slideshow of Uchi's gorgeous interior.

This week for her print restaurant review, Katharine Shilcutt tackled a mighty one: Uchi. You know the one, right? The Houston outpost of James Beard Award-winning Tyson Cole's Uchi and Uchiko in Austin? Of course you do.

Does the Westheimer spot live up to the hype? Yes. Shilcutt calls the food "a carefully orchestrated marriage between haute cuisine and high art" and says to be prepared for "one of the best meals of the year, or perhaps your life." Given all the press Uchi has received, though, that's hardly surprising.

What is surprising is Uchi's unexpectedly affordable happy hour.

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Photos by Katharine Shilcutt

...were at Pappadeaux. At the bar. During happy hour.

Surprised? I was. Although, in retrospect, I'm not sure why I should have been. I'm not anti-chain. In fact, some of my favorite oyster bars are the Captain Benny's boats that litter the city. But I hadn't been to a Pappadeaux in years, and my remaining memories of the restaurant from office luncheons and scattered date nights were of an overpriced seafood joint that was good -- but not good enough to justify the cost.

So happy hour is clearly the way to go here, and apparently half of Houston got that memo too: The bar was packed on a recent Tuesday evening, much of it with regulars who all knew the friendly bartenders by name. All around me, people were tying on bibs and preparing to dive into the happy hour crawfish, which is only $5.99 for 1¼ pounds after 5 p.m.

I ordered the oysters. At $6.99 for a half-dozen, they were not the cheapest of the season -- but they were the best.

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Photo by Katharine Shilcutt

Cornmeal-crusted Gulf oysters on spring greens at our No. 2 pick.

For the next 20 weeks, we'll be rounding up the runners-up to our 2011 Best of Houston® winners. In many categories, picking each year's winner is no easy task. We'll be spotlighting 20 of those categories, in which the winner had hefty competition from other Houston bars and restaurants.

I look for a lot of different factors in a truly great happy hour.

Obviously, the food and beverage prices have to be inexpensive, or at least discounted from their standard cost. But the food and beverages themselves have to be noteworthy to stand out from all the hundreds of happy hours around Houston.

Just as importantly, the restaurants themselves need to have an appropriately "happy" hour vibe. There's nothing worse than dragging your co-workers or friends to a happy hour where no one's at the bar, the service is surly and none of the patrons seem very happy at all.

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"The Lino" Special

"Want to eat me?"

"Excuse me?!"

It turns out I wasn't being sexually harassed, but rather I was being invited to The Fish Restaurant and Sushi Bar in Midtown to try a a new special on the menu named after a good friend of mine. I've often wondered how one becomes the namesake for a dish at a restaurant. It helps if you're a local celebrity like our very own Katharine Shilcutt -- but for the Average Joe, apparently you need to order an off-the-menu item, patronize the restaurant often, be gregarious and charming, ask nicely, and just maybe someone will name the dish after you

If you were going to try this anywhere, The Fish is probably your best bet. This has been my go-to sushi restaurant in Midtown since it opened around 2002 -- then known as BlowFish. There are others that have opened in the area -- all with the same trendy and sleek vibe sushi restaurants are known to have these days -- but in my opinion none are as consistently good, and the managers and servers at The Fish are perhaps the friendliest you'll encounter in this bustling area of Midtown.

So what is this dish?

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Pulled Pork Tacos

When I think of Morningside Drive in the Rice Village, casual dining and late night bar hopping come to mind. So Chef Michael Kramer's (formerly of Voice and The Tasting Room) new restaurant, Felix 55, is somewhat of an anomaly in the midst of Irish pubs and casual cafes. I've been looking forward to trying Felix 55 ever since I first heard about Chef Kramer's new venture, and I found myself there for a happy hour recently.

The restaurant's interior is trendy, but still warm and inviting, perhaps because the space is small and intimate and the large window in the front brings a lot of light into the room. The decor is decidedly masculine with leather chairs and dark wood, but the feminine light fixtures, the flowers on each table and the paintings on the wall add a soft touch. Sitting at the bar gives you a great view out of the large window looking out onto Morningside and the large patio in the front of the restaurant. Once the weather cools off the patio will be a welcoming place for a few drinks.

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"Hey, I can call my ma from up here."

The Place: Char Bar
305 Travis
713-222-8177

The Deals: $2 Pabst Blue Ribbon

The Hours: 5 p.m. to close Wednesdays

The Scene: We've only been to Char Bar a couple of times, but each time there were always at least a few women present. Wednesday after work, however, there were none, except when a delivery woman dropped off some food, but less than two minutes inside and no drinks doesn't count.

Most gay bars we've been to have had a stronger female presence. (Which can be tricky as a straight man, because that scenario naturally means less competition for any straight females present, but oftentimes those straight females have come to a gay bar specifically to escape you.) But Char Bar was man-filled in a much different way - mostly white-collar guys who'd just gotten off work, sitting at the galley bar, bullshitting over vodkas and Miller Lites.

The bar, which is a tailor shop during the day and has been for the better part of a century, is long and dark, even during the most blindingly bright part of the late-summer afternoon. It smells kind of like a non-smoking casino. We're not sure why that is. Could have been someone's cologne triggering a memory. Maybe we have a gambling problem. Maybe not. Maybe...never mind.

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Joanna O'Leary

Apple Martini.

I was thrilled to see a promising new restaurant like Sorrel fill the near-empty corner mall on the West Alabama. Those lots were looking quite sad and lonely.

I was out of town for Sorrel's opening but salivated from afar over Mai Pham's lovely post and gorgeous photos. So, I put "Try Sorrel" on my back-to-school to-do list, right after "Buy stock in all companies selling A/C units."

Indeed, the heat has made me even more obsessed with beverages, so I decided to hit up Sorrel's happy hour before committing to a hotter (and pricier) meal.

Around 5:30 p.m. early in the week the restaurant was understandably quiet. A distinguished older gentleman (owner? manager) ran to hold the door for me and no fewer than three servers wished me good evening. The waitstaff overall seemed a bit skittish: you could tell they were anxious to be on their toes in light of the restaurant's fairly recent opening. I found this nervous, eager-to-please attitude quite endearing.

My first drink, an apple martini, was painfully, albeit wonderfully, cold. Sweet, uncomplicated notes of sour apple combined with bitter alcoholic undertones for a crisp, refreshing cocktail. I think I even said ahhh out loud.

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The Place: Lone Star Saloon
1900 Travis
713-757-1616

The Deals: $13 buckets, daily $4 shot/cocktail specials

The Hours: 1 to 7 p.m. Mondays; 4 to 7 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays; 2 to 7 p.m. Sundays

The Scene: The newly-off-duty bartender, who'd made a smooth transition to the other side of the bar, rang the bell suspended from the ceiling twice during the hour we spent at the Lone Star's Sunday happy hour. First when a guy who looked like an assistant high school football coach yelled "The [Dallas] Cowboys suck!", in response to nothing we overheard. And later when a short Metro employee -- who a few minutes ago had paid her five bucks for the privilege of giving her a friendly spanking -- declared that he owned three phallic sexual aids.

She'd also told us when we first sat down at a stool that we looked like we were in a bad mood. She may have been right at first, but it didn't last long.

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