After exploring every nook and cranny of Pearl St all day, and I mean all day, we decided to catch the Jax happy hour. The happy hour drink! Some type of strawberry lemonade type of thing, with a nice bit of alcohol in it. I drank two! I know, can you believe it?
The complimentary bread, which is all kinds of delicious.
Peel-n-Eat shrimp. This is the happy hour portion, yet there’s plenty, and it only costs $3. They were perfect. Our hands stank for days, but we didn’t care.
Smoked salmon sliders. I don’t even like smoked salmon but these little babies were great!
And the $1 oysters! Oysters in the middle of Colorado, you say? They’re from the east coast, and they’re fresh and perfect on a hot sunny Colorado day. This place was hopping and we were lucky enough to score actual seats at the oyster bar. The bartenders are helpful and very friendly. A highly recommended happy hour!

In addition to the late night happy hours on weekends, the Oyster House actually has regular daily happy hours as well. It’s still buck-a-shuck and there are drink specials as well. Draft beers are $3. Damn I love me some raw oysters. I’m just a cocktail sauce girl myself. I skip the horseradish and the hot sauce. I got myself a martini au poire, which was not a special. It’s made with pear vodka, st. germain, lillet blanc, and an orange peel. And damn, I loved it. It’s strong, but it doesn’t taste overtly strong. But it certainly is strong, yet very drinkable, perhaps too easily drinkable. Be careful!
I also tried one of the drink specials which was a sparkling white wine. It was a Coppola Sofia (yes, that Sofia Coppola) and it came in this adorable little can! And it had a expandable straw attached to it! The oysters come out super fast and the service in general is very good here. The servers and bartenders are attentive, friendly, and quick. I think this is one of the best happy hours around.

I met up with an old colleague in Bellevue to grab a bite and some refreshment. Bellevue is a big ass city on its own, it hardly seems like a suburb. There’s a huge shopping area called Bellevue Square so we headed there and ended up at Earls. I remember running around this area earlier this year, literally, because we had to do this scavenger hunt for work, and we ran our asses off in bellevue. Man, did my feet hurt. So anyway, Earls! It’s a canadian chain. The Bellevue location is ginormous. The bar is ginormous and square. That’s where we sat. There are tons of high-tops, booths, and countless tables. It boggled my mind. We were there for happy hour so we had the white peach bellini, which was the special cocktail. It was made with appleton estate vx rum, natural peach syrup, peach liqueur, and sparkling white wine. This thing was big and strong! A good value!
As for my proper dinner, I got the West Coast Prawn Salad. There was a lot going on in this! So we have organic greens, spinach, avocado, strawberries, quinoa, julienne carrots, candied pecans, and warm sauteed prawns in a citrus honey vinaigrette. There was supposed to be feta cheese but I had them leave it out. This was a decent salad! The ingredients, for the most part, were fresh. It wasn’t like mindblowingly awesome or anything, but I enjoyed it. The prawns were big and well cooked but see how they look so plain? That’s how they tasted. I think if they’d grilled them it would have been even better. We sat at the bar so the service was ok. They were nice enough but not that attentive. It’s one of those places where if I’d worn a tight low-cut top, they would have probably been nicer to me. So the scene at Earls isn’t exactly my type of thing, but for what it was, it served its purpose. But I think it’s a bit too big and showy for me. I prefer my spots to be a bit more intimate and less big and shiny. It’s affordable though, so that’s a plus.