Midtown Ventura Happy Hour

A group of individuals from the 2024 VC Social Cohort discuss their experiences with happy hour in Ventura. They review different places such as Brophy Brothers, Social Tap, and Yolanda's. They talk about the variety of drinks, food options, ambiance, and pricing at each location. Overall, they had positive experiences but had some suggestions for improvement, such as more healthy options and unique cocktails. They rated Social Tap and Yolanda's around an 8 out of 10 and Brophy Brothers at 7.5 out of 10. Hello, everyone. I am Michelle, and we are the 2024 VC Social Cohort, and we are going to be talking to you today about happy hours in Ventura, and we're going to specifically focus on Midtown. But first, let's go around, and I'll introduce ourselves. Hi there, I'm Tonisha, I'm participating in this class, I'm 37 years old, and happy about doing happy hour these days. Hi, guys, I'm Alina, and I'm 21 years old, and I'm very happy to be talking about happy hour. I don't live in Ventura, so this is very, very new to me. Hey, everyone, I'm Cynthia, I'm 25 years old. I'm excited to do happy hour in Ventura, just because I usually don't do happy hour in Ventura. So it's kind of fun to experience new places that are out here and discover new places that I can now go to. And I am Michelle, I am 50 years old, and I definitely don't do happy hours very often, and it is very cool to be able to go and check out different places throughout Ventura with my classmates and new friends, and so we're just excited to tell you what we have today that we've come up with. And so the first place we checked was Brophy Brothers, and Cynthia, actually, I'm sorry, Tonisha is going to talk to us today about Brophy Brothers. Okay, so this past Friday night, I went and checked out Brophy Brothers. If you are a seafood lover, this is definitely a place for you. If you're allergic to selfies, Michelle, you cannot go. So their happy hour was beautiful because they do have that view, it's right there in the Ventura Harbor. They offer happy hours 3 to 6.30, which I thought was pretty cool that they had that extra half hour, and it is Monday through Friday. They did have a good variety of drinks as far as their draft beers were on there, well drinks. The only thing they didn't really have were any specialty cocktails, mainly just a Bloody Mary and a margarita, which I only partook in the beers. Ceviche was great, that was something I had, very fresh, light. And Oysters Rockefeller, so if you're looking for oysters, that's something that's pretty hard to find on happy hours. They had a variety of shellfish, mussels, clams, so it is definitely a seafood heaven, good variety. We have, some of the things we're checking out though is if there's healthy options and any desserts. I would say that Brophy Brothers, I would technically consider them to having five healthy options, I don't know if you would agree, but I considered it's all of their shellfish is boiled, and then the ceviche is marinated and served with crackers, and also there's peeled shrimp. So not too many sauces or fried items, so I think you can find some good healthy options there if you wanted. Question? Yeah. So was the ceviche, was it like fish, or was it like crab, or what was like the main ingredient, was it fish? Yeah, the main ingredient was a white fish. Okay. Yeah. Love that. It's pretty good. Awesome. Thank you for that. Well, I'm glad to know that if I go to Happy Hour at Brophy's, I can have the ceviche and not die, so thank you, Tanisha. We did, oh, we did a group one. We did Social Tap, so Tanisha, what were your thoughts on Social Tap? Social Tap, definitely the vibes, and I'm so glad that a majority of us got to go and enjoy it together. So it was me, Michelle, and Melina, and we had a good time, and also Michelle, it was a treat. She brought her daughter. So it was a nice little girl group outing, so yeah, I enjoyed myself. I was the only one who drank, so. That's true. Melina, what were your thoughts on Social Tap? So Social Tap, I've never actually been, so it was my very first time, and I would say it was pretty good. I got the chicken tenders and fries. I didn't know it came with fries, so I love that it did because I'm a French fry girl, and I think the portion of the chicken tenders was pretty good, and then you guys also did get the wings. The wings did look really good, but the only thing is I don't like bone in. I like boneless. That's right. So I didn't try them, but they smelled really good. They looked really good. The chicken was great, and what else? The burger as well. That looked really, really good, great portion size, and it was only $11, so I would definitely recommend the burger for sure, and then I didn't drink. I don't really drink, so. That's okay. I didn't drink either, so that was good, but we got, so let's see, Tanisha, you and my daughter shared the wings, so we had two orders of wings, a burger, which yeah, as you said, Melina, they came with fries, so we were shocked that it was a full-size burger. It wasn't like the slider for only $11, and yeah, we got the burgers. You got the tenders. I got a chicken taco, which was really good. It was a nice, somewhat healthy option, and then we had one beer and one wine, and our total for that was like $50, so for seven items for $50 for a happy hour, I would say that's not bad. Like you said, Tanisha, they didn't really have any signature cocktails on that one. They definitely didn't really have much of a healthy choice, minus the chicken tacos. Oh, and they did have an ahi slider, but we didn't try that, so I'm not really sure how healthy that one was, but at least there was somewhat of an offer. Oh, the one thing I forgot, I don't know if you remember, Tanisha, is they had the slushie of the day. We didn't try that. It was alcoholic, so, and I wasn't drinking anything, so. It was special. It was like for St. Patrick's Day, so like a shamrock slushie. Yeah, right, right. I wish we would've got it. I wanted to see what it looked like. Right, and I think it doubled as dessert, because we're on the hunt for a happy hour dessert, and I guess that was the closest thing we got to so far. Yeah, we haven't got there yet. Yeah, no. So, out of, one out of ten, I know we talked about this before, ladies, what would you guys rate this, because it's cool that we're all different, you know, age demographics, like my daughter's 21. I'm 21 as well. My daughter's 24, 21, Tanisha's in her 30s, I'm, again, 50, woo-hoo, and so it's interesting to kind of see what we all ranked it at. What would you say, Tanisha? I gave it an eight, because happy hour, I still think of like bar food, and they hit that notch, and the burger, oh my God, it was really good, it was actually really tasty, you could tell, fresh on the griddle, so I enjoyed that, yeah, I gave it an eight. Okay, Melina? I think I have to agree with Tanisha, I would definitely rate it an eight, I really wanted like a dessert, and I'm sad that they didn't have that, but I feel like a lot of happy hour places don't offer dessert, so I'm going to rate it out of eight. What about you, Michelle? You know what, I think I'm going to, I feel like I'm one of the football sports guys where they're like, I'm going to go against the, you know, the winning team. I think I'm going to go with just a notch down at a 7.5, just because the food was awesome, I mean, when we did happy hour later on in the week, my daughter was saying, I wish Tanisha was here and we could have had a burger, because the burger was really good, and it had a lot of things, I just, I think for me, even if I'm doing bar food, I wanted a little bit more of a variety, and so that, and if they didn't have healthy food, which a lot of course, you know, places don't, they didn't really have a big cocktail variety of a menu, and you know, I don't always drink, and so they didn't even have any cool mocktails, so it was cool when they have something a little bit out of the ordinary to stand out, I really enjoyed it, I would definitely go back, it's a very chill vibe, but I would give it a solid 7.5, but I would definitely go back. Yeah, and I think the vibe was great as well, I love that it's right by the beach, actually on my way there, I almost got lost, but I was like slowing down, I'm like, oh wait, like, it's kind of like hard to see if you don't like live here, so I almost got lost, but I didn't, because I slowed down. And another good thing about it, that I will actually rank it probably a little higher, is they have good parking, that is a big thing, because when they're not busy, if you go we went about 3 o'clock, 3.30, if we would have went at 5 or a little later, we probably would have been screwed, because the parking down at Pear Pond is, yeah, it gets crazy. So the next one we did was Yolanda, and I went to Yolanda's, so I went to Yolanda's with my daughter, who's 21, and oh, and you know what, one thing we didn't do is, Melina, when is the happy hour, do you remember, for SocialTap, what are the days that they have? SocialTap, the happy hours are Monday through Friday, 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. That's cool, and that's a solid five days a week, I think that's great. So, and Yolanda's, as I was saying, is actually the same, so there's a three to six, Monday through Friday, we went to the Yolanda's that's right by CMH, and honestly, I haven't been to Yolanda's in a long time, I really don't go there very often, I find the inside really dark and kind of gloomy, and so when I'm doing happy hours, I want to be in a place that's happy and like, light colors, exactly, like making me want to enjoy happy hours. They have an outdoor lanai area that's covered, it was super cool, that was probably my favorite thing about the happy hour, the price point was really good, they had, it was between like, four and nine dollars, which is really good, they had drinks for four bucks, or beer for four dollars, their margaritas were eight and nine, honestly, I wasn't that impressed with the margaritas, my daughter wasn't really impressed with hers, so for the cocktails, I wouldn't really say I was overwhelmed, I don't know if I would, if I was going for happy hour just for cocktails, I would not pick Yolanda's, but I would, the vibe is cool, the manager that's there is really nice, and he comes over and makes sure that everything's great, and I love good service, so that I really liked, on their menu, they had eight different items on their menu, and it's the usual, you know, quesadillas, they had nachos, and a bean dip, and different things like that, we ordered the quesadillas, and honestly, it was, just wasn't our preference, for us, we found it a bit oil, and the manager said, you know, when we got it, he was like, well, that looks a little oily, but it was with the shredded beef, and so he said, sometimes that has an issue, so we got vegetarian, and it was nice and tasty. Question, so for the quesadilla, was it white cheese, or orange cheese, do you remember? I think it was a little bit of both, but I remember more of the, yeah, it looked like it was more of a, actually, I think it was more of a cheddar, but it might have had some of the jack in it. I only ask, because I don't like quesadillas with white cheese, I prefer orange cheese. Yeah, it was, you know, it was a good size, the portion size was great, it was just too oily, for us, I found it to be a little more, I mean, the drink, so the non-alcoholic drinks are not on happy hour at all, so if you get a soda, it's the same price as if you get a beer, which, for me, is kind of silly, but, so yeah, we just got like two sodas and margaritas, and then we got a quesadilla, but he ended up taking it, so it was like 30 something dollars for us to go, we definitely weren't filled up, like I know when we went to Social Tap, we were all like, felt like we were full, yeah, you felt like you were full when we left Social Tap, right, Tanisha? Yeah, I mean, I had a burger and chicken wings, a glass of wine, a beer and a glass of wine, so. Wait, how were the chicken wings? The chicken wings were good, we actually did the traditional buffalo, which ended up being my favorite, and a sweet Thai, which, those were good, ask for extra sauce, and then you'll really enjoy them. So see, I think the trend is Social Tap is winning today, because we keep going to Social Tap, which is, it's interesting. Well, yeah, I would give Yolanda's about a five, it's great for a group, if you like traditional bar Mexican food, I would possibly try it, again, I might be, I'm a little more critical, so I'm just gonna put it out there, I like certain types of foods and qualities of food, and I just, it just didn't hit it for me, and the drinks didn't hit it for me, and then paying four dollars for a soda, yeah, I'm good. I'm good with that one. But Cynthia, why don't you tell us where you went, I know you went to a couple cool places that I'm actually been wanting to try, so why don't you talk a little bit about where you went. Okay, so I went to three different places, I went to Boat Yard, Two Trees, and Recon Brewery, sorry, I can't really pronounce that word right, but the first one I went to that I started off with was actually Two Trees, over here down Ventura, because I heard a rumor, from like word to word, or like person to person, that they have the best enchiladas in town, and I'm not really like an enchilada person, so I'm like, I gotta go try this out. So I had went, happy hour, I checked online, it said 3.30 to 5, so I was waiting around until 3.30, and then I got off my car and they had a sign outside the building that said 3 to 5.30, so just be aware that their happy hour is from 3 to 5.30, so when I had went in, I sat down, I asked for the happy hour menu right away, their regular menu is very extensive, but their happy hour menu is just a page, but out of that whole menu, you have about, I want to say, seven, no, 14 drinks to choose from, and then seven food items, so the food item that I got were the sliders, it came with three mini burgers, and then I got, of course the enchilada, you gotta choose the type of beer that you wanted, so I just got the regular kind of, what was it, I think it was a Modelo, and then I got, or my boyfriend that I went with, he also just got a regular Modelo, so I loved the sliders, I really wish I had ordered a whole burger, but I wanted to stick to happy menu items only, and I did know that off of their menu, they had other selections, kind of like, I want to say they had asada nachos you could choose from, they had ceviche, guacamole and chips, and they also had an option of chicken or chorizo nachos, buffalo wings, and then pulled pork sliders, but I just got the regular mini burger sliders, those were honestly amazing, and my drinks, for not being an enchilada person, I felt really good after that, I'm a fan, I could see why people say that they have the best ones in town, and they had a pretty good happy hour, I would say the environment inside the building as well too, even though happy hour was in the afternoon and the sun's out, they closed the shades on the windows, so that way they have their little string lights on, they have the TV on, it feels like a very nice environment, where it's like, you sit down there, and then next thing you know, happy hour's over, it's a very fun environment, whether you go just to sit at the bar or you go in a group of people that you get to hang out with, I thought that place was really, really good, I'm gonna give it like an 8.2 out of 10, I thought it was really good, and the prices, I would believe that for everything I had ordered, it ranged to only $26, so I thought that was a steal, especially for an enchilada, that itself was $7, so I thought that was like a really, really good bargain right there, and it was a big kind of cup, or like a schooner, maybe, I'm always on the hunt for an enchilada, trust me, it's my favorite, it's really, really good, like usually I think it's overwhelming because of all the stuff that goes in it, but this one was like, wow, this one's gonna have me going back to Two Trees all the time, that one's really good, the second one in that same day, I had also went to Boat Yard, again I went with me and my boyfriend, over at Boat Yard when we first walked in, we were like, are we gonna like this place, to me I feel like the inside seemed a little bit outdated, and I was like, okay, it might not have very good drinks or happy hour, however, when I went in, I asked for happy hour, and they told me happy hour is only at the bar from four to six, I was like, okay, so that's good to know that if you do go there, make sure that you do request to sit at the bar, because if you're at the tables, they don't serve you happy hour for some reason, so we sat at the bar, and we got four drinks, those four drinks consisted of like a blonde ale, a cider, another pale ale, and then like a happy haze, so between those four drinks, he got two of them, I got two of them, and at first like we thought this was a weird environment, just not really weird, but like it wasn't like our cup of tea at first, but after those drinks kicked in, like we loved it, it just kind of took a second to get warmed up into it. It turned into a happy hour, right? Yeah, it turned into a happy hour basically after those drinks, and again they had like a very good menu variety, but not so much to choose from. We didn't order any food from there, because nothing particular really kind of stood out to us, which is okay, but they had like expensive, where they had tuna tacos, beef tacos, bacon wrapped jalapenos, like those sound good, but my boyfriend's picky, so of course like I'm not going to get something and eat right in front of him, I want to be able to share something with him, but we just didn't get anything to eat. We had Parmesan fries, or no, I'm sorry, they also have Parmesan fries, tuna on fire, shrimp, shrimp quesadillas, I think hot crab dip, Hawaiian pokey nachos, calamari, and then a crispy shrimp taco, so they do have a good variety on their happy hour menu for food. I felt like if I would have ordered food, I would have loved it, just because I do like seafood in a way, but I don't really like that much seafood, so I felt like this whole list would be like kind of safe food to go with, and then for their happy hour menu, their happy hour is basically all of their beer and wine selection, so they kind of have a breakdown of a menu on the other side of the opposite food menu, and it's $1.50 off of all beer and wine, so I thought that was pretty good as well too. I just stuck to beer for this particular place, just because I felt like if I'm already drinking beer, I'm going to stick to it. I don't want to switch it up between like mixed drinks or wines or other alcohols that they may carry, but their beers are really good, and the one thing I really did like about Boatyard was that they typically serve beer from local areas, so the cider that I had was from Santa Paula, and I didn't even know like Santa Paula made their own ciders or made their own alcohol. Other alcohols that we ordered were from like Ventura here itself, there is one from Goleta, some from Oxnard, again Santa Paula, Santa Maria, so basically everything was close to home, which was nice, because then it's like you get a drink from your local surrounding cities and areas, and I didn't know that until I went there, so I really liked that too, and the beers were really good, and lastly for my, or I'm sorry, Boatyard, I think I would rate it probably like a 6, 6.3, it was pretty good, but I just felt like when I walked in, I'm like oh, like we're the only two in here, like is this like a hole in the wall or is this literally like a place that people don't like to go to after all, but it was really good, I liked it, and Recon Brewery, that's right across the street from campus, that one was pretty cool, it's pretty new, I believe it's been around for a few years, and it was my first time going there as well, so their happy hour is Monday to Friday, 2 to 5 p.m., and they had a really good menu, they have mainly sticking to beers since they're a brewery, and they had a good kind of, a good food menu, we just stuck to regular fries, just because at that point, like this is our third happy hour in the day, like we're going to sober up. Wow, that's a happy day. Yeah, we turned it into a happy day, so we pretty much spent like an hour in each place trying to get a little bit of vibe of that, like whatever every place had to offer, so we ordered fries just because we felt like the fries would absorb some of this alcohol, which was kind of true, we felt better after eating some of the fries, he ordered a beer and then again I ordered like a, he ordered a dark and stormy, so I think that's more of like a heavier IPA, and then I ordered a funky haze, just because that one's a little bit kind of more tolerable, I don't really drink beer, but I could drink a variety of beers, as long as I know it's on the lighter side, which it was, and the fries that they gave you was actually like a very big, like not selection, but a very big serving, I thought it was only going to be a little bit or a handful, but it was really actually enough to fill up the both of us, to be able to be shared, so I felt like that one's a really good place to go into a group setting and just like order all kinds of happy hour food menu items, and then try a selection of their beers, they're really good, and I would give that, and it's right across the street from campus, so like think about it, you're done with class, you have like finals going on, or midterms, or you just don't want to go to class that day, just go across the street, you're already parked, just park on campus and walk across the street, have a beer, I thought it was pretty enjoyable, and the inside, it's pretty cool, it's pretty spacious, looks pretty modern, and they have like maybe four old school like pinball games off to the corner, right next to the restroom, so I thought that was cool, so if you bring your kids or family along, there's definitely stuff to do for everybody, and menu items to try for everybody as well, I would give that one an eight out of ten, just because that one's right across campus, and that was my first time going there, so I feel like I will definitely be going there much more again. Very cool, thank you for that Cynthia, so it seems like, and we had a number of different ways we were ranking them, so it seems like Boat Yard was, would you say is not family friendly, since it's just at the bar? So I would say Boat Yard probably isn't family friendly, just because to be able to get happy hour, you have to sit at the bar, I believe you could still go with family, if you want to just spend a regular meal there, but if you're going particularly for happy hour, it wouldn't be really family friendly. Good to know, well the last place we went is Water's Edge, my daughter and I went to Water's Edge yesterday, and I don't know if you guys have been to Water's Edge before, it is right on the harbor, it's on the other side of the harbor of Margarita Villa, and Brophy Brothers, and all of that, and it's been a couple different restaurants, Tanisha have you been to Water's Edge before? Actually no, I haven't been to that one, so I'm ready to listen to that one. Oh, you're going to like this one, so Water's Edge, when we walked in, it's, the cool thing is that it is, I would say it's family friendly, in the sense that they have an outdoor dining area, and then you can of course sit by the bar, the outdoor dining area is just so nice, make sure to take your sunglasses, because it's bright with the suns there, but you can sit, look at the ocean, look at the harbor, it's beautiful. As far as the happy hour goes, it's definitely a very limited menu, so, and the menu consists of only six items on the menu, so I was a little, at first I was kind of like, this is probably not going to be my jam, and even though I've been there before, I'd been there a while back, and they had a lot more things on the menu, so it's nice to have a really good diverse menu, I was a little nervous, because I thought it was going to be mostly seafood, and it wasn't, so they had a butter board, which is interesting, because I'd never seen a butter board on a happy hour menu, and it's basically their house bread with infused butters, and it's for five bucks, and I'm thinking, okay, I don't typically order bread, because it's kind of a given when you go to a restaurant here in the states, you know, you get your bread while you wait for whatever, let me tell you, the butter, on this butter board, my daughter was like, we have to get it, it was so good, they had two different butters, one was more of a salted butter, and the other one was a honey balsamic, and the butters were really fantastic, the bread was like, I mean, the bread was bread, it was almost like a pita, so it wasn't like, I thought they were going to give, they told us it was going to be different kinds of bread, like a loaf of bread, but it was definitely worth it just for the butter, they have six menu options, so I'd say one, two of those would be kind of semi unhealthy ones, a really pretty looking salad that we looked at, we ended up ordering the margarita pizza, which my daughter absolutely loved, it's definitely a smaller pizza, so we could, like if we went, we could share it, but it wouldn't be where more than two people could share it, if you're hungry, and then somebody next to us ordered the crispy brussel sprouts, let me tell you, that was a game changer, my daughter was like, oh my god, we have to order these, and they come out kind of sizzling, and they have a like a candied bacon on them, I don't eat pork, so my daughter was very happy to eat all of the bacon off of them for me, and it's infused with like a chili sauce on it, it was really good, they were definitely really good, we had some left over, we took them home, and my husband ate them cold, and he was like, wow, these are really good, they're ridiculously good, so I would say the food was definitely, it ended up being really good, the vibe was super chill, because you're looking out at the water, and you know, who can't love that, the drinks were, I mean the menu for the drinks is not extensive at all, they have six dollar drinks, and eight dollar drinks, and they have well drinks, like most do, and those are your six dollars with your house wine, I did see the people next to us, and they had a house wine that they had with a decent sized pour, so that I kind of always check out, because sometimes you'll get a happy hour pour, and like you had a good pour when you had at social tap, right Tanisha? Yeah, it was a standard, like for my beer I had the pint, and then with my glass of wine, I would say it was definitely a six ounce pour, they didn't get too short on me, like, I'm sorry, sometimes when you get a glass of wine, especially during happy hour, they try to give you a short pour, but no, they kind of skimp you, no, they were very generous, so yes, I was happy with that. That's good, well yeah, this one I did see the ladies next to us, and yeah, like I said, it did have a good pour, I would rank them, wow, this is kind of a hard one, my daughter says the food was 10 out of 10, so coming from a 21 year old, that's, you know, not bad. I would actually give them, I would give them a nine, I'd give them an eight and a half or a nine, just because, I would have given them more if they had a better menu selection, I don't feel they had a huge menu selection, and if you went with the family, or kids, there's not really much on there, and the one thing, oh, I've got to tell you guys, on the menu it says, and I can read this, because I knew I was going to forget it, it says something like, substitutions will kindly be rejected. I mean, coming from the service industry, I'm kind of glad that they put that there, just to clear it up. Yeah, it was, substitutions, yeah, and I was like, wow, that's, I like it, but I mean, here, okay, let's be honest, Americans are the pickiest people in the freaking planet, like, we want, oh, we'll know this, and a side of that, and I'm as guilty as can be, because, well, with me, I have certain, I don't eat pork, I don't eat shell food, so I always ask, you know, can I have the meat on the side, but I don't typically substitute it, but yeah, it was funny, because even on, and it wasn't just on the happy hour menu, it was on the regular menu. Oh, even the regular menu? Exactly, that's what I mean, like, you don't normally see that on the regular menu, like, if I'm paying full price, I want it how I want it, see, that's kind of, again, sorry, the American, like, we just kind of want things how we want them, we're just kind of used to that, but I really liked that they were bold enough to put that, and at the same time, I was like, oh, because, you know, what if you can't eat certain things, but I definitely would say it was definitely a place that I would like to go, it's not as cheap as the other ones, well, the food range is so, the butter board was five bucks, the house chips, I didn't get those, the salad is eight bucks, the Brussels sprouts are 10, and they come in a good size, the portion for the Brussels sprouts is definitely a good size, the Margherita pizza was 12, and, I mean, it's okay, it's decent, but, like, a grown man, like, he would definitely, it's not a place you would go and eat the pizza and be full, like, we would definitely need more, and then, I don't know about the cheeseburger, we were going to order it, but again, my daughter decided not to, since Tanisha wasn't with us, but I don't know if it came with fries or not, and then, Cynthia, I was going to ask you your, when you went to Two Trees, did the burgers come with fries or anything? So, no, the burgers that I ordered didn't come with fries, the fries were going to be separate, all they were offering was the sliders, I thought the sliders initially was going to come with four, every place usually ranges between three to four sliders, this place only came with three sliders, however, they were pretty good, like, I had one, my boyfriend had one, and then we cut the other one in half, and by the time we were done eating the sliders and having our drink, we actually felt pretty decent to where we didn't feel really, really full, but we didn't feel very hungry either, and for a slider, I think that was probably one of the best sliders I've ever had, just because it was like, the burger was still juicy, everything was fresh, they had, I believe, grilled purple onions, which made such a difference, they also brought us ketchup and mustard, so I put that, and they gave us ranch, and I was like, wow, like, this is like, a really, really good slider, usually, the sliders that I have, they're typically not as juicy, they're not as flavorful, they're just kind of like, here you go, like, you're going to be drinking either way, you probably won't notice, but I noticed that burger, the sliders from Two Trees were very good, they were very well prepared, and I would order them again, it just makes me wish that I would have spent more time at Two Trees to be able to explore more of their happy hour kind of food selection, and their drink selection, I think I would have ordered another Menchulada with a different type of beer inside, just to experiment to see if that would have made a difference of, like, the taste of it, like, if I would have liked that one more, or if I would have liked it less, I think going back to experiment, putting different types of beers, or ordering the Menchulada with different beers would have given me, like, an overall different experience, so I'm glad I chose the perfect beer for this experience, and I think the next time I would go, I would want to kind of try the chicken nachos, chicken nachos really stick out to me, and overall, I personally like nachos, everywhere I go for a happy hour, that's the first thing I look off the menu. Wow, well, Melina is over here shaking her head, so, Melina, what are your thoughts on what she's saying about Two Trees? I think I would definitely go and try it, just because I've never been, I don't live over here, I also look for nachos, I love, love, love nachos, as long as they don't have sour cream, because I don't like sour cream, I'm very picky, like Michelle said, Americans are very picky, I'm not picky American, and yeah, I would definitely try it, the sliders sound very, very good. Yeah, and you know, I'm not a Menchulada person, well, I haven't had them in a while, so I think we definitely have to do a round trip back to Two Trees, because I saw Tanisha waving her head over there, too, when you were talking about the Menchuladas, and so, she's a beer expert, so she can kind of help us. Menchuladas are lifesavers, I will tell you, if you're having a hangover, Menchulada. That's true, that's true, I had a time, one time, many, many, when I was your age, and I definitely, somebody made me a Menchulada, and he goes, drink this, you'll be fine the next day, and sure enough, let me tell you, the next day, I was okay, so, I believe it today. Good to know, good to know. But, yeah, I definitely think Two Trees would be good, and I was also thinking of, back to the Water's Edge, the one thing I would say, it's not as family-friendly if you have young kids, and I know you were talking, Cynthia, about Rincon, and I've been to Rincon just a couple times, and it's definitely very big, so it's definitely more of a family-friendly if you have any range of kids. I've seen people there with young kids, with teenagers, and middle school kids. I would say, for Water's Edge, it's better if you have 10-year-olds or 12-year-olds, kids that are a little bit older that sit still and are going to play a game or do something. There was somebody next to us, and they were playing a card game. I was going to ask one more thing. For Water's Edge, was there any chicken options on the happy hour menu? No. It was really, that's why I didn't rate it higher. The reason it got such a high rating for me is because of the vibe and the service, and the food we did get was really good, but like I said, it was just, you had Brussels sprouts, you had a Margherita pizza, you had a cheeseburger, you have the butter board, you have a salad, and you have potato chips. It wasn't a really wide variety of menu. That's what kind of brings it down for me, but it's definitely a cool vibe. I think I would go there just to relax and enjoy the view. It's a good place to just kind of detox. Yeah, definitely go in and detoxing from your day, I think, would be nice. It's funny, because the ladies next to us were doing a happy hour tour, and they were planning on getting pretty much hammered, it seems like, because they were doing four places in one day and Ubering, but it's not a place you would go and spend a lot, a lot of time, just because they don't have as many items. I think if we all went back, we would probably order most things off the menu, and we might not be full at the end, but it's just beautiful. The other thing about Water's Edge is their happy hour is only from Tuesday to Friday, so it's definitely the shortest one we've had. I know when we get to downtown next week, there's a couple that are shorter, but yeah, I'm looking for two trees. Cynthia's got me thinking about it, and I live up the street from two trees, so whenever you guys want. Yeah, definitely, and then another thing for me, like going to happy hours, I always look for chicken, because that's just like my comfort, like food in restaurants, I have to go for chicken, so I'm always looking for chicken, which is why I got chicken tenders as social tech. And their chicken tenders looked really good. They taste like real chicken, guys, not like McDonald's chicken nuggets, like it's real chicken. And that's what, because I did try his wings with my daughter's wings, and they were really good. I only tried the buffalo, was it? Yeah, buffalo. I tried the buffalo, and I was going to try the other one with the chili, but yeah, both Tanisha and my daughter said they could use a little more of the sauce, but the wings were like meaty. Yeah, they were big, too. Big boys. Well, we did have one last happy hour to talk about, too, to add in, we didn't get to talk about Margaritaville. Oh, that's right. Yes, so Margaritaville, we went at separate times, which was good, because we got to cover some area. Yes. Do you want to talk first? Yeah, sure, okay, so I'm pretty familiar with the harbor, just because I would go there a lot for costacone, and I didn't even know Margaritaville was a restaurant. I would just see it looked like a lighthouse. My first job. Yeah, so it looked like, I thought it was just a lighthouse. I didn't know there was a restaurant or anything, and I couldn't see a sign or anything, there was no lights, and then I was like, oh, wait, it's right here, there's no sign, there's no lights. So we went in, I actually went with my grandma, my great-grandma, it was my great-grandma's birthday, she turned 86, and she's a foodie, she loves trying new restaurants, but the other thing with her, she's very, very picky, she's like a service person, so if they're not good, then she's going to rate it very low. So when we got there, so you see yourself, and we took a seat at a booth, and then they automatically brought us water, which I really liked, because a lot of restaurants don't do that, and they had the happy hour menu on the table already, which was great, because I didn't want to ask for it, and I actually went inside the restaurant with a notebook and a pen, because I feel like if you do that, they give you better service, and I didn't want my great-grandma to be rude to the servers, because she's that person. So the service was great, like I said, so what I got from the menu, I got their sope, I got the quesadilla, and I got the shredded chicken taco. I think my favorite was the quesadilla, you can add meat, but I chose not to add meat, and the thing that I love is it came with orange cheese, like I said, I hate white cheese in quesadillas, don't like it at all, it did come with sour cream and guacamole on the side, I don't like sour cream or guac, so I wish they would have told me that, because it got on my quesadilla, and I had to shred that little piece off, because I will not eat it. I am very picky, but guacamole and sour cream, if you love it, you love it, and those are a big extra charge, and so for me, on the other hand, I'm like, ooh, it comes with guacamole, cool. And the sope as well, so it was like the tortilla part, it came with beans, it came with the meat, I got asada, it came with like a green chili, it also came with sour cream, but I said, don't give me that, and then I think it also came with guac, but I told them not to give me that, and the sope was really, really good, the sope was great, I'm not gonna lie, and the last thing that I got was the shredded chicken taco, the taco was really good, the only thing that I did not like was their pico de gallo, it was like a mango pico, which, I'm sweet with the tacos, it's just not me, so I didn't like that, and I didn't know it came with that, so if I knew that, I wouldn't have ordered the pico on it, but other than that, it was great, the only thing that I did not like about the sope was on their menu, it said $4.50, but they charged me $5.50. Oh no, yeah, I'm looking at the menu right now. Yeah. It still says $4.50. Yeah, so they need to update their menu. You know you could have told them about that, and they would have had to pay for it, because they have to honor what's on there. Oh, interesting. Yeah, and another thing, you could also get ceviche, but I'm not a seafood person, so I didn't get ceviche, because I don't like any kind of seafood, but I did see somebody else get the ceviche, and it looked like really good, like I would definitely get seafood if I liked it, because they always make it look so good, but I just don't like it, I would probably throw up. Well, it is a good thing when we all go to happy hour together, because Tanisha eats pretty much everything, you don't have to get that out there. If you're not as picky as we are, and she can recommend us with beer, and then Melina, you don't like sour cream and guacamole, and Tanisha and I and Cynthia would gladly put it on the side for you, yeah, just put it all on the side, and then you could eat the chicken, I could eat the meat, and then Tanisha, Cynthia, and my daughter and Martin could eat all the seafood and everything else, so we're kind of all covered. Yeah, true. Whatever I don't want you guys to eat. Yeah, totally. Put it on the side. Put it on the side. And then the cool thing about Margarita Villa is they do happy hour Monday through Friday, 3pm to 7pm. Wow. One of the longer ones, I like that. And I would definitely say it's family friendly, just because they have two patios, one in the front and one in the back, so the one in the front is facing like towards the beach, and the back patio is more towards like the harbor, so it's a great view, great vibes, service is great, the inside is nice, there's a lot of plants, I just, I loved Margarita Villa. Yeah. Wow. And you said how many, like, and Tanisha, you went there as well, right? Did they have a good variety of like items to order? Was it like five, ten, how many? Well, I think there was nine options. Wow, that's pretty good. I have ten written down. I could be wrong. That's pretty good. Did they have any specialty drinks? So, no specialty drinks, but they have a pitcher of Margarita that you can get on happy hour. Really? How much is the pitcher? 28. And you can upgrade it to a Cadillac pitcher for seven more dollars. Yes. So. And it's their house Margarita, which was pretty decent. I liked it. This is a place I like to go with a group of friends. I suggest, because they are a later happy hour, to go to them a little bit later, because they have live music also. Oh, I didn't know that. Well, we were there on Friday. Well, you might have left a little early. Yeah, I went at 3 p.m., so I was there pretty early. Okay. I didn't get there until about 5.36. Okay. Yeah, and a live band played, and they made an area for dancing. So, yeah, I would say try to, even though it does get busier, it was a Friday. But we still were able to sit. It was four of us. And, yeah, we were still able to get seated at that time. And, yes, groups are good, because then you can order that pitcher of Margarita if you wanted. And then if you stayed, then you can still enjoy the happy hour and the live music. That's really cool. That's exactly what we did. We did a lot of, we had to dance that happy hour off after, which they did have a mintulata, too, that I very much enjoyed. So that's why I've got to go to Two Trees and try. I'm always in the market for the best mintulata. And Margarita did a really good one. I tried it with Modelo. And then they also have, it's good to do it with a darker one, too, like the Modelo Negro or I think Dos Equis has the Amber. That's good. So I don't know. Maybe we need to do a podcast about the best mint tea, because I will tell you, Crony's is another one that has really good mintulata. We did a mintulata. I know. I know. Well, we can get there. We can get there. We can always add them to the next time. So, girls, because Cynthia, you and Tanisha both did the mintulatas. What would you guys each rate your mintulatas? I'm definitely giving mine a 10. This is why. It was in an iced schooner, and they put tajin on the rim, and the mix was perfect. I would have to say that mine was a 10. Oh, my gosh. All right. All right. So I think we're going to have to go buy mintulatas back to back and, like, have the debate be final. Two trees or it's Margarita Villa. Well, we could start at Two Trees. It's by my house. And then we can go to Margarita Villa. We could even have my daughter drive. So we're all good. Well, I don't really drink a lot anyways, but we need to have, like, we have to have, like, a side-by-side comparison. So I think that'd be good. Well, one thing that stood out, too, food-wise, is they had a fish and chips option as well that came with fries. But it was two pieces that were kind of small, not big pieces, but decent. I just liked the variety because it had some seafood. And then tacos and quesadillas we had. I tried all three of the tacos. The shredded beef was on the dry side, but the ground beef, I think that's the only place that I enjoyed a ground beef taco that wasn't Taco Bell because I'm sorry. I don't know where else you can really get ground beef tacos. Yeah, me neither. So it was so good. And the chicken, the shredded chicken, I liked it, too. The chicken was very juicy. Yeah. And I liked that. Yeah. I liked the variety. What would you rate Margarita Villa? I'm going to give them a 9. Same. I would also rate it a 9. Yeah. See, and I didn't even go, and I would rate it a little higher as well just because you guys seemed like you had so much fun with it. And the thing that kicks it over for me is because they had a wider variety and because they have music late on Friday. It's still a small menu, but there's variety. I'd say one of the smaller menu items for food, but variety. What was the price range, guys? So the price range? So I have between $5 and $28. Oh, I think that was because of drinks, so the drinks got to $28. The $28, yeah. I think I have as well. Yeah. So $5, I think really the low end was $5 beers. Yeah. And the $28 margaritas. But the tacos were $3.50 each. So that's good. $10 was the fish and chips. Yeah. The only thing about the happy hour menu is I wouldn't really consider anything healthy. Yeah. Maybe the ceviche, but I didn't get it. They're guacamole. But other than that, no, because the tacos are fried. Yeah. They're fried tortillas. Yeah. And sweet options, there was none. There was none, yeah. I know. I know. We've got to find a sweet option. Margarita Villa, they do have, like, a dessert, but it's not part of the happy hour menu. Right. There was macros, too. Yes, there was macros. You can add a lot of different proteins to it. Although Cynthia didn't get chicken, which I'm still surprised at. Yeah. Awesome. Well, that sounds good. So I think overall for everybody, Melina, what was your favorite happy hour? My favorite happy hour was Margarita Villa. Okay. Nice. Cynthia, what about you? So I would have to say just out of hearing everybody's experiences out of all the different bars that are offered around Midtown Ventura, I would have to go with Social Tap. I have never been there, but after hearing everybody's experience, I would want to go there and definitely give that one a shot, try the drinks, try the food. And I would definitely go to Margarita Villa just because it sounds amazing, and I could really go for a margarita and all the other drinks and food that they offer, especially since they have the live music and entertainment. I think that's just a bonus as well just because I think that's kind of hard to find that's included in a happy hour. So I think that just makes it like an overall better experience. And then the ones out of the ones I went to would be Two Trees. Like that one was really, really good out of the three I went to, but I think I would overall out of those three, I would go to Margarita Villa just so I could have the experience of what it has to offer. And it's the longest happy hour, so I think that one overall just is the best one. And I think the next time that I'm available for a happy hour, I would definitely give that one a try. Very cool. What about you, Tanisha? So just based off of our journey thus far on happy hour because we have more to come. We have so many to come. I will say Margarita Villa was my favorite because it hit all the ticks, all the options of vibes, good drinks, good variety, great view, and entertainment. So those are things I'm looking for in a happy hour in general, so I'm going to say Margarita Villa was my favorite. So I'm again torn. I keep getting torn. Melina and Tanisha have me torn on the Margarita Villa. I was going to say Margarita Villa hands down, but the one thing that pulled me is, Tanisha, you were talking about the portion sizes, and that's the one thing I heard about them is the portion sizes are small. Yeah, they're pretty small. See, so that's my kind of thing. I definitely say out of the happy hours we tried, I would, it's a hard one because I really liked Social Tap, and the food at Social Tap was fantastic. Great portion sizes. It was really good portion size, but the food that I had, even though it was limited at Water's Edge, it was really good. I would do Water's Edge for a quick, just kind of relaxing, kind of classy in it up thing. But I definitely want to try, I would say, it's top two between Two Trees because, again, they are right by my house. It's a hop, skip, and a jump. And then Margarita Villa because, again, having it until seven and then being good for groups and then on Fridays when they have music, I think that that gives it a hands up. So, well, there you have it. I think hopefully we gave you guys some ideas as to places to try, and we will definitely be hitting up all of the places downtown, which is going to be a lot of happy hours. So, you know. And we're open to suggestions. Let us know. We'll go there. We're on a mission. We are on a hardcore mission. We've got the michelada mission. We've got the chicken quesadilla mission with no white cheese, no white cheese, orange cheese only. Cynthia is open for anything. I'm willing to try any option that's to come. I'm really excited for what's to come as well because, like what was mentioned, there's still a lot of happy hours that we have to get to, and now it's going to be focused more on Main Street. Oh, man. If downtown in Midtown Ventura was already pretty nice, I'm excited to see what Main Street has to offer because Main Street, like everybody talks about it. So many options. On Main Street. And I feel like there's like we could walk, we could carry each other, whatever. I'm very excited for that one. And I totally am. Melina and everybody is kind of shaking their head, and we'll wrap it up here because we're going to go into our next, you know, part of our podcast. But, yeah, Main Street downtown is super exciting for us. Are there any, real quickly, guys, are there any places that you're looking forward to downtown? I know I'm looking forward to Cafe Fiore because they have an extensive menu. Is there any place that you guys are looking forward to? I can't remember the name of the restaurant, but it's Tiki something. I think Cynthia knows. Oh, Vintiki? Yes, Vintiki. I'm really excited for that one. I'm excited for Rumfish. I always love Rumfish. Well, thank you guys so much. We hope you got something out of our podcast. We had a great time. And, again, we are looking at family-friendly, well-rounded, and we're looking at not just bar food or not just drinks, but we're looking at food and pricing as well. So hope you enjoyed it. And if there's any healthy options. Healthy options and desserts. We're seriously on a dessert mission. So one of these places, Aloha. Aloha. Maybe Aloha will happen. We'll see. Talk to you guys soon. Thank you for tuning in.