Dallas loves its half-priced food and drink deals, and we're no different. That's why we built the above calendar of half-price food and drink deals, listing the restaurant and time under each day.

Every week, we'll do our best to keep you up-to-date on a large chunk of weekly half-priced food and drink specials. As always, we'd love to hear from you. Feel free to share any information about your favorite half-price deals in the comment section below, or send them our way at cityofate@gmail.com.

This refreshing experiment was NOT conducted in a place of business.

This weekend I celebrated my birthday at brunch. I'm not much of a bruncher, but there I was at Canne Rosso, a glass of water in hand listening to my waitress offer me a choice of mimosa, Bloody Mary or michelada. Hearing the great beer cocktail mentioned immediately brightened my morning, and I drank two down greedily despite my distaste with the amount of Bloody Mary mix the bartender tossed in the drink.

Later that evening, while consuming a birthday burger at Local, I watched as more micheladas were made. The woman behind the bar eschewed tomato altogether in favor of a stout dash of Valentina hot sauce, a squeeze of lime, some salt and freshly cracked pepper. I preferred its light and crisp effervescence. The michelada is not the greatest beer cocktail in the world simply because it brightened my birthday, though. It's the greatest beer cocktail in the world because you can get everything you need to make one at 7-Eleven, which may or may not be close to your office home.

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Dallas loves its half-priced food and drink deals, and we're no different. That's why we built the above calendar of half-price food and drink deals, listing the restaurant and time under each day.

Every week, we'll do our best to keep you up-to-date on a large chunk of weekly half-priced food and drink specials. As always, we'd love to hear from you. Feel free to share any information about your favorite half-price deals in the comment section below, or send them our way at cityofate@gmail.com.

Dallas loves its half-priced food and drink deals, and we're no different. That's why we built the above calendar of half-price food and drink deals, listing the restaurant and time under each day.

Every week, we'll do our best to keep you up-to-date on a large chunk of weekly half-priced food and drink specials. As always, we'd love to hear from you. Feel free to share any information about your favorite half-price deals in the comment section below, or send them our way at cityofate@gmail.com.

Jareb Parker

Where: Burger Girl, 4444 McKinney Ave.
When: 3-10 p.m. daily, all day Sunday
What: $2 canned beer, $4 you-call-it
Why: Because burgers and beer are synonymous with summer, and if a backyard barbecue isn't an option, cheap booze and a decent menu will do in a pinch. Beer priced at $2 and in summer-appropriate canned form means we can afford to splurge on the Kobe Burger and still knock back a few on a budget. To keep it even cheaper, we went the Bud Select route, always 99 cents on tap. But it's not just a beer lover's happy hour. The $4 "you-call-its" are always an option for the liquor fiends.

Outside, a cozy tiled patio wraps around the restaurant, a tiny shoebox of an establishment, with floor length windows and a comfy wooden bar underneath pics of celebrities inhaling their favorite burgers lining the walls. An open-window kitchen slings everything from a regular old burger to the Fish and Chips Burger and the Turkey Burger, with soft-serve shakes and sundaes also in the offing. All we need now is a plastic pool and the smell of sunscreen to compete with the heat. Plus, for the days at work that never end and the summer sun that never sets, Burger Girl keeps the specials going just as long, with happy hour 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. every day and all day Sunday.

Where: Malai Thai-Vietnamese Kitchen, 3699 McKinney Ave. #319
When: 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Monday-Friday , all day Sunday
What: $5 specialty cocktails, $5 selected wines, $3 beers
Why: Because the post-work happy hour can go boring quickly, going to the same old pub week after week. Since it's been a minute since we've been to West Village, we decided to look for something new from an old staple. Malai Thai-Vietnamese Kitchen spiced up our happy hour with sophisticated specialty cocktails, Asian import beers and cheap eats in a sleek, modern setting. Inside, an island bar sits in a cool wooden interior, with plant life meshed with wood and metal to create an Asian-esque feel resembling what we've seen of samurai and ninja movies (so it must be accurate). For a patio stay with a break from the heat, the outside area is roofed with ceiling fans, surrounded by palms and other flora, offering a nice spot to watch the shoppers lug their bags to the frozen yogurt shops. On the menu, spicy crispy wings are $5 during happy hour, with cocktails at the same price and all beer priced at $3. As for our stay, panang curry duck, lemon grass soup and satay pleased, especially followed with a Ginger Bird Margarita and a Pomelo Mojito. For the beer lovers, Singha, Hue and Kingfish round out the lager choices, with Ranger IPA and Rahr Ugly Pug on tap for those who like to keep it stateside.

Jareb Parker

Where: Fraternal Order of Eagles, 8500 Arturo Drive
When: 5-7 p.m. Monday through Friday,
What: $2.50-$4 liquor, $2.25-$3 beer
Why: Because we like helping handicapped kids. And if that involves knocking back a few beers after work, consider us dedicated philanthropists. A fully nonprofit organization, FOE has funded medical research, supported local fire and police and pumped money into communities for more than 100 years.

Tucked away behind a quiet neighborhood, for a long while it was a word-of-mouth kind of place with a bit of the hidden-gem quality, though it's turned into a major draw in the last few years, especially when the summer heat starts to peak. Inside, portraits of chapter presidents through the years watch over the bar, where during happy hour, every liquor in the house is $2.50 to $4, and beers run $2.25 to $3.00 from 5 p.m. to 7 pm.

The main attractions are outside, where an Olympic-size pool and sand volleyball courts bring summer fun and booze together in one wonderful place. Here you won't find the social elite hanging out. It's more down and dirty than prim and proper, where cheap wood paneling and tacky furniture conjure that small town charm, hard to find in the big city.

Happy hours slow it down a bit, most often featuring the usual suspects, the same few older folks whiling away their afternoons with a beer in one hand and a cigarette burning in the other. The bartenders greet new faces with a smile, but until you've earned a little rapport, it's obvious who the regulars are and who's just passing through. One of the quieter spots to get a few drinks on the cheap, if you want the breeze through the trees and the pool to yourself, it's worth the trip for a break from the Dallas grind.

Free bacon: The sweetest words in the English language.

Let Happy Hour help quench your thirst by pointing you to some of the city's best drinking deals.

Where: Mextopia, 2104 Greenville Ave.
When: 4-8 p.m. Thursday and Saturday
What: $3 house margaritas, $2 Tecate Light, Firemans #4, $2.75 domestic bottles
Why: Because we like cheap booze and love bacon and freebies. So, when the bartender behind the gold flaked bar at Mextopia asked, "Bowl of bacon?" we almost fainted. Doused in cayenne and maple brown sugar, sizzling bacon added a great contrast to the salty and spicy of the regular Mexican fare. As for the menu, it's more home-style Mexican cooking than Tex-Mex, so the familiar items have a bit of a twist compared with many similar restaurants. Whether Mexican flavor is your thing or not (they have plenty of harder-to-find tequilas and imports if it is), there's something for everybody with margaritas and domestic bottles also on the happy hour roster.

Most regulars seem to know their way around the place, and many of them are friends with owner Ricardo Avila, who considers his restaurant an extension of his home, except here instead of helping with the dishes, his guests pay a bill before hitting the road.

As for our stay, chips and salsa, a bowl of pozole and a few Tecate Lights later, what was a quick after-work stop lasted well past sunset. Though the bacon bowls served only at the bar stop at 8 p.m., the happy-hour pricing doesn't end. In fact, as long as you're sitting at the bar, it's happy hour no matter what time of day it is. That's why we recommend passing on table service and opting for the bar night or day, whether the bacon's on the grill or not.

Each week, Happy Eating highlights a restaurant happy hour food menu. This week, we're on Lower Greenville for sashimi at The Blue Fish.

Where: The Blue Fish Sushi, 3519 Greenville Ave.

When: 5-7 p.m. Monday-Friday

The Scene: Dining at any Blue Fish will always feel like eating sushi at a rave, but at least during happy hour at the Greenville location, the crowd is minimal. Happy hour is only at the bar.

The Deal: There's a pretty impressively long and varied happy hour menu, including a list of $4 rolls, ranging from spicy salmon to eel. The $2-$4 appetizers include tempuras, calamari, summer rolls and meatballs. There's also a $3 dessert -- chocolate spring rolls.

The Steals: The $4-$5 tuna, albacore and salmon sashimi! Sure, each order comes with only three pieces, but the actual dinner price for six pieces can range anywhere from $13-$15. That's a steal.

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Mmm..iPhone app

​For all those times you've come home from work with a throbbing headache, and the walls close in too fast, here's an iPhone app to Tarzan-in and keep you from dying. Or at least crying. It's called Happy Hours, and it's powered by Go Time and Village Voice Media.

It's chock full of the good stuff: you can view menus, comments and, of course, happy-hour specials all around town. Here's the best part: When you shake the phone, it makes an ice-in-glass sound and picks up your favorite bar or restaurant.

Oh, and it's available in 35 cities around the country, including, of course, Dallas. Click through and see Happy Hour details like menus, location and comments.

Download it here, or search for "Happy Hours" in the apps store.