It’s 5:00 somewhere!

Posted by lilith on September 17th, 2007 14 Comments

Rumor has it that a few years ago, a UVA student attempted to build a website with all of the Corner’s menus and drink specials as a website project for a class. I don’t know what has happened to this. In a way, he would have everything going against him. Menus change frequently enough to need monthly updating; until recently, few Charlottesville restaurants had websites, which meant that he probably had to visit each restaurant to pick one up; and I suspect some chefs/owners would rather not let their cuisine and space be prejudged from text and images.

The site I’m thinking of may have disappeared, but it may be what we know today as www.restaurantdiningmenus.com. This is a good attempt, but I’m more impressed with the url being attached to our city than with the selection of restaurants. Aberdeen Barn, anyone?

Regardless, in a city with restaurants without websites, both sites are, in principle, great ideas. (As an aside: if you run a restaurant, build a website. It is important.) On cVillain.com, we try to populate the site with as many restaurant reviews as possible and update these reviews as staffs turn over and menus change seasonally. But where are the drink specials?

Here’s my pitch. Go to a bar or restaurant (or ten) this week and next week. Write down the happy hour specials and/or daily food specials. E-mail them to me at cvillainlilith@gmail.com. If you want credit for having retrieved the information, please indicate how you want to be credited (real name, alias, business name). Restaurant owners: feel free to send them to me personally. It would be great to hear from you, and your business only stands to gain from people knowing about your best deals. I’ll do my best to work on the outliers. Please be specific!

Also worth checking out…

In my research, I came across this interesting Cavalier Daily article about state laws and the Corner restaurant business.

Popularity: 2% [?]

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14 Responses to “It’s 5:00 somewhere!”

  1. 17 Sep 2007 at 4:29 pm1Chad Day said:

    I know when I’ve tried to call a bar before and ask them about any happy hour specials, they said it was an ABC violation to tell me over the phone. I suspect the same might apply to electronic media as well?

    grumble grumble ABC grumble

  2. 17 Sep 2007 at 4:32 pm2the magic rat said:

    http://www.cavdeals.com

    its not totally complete but its ok

  3. 17 Sep 2007 at 4:36 pm3happyhooker said:

    Chad Day is onto something here! Due to ridiculous ABC laws, restaurants are not allowed to advertise happy hour specials outside of the establishment. Ths goes for print and online advertisements. And while it might be nice to have something posted here you could potentially put restaurants and bars at risk of ABC violation. And it does happen. I worked at a corner bar that got popped for advertising happy hour specials– $2500 fine. The best thing to do is just stick your head in as many places as you can, and ask.

  4. 17 Sep 2007 at 4:48 pm4Chad Day said:

    I’ve learned more about ABC laws in the past year than I ever thought I would know.

  5. 17 Sep 2007 at 4:50 pm5Tom said:

    yeah my friend started http://www.cavdeals.com - it’s pretty accurate

  6. 17 Sep 2007 at 4:58 pm6lilith said:

    Thanks for the information, guys. I’m glad the concept seemed like a good one. The ABC could kiss my @$$ if it only knew who I am :)

    I do feel bad now. I hope we’re not going to get cavdeals.com in trouble. That site looks great– what’s the whole story? Did he do it at UVA? Does he update it or has he passed it on to someone else? Am I being sexist and it’s a “she”?

  7. 17 Sep 2007 at 5:04 pm7Chad Day said:

    I don’t think cavdeals or the bars will get in trouble. It seems if a third party does it, it’s ok. I’ve seen huge happy hour guides in the Washington Post that have covered Virginia as well. I just don’t think it’s legal for the bars themselves to do it.

    I’m sure that’s a legal gray area .. couldn’t you set up a shell company to solely advertise specials for your bar? Sounds pretty loopholeish, but maybe that’s addressed somewhere.

  8. 17 Sep 2007 at 5:18 pm8lilith said:

    So does that mean I can put together a happy hour page? Just that restaurants can’t e-mail me their specials?

  9. 17 Sep 2007 at 5:28 pm9Chad Day said:

    As I understand it, yes.

    A quick google search shows the Washington Post mentioning some VA happy hours:

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/11/AR2005081100620.html

    Considering they probably have a better legal team than Cvillain does, I would think it’s safe to assume you are in the clear. :)

  10. 17 Sep 2007 at 8:01 pm10Tom said:

    yeah he actually just got his phd on friday from uva. he definitely looked into all the ABC laws, met with an ABC agent, etc. it’s a totally legit site for him to be doing it.

    it’s now looped through a bigger site called http://www.collegedeals.com that they are trying to franchise it through or soemthing i think

    and for all the kickballers out there, he’s now the captain of “drunk and looking to score”

  11. 17 Sep 2007 at 8:29 pm11dijonbray said:

    Miller’s has $2 Bourban night on Sunday… needless to say it rocks if you’re goal is to get shit-canned on God’s day of rest!

  12. 17 Sep 2007 at 9:41 pm12Thor said:

    oh we are down with this idea.. give us a couple weeks and TRUST ME.. we will have a 100% baller happy hour list.

  13. 17 Sep 2007 at 9:48 pm13Fwood said:

    I reference cavdeals.com all the time for drink specials; it’s also an easy way to see who’s open, who delivers, get menus, etc.

    Also of interest: Anyone know what’s going on with empty spaces on the corner? I had heard a student venture was going to occupy the Pita Pit space, but then fell through. Also, what’s going in the Tropical Smoothie Space?

  14. 18 Sep 2007 at 12:29 pm14lilith said:

    I haven’t received any e-mails yet! Let’s go!

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