WCCO Viewers Choice For Best Happy Hour Deal In Minnesota

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- All month long, we're looking for deals to help you enjoy all that Minnesota has to offer. If you like finding good food and drink deals with friends, you need a good happy hour.

So where will you find the best? Your votes sent us to Nightingale in the Whittier neighborhood of Minneapolis.

No matter where you go in our great state, it's not hard to find a happy hour, and it's a great time to be a bartender.

It's also not hard to see why the Nightingale restaurant at 25th Street and Lyndale Avenue won this week's poll. The owners, Jasha and Carrie Johnston, wanted their neighborhood restaurant to have an atmosphere that offers a little something for everyone.

So far, it looks like they've succeeded.

"People love it," Carrie said. "It's very community-based, and we have a strong customer base that comes in both for the early one and the late one. We do it again from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. so we have a totally different set that come to each happy hour."

But the Johnstons don't just own a restaurant in the Whittier neighborhood.

"It's been our life, we spend the bulk of our time here. We're in our neighborhood and right by our son's school," Carrie said.

In fact on this night, part of the proceeds from the restaurant goes to help support the Whittier neighborhood school.

There's plenty to choose from at Nightingale. At the bar, there's a strong lineup of popular local brews. At happy hour, some of them are $3.50 and rail drinks go for the same price. There's something for more adventurous drinkers, too.

"We do a different cocktail every day, so the bartenders get to be creative," Carrie said.

Those drinks go for $5 at happy hour.

If you're hungry, the menu at Nightingale includes everything from light apps to steaks, and is sure to surpass your expectations. And if your pallet is a bit less discerning, you'll definitely want to give their burger a try.

So next time you're looking for a happy hour with great food, drinks and a real comfortable vibe, try the Nightingale. After all, it really is a family affair for the Johnstons -- their son works as a host twice a week.

This is the first restaurant the couple have owned together. Nightingale has daily happy hour from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. and then late night from 11 a.m. until 1 a.m. and the kitchen is open until closing.