Find the specials that suit your taste in our southern Maine happy hour guide

Don’t get out of sorts about trying to find the perfect happy hour.

Instead, let us sort the happy hours out for you.

We’ve compiled a searchable list of more than 75 happy hours at restaurants and bars around southern Maine, which you can find at pressherald.com/happyhours. Using this essential tool, you can see which happy hours have the cheapest beer, where oysters or tacos or burgers are on special, or find free wine tastings.

You can also fashion your own happy hour crawl by choosing three or four happy hours on the same block or the same small town. Or you can look for one near where you live or in some place out of the way, in case you don’t want to be found.

With winter lingering and mud season on its way, this is probably a good time to make a serious study of the area’s happy hours. Here are some ideas for picking the happy hours that make you, for lack of a better word, happiest.

CRAWLING ALONG

Fore Street in Portland is an ideal place to have a happy hour crawl. The best days would be Tuesday through Friday, when six places within a few blocks have overlapping happy hours.

You could start anytime after noon at Henry’s Public House at 375 Fore St., where happy hour is noon to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday, with specials including $8 cocktails and bites ranging from $6-$13. Next up could be Paper Tiger at 425 Fore St. (suite 104), which holds happy hour from 3-6 p.m. Monday through Friday. Deals include $2 local oysters, and $2 off draft beer and glasses of wine.

Henry’s Public House, on Fore Street in Portland. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

Then you could move over to Dock Fore at 336 Fore St., with a happy hour from 3-7 p.m. daily, and pints of Bud Light or Miller High Life for $1.95. At 4 p.m., head over to Rosie’s, a restaurant and pub at 330 Fore St., offering a rotating draft beer special for $1.99. The happy hour there also ends at 7.

From 5-6 p.m., you have a choice of two places hosting hourlong happy hours. At 425 Fore St., you’ll find the Asian-fusion restaurant Bar Futo, offering $5 highballs and sake pours at its happy hours, held Tuesday through Saturday. Evo Kitchen and Bar at 443 Fore is a Mediterranean spot with happy hours Tuesday through Friday, offering rotating $10 cocktails, $5 rotating beers and chickpea fries.

Ada Bonnevie mixes drinks at Paper Tiger. The restaurant’s Banana Hammock tied for our top cocktail of 2023. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

SUDS ON THE CHEAP

One way to tell a good happy hour – at least a popular one – is if the place sells really inexpensive beer. Luckily there are several places in Greater Portland that offer beers for $3 or less during happy hours. There’s the above-mentioned Rosie’s and Dock Fore, both offering beer at less than $2.

Erik’s Church in Windham, known for country music, has $3 domestic drafts and $1 off craft beers during its happy hour, 3-6 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Coppersmith Tavern and Table on Main Street in South Portland has Pabst Blue Ribbon and Tecate, a Mexican brew, for $2.50 and other domestic beers for $3. The happy hour there is 2-6 p.m. Sunday through Friday. Shay’s Grill Pub in Monument Square, Portland, has $3 Budweiser drafts among its rotating deals, from 4 p.m. to close Monday though Saturday.

AW, SHUCKS

You’d think nachos or onion rings would be the food of choice at happy hours. But here in Maine, it should be no surprise that oysters are on special at a number of local establishments during happy hour. We’ve already mentioned the oysters at Paper Tiger in Portland, but the city also has several other oyster-rich happy hours. Smalls, a cafe on Brackett Street in the West End, has $1 oysters during its happy hour, 5-8 p.m. daily.

At Inkwell Lounge, in the Press Hotel at Congress and Exchange streets, there’s a $2 oyster special from 4-6 p.m. daily. An obvious spot for happy hour oysters is Boone’s Fish House and Oyster Room, on Portland Harbor, which has a happy hour from 3-5 p.m. daily. Happy hour specials there include half-off oysters and $1 chef’s choice oysters, Tuesdays through Thursdays only.

HAPPY TOWNS

Most people pick a town to live in based on good schools, and an abundance of parks, green space and other amenities. If you throw in quantity of happy hours, the winning towns on our list would be the neighboring communities of Kennebunkport (five) and Kennebunk (four). Because those towns are busier in the summer, check with each on any winter happy hour changes.

Let’s start with Kennebunkport. The Burleigh, a restaurant in the Kennebunkport Inn, has a happy hour with specials from 4-6 p.m. Wednesday through Friday. The Boathouse Restaurant, also in a hotel, has happy hour from 3-5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, with half-price draft beers among the specials. Casa Seventy Seven lists a happy hour from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday through Tuesday, with 20 percent off beers, signature cocktails and wines. Chez Rosa, a French restaurant and bistro, has a happy hour from 5-6 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday, where guests sitting at the bar get 20 percent off drinks. Ocean Restaurant has a happy hour from 3-5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday in winter, with exclusive cocktails.

The Boathouse – all decorated for Valentine’s Day – is one of several places in Kennebunk or Kennebunkport with a regular happy hour. Photo by Heidi Kirn

In Kennebunk, Pedro’s has rotating drink and taco specials, including $3 Tecate beers, from 3-5 p.m. daily. You’ll find $1 off beers and select $6 appetizers at the Sebago Brewing Co. on Portland Road. If you’re more into wine than beer, Old Vines Wine Bar has a later happy hour, 8-10 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, with 25 percent off wine by the glass, while Wine House on Main gets happy from 4-6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. The place also has free wine tasting on Fridays during happy hour.

FREE BACON

It always feels great to get something for nothing, no matter what it is or if you don’t even like it. But if the freebie is something everyone loves, everyone craves, well, that’s just magical. Keeping that in mind, be aware there’s free bacon at Bonfire Country Bar on Wharf Street in Portland during happy hour, 4-7 p.m. daily.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN

Say you’re driving home to Portland from a day of touring maple sugar farms in the greater Newfield/West Newfield area, but you’re running late and fear you won’t be back in time to catch happy hour. Fear not, because Maine has happy hours in unexpected spots, including Buxton. Oak & Ember, a new restaurant on Long Plains Road, has happy hour from 4-6 p.m. Wednesday through Friday and all day Sunday. Specials include a rotating selection of $3 canned beers, $3 Miller Light drafts and $7 rotating house cocktails.