Happy Hours c/o Alla Spina and Route 6

A few weeks back CP and I began concocting a plan. Since she began her graduate studies and started commuting to Baltimore for a good chunk of each week, I haven't had the opportunity to see her either in the office or outside of it in quite the way we used to. I miss our laundry/pizza nights, where we always caught up on the various things going on in our lives. But life gets busy and you need to adapt to changing times. Our adaptation was to go to happy hour at Alla Spina and Route 6 on a Thursday. I came into work a little early so I would be able to get out and get going so that we wouldn't miss a moment of the two establishments' happy hour dealage (not a real word but the Oxford English folks should really consider making it official). Due to my diligence in work scheduling, CP and I were the very first people at Alla Spina. In fact, the staff were still doing their opening talk. So we sat in the lounge for just a short while before getting menus and placing orders for glasses of white wine. 

Alla Spina had a few different possible treats to eat and drink for happy hour. Because we knew we were going to Route 6 (a seafood-themed restaurant) we decided that getting oysters was not necessary. Instead we chose to try the porcini deviled eggs and mortadella hotdog. The eggs were above average but not terribly speciall all the same. The yolk was quite smooth, as was the porcini's purreed portion, but it lacked a certain something for my particular palate.

We split the dog in half, with its bright and crunch sauerkraut, buttery bun and fresh pickles. I think of the two food dishes, this was the stand out. It's a really nice space. I think we didn't really see this place in the full swing of things because we arrived early (4:30 ish) and wanted to make sure to get an equal amount of time in at Route 6. So after about an hour, the food, and two glasses of white wine we packed up and walked the quick few feet to Route 6.

There we ordered a dozen oysters, the variety of which escapes me but perhaps I wrote it down somewhere and can add that detail when the time comes.

Route 6 has a very nice set of happy hour deals, including discounted cocktails as well as many different food specials. I was particularly attracted to "The Dennis,"  which was a mixture of Grey Goose Le Citron, lime juice,triple sec and fresh blueberries. The blueberries overwhelmed the citron and lime element a bit, but I wasn't complaining.

I'm missing a photograph of the bluefish dip, but I'll add it later. In addition to the oysters and unpictured dip, we also tried the fried oyster sliders, which came on immensely soft and buttery roles with pretty decent tomatoes and a little tartar-like sauce on the bottom and a wisp of lettuce. Tasty, hot and crunch treats they were.

From the press that I had read on Route 6 I had expected its decor and clientele to be a little less shiny than it ended up being. It seemed like a lot of folks were over 35. Men were wearing suits while the women almost uniformly had incredibly short and tight dresses, very done-up hair and too much makeup...and tanning products definitely were no strangers to their faces and bodies. I found the crowd pretty weird, but the food, drinks and service were really fantastic. It's a happy hour I'd definitely check out again. Alla Spina also deserves a fuller look, especially into more of its meat dishes on both the happy hour and regular menus.