Ahhh, the good ol' days. The '90s and early 2000s were the best for happy hours!

When I think back to what restaurants and bars used to offer customers FREE, I get why they don't do that anymore. I used to host happy hours every Friday night for years back in the '90s. For two to three hours, usually 4–7 pm, places went nuts.

Chicken wings were standard fare.

Chicken wings were the base of the happy hour. At Raouls Roadside Attraction (closed for decades) on Forest Avenue right before RSVP Beverage, they had a hell of a happy hour. Raouls was a nightclub/bar and restaurant. But on Friday nights, they had a happy hour with a spread and cheap drinks that packed the place.

There was a make-your-own taco bar.

I once hosted a happy hour every week at the Holiday Inn by the Bay in Portland that featured a make-your-own taco bar! That's right, ground beef, shells, and all the fixings. That included tortilla chips and salsa, and beans too! I'm sure the thought was that it was cheap eats if you bought drinks. Of course, the drinks were also cheap back then.

Pizza, pizza, pizza and more pizza.

Who remembers the infamous happy hours at T-Birds in Portland? I have been in the radio business for over 30 years now, and if I had a nickel for every time someone came up to me and said...

Remember T-Birds happy hour?

...I'd be rich. T-Birds was awesome! Every Friday for three hours, the place would get packed. There were tables and tables of food from pizza and wings and veggies and crackers and cheese! It was amazing. All leading up to whoever the act was that night. T-Birds was in a crappy area of Portland in the early '90s on the corner of Marginal Way and Franklin Arterial, over by the bus station. I think it's a tire place now. But back in the day, anybody and everybody went to the T-Birds happy hours!