Cheap Eats - Value menu

Happy hour on a budget at McCormick & Schmick’s

Walking along the southern perimeter of Centennial Olympic Park, I’m struck by the growing street-level vitality of down- town. There is an energy that permeates the corner of Spring and Marietta streets, a “nexus of new” that includes CNN Center and Philips Arena, flashing marquees, and the continued bustle from the Omni Hotel addition and condo construction. At the corner of all this progress is the glossy McCormick & Schmick’s. Luckily, the restaurant is not confined to the inner sanctum of CNN Center but is right out on the street, directly across from the park with easy access from the sidewalk. Finally, somebody’s got the right idea.

HAPPY TIMES: The regular menu at the restaurant offers a long list of seasonal fresh seafood selections, though none that could ever qualify for a mention in this column. But the restaurant hopes to attract a relaxed happy-hour crowd with a $1.95 menu of seven rotating featured items. Tourists mix and mingle with service-industry types, Turner employees and other downtown folk — all looking to wind down before hitting afternoon traffic, or to fill up before catching a game. Forget paying three bucks for a soggy carton of fries. Here you get an entire meal for less than $5 (when spending at least $3.50 on a drink).

ONE OF EACH: Folks at a nearby table struggled to decide between a quesadilla, crab fritters or spicy chicken nuggets. Then they threw caution to the wind and ordered one of each. Why not? It’s like a hopped-up value menu. The menu changes often due to seafood availability. So the steamed P.E.I. mussels and mahi-mahi tacos available one evening were nowhere to be found on another visit, replaced by spinach and artichoke dip and the chipotle quesadilla. No matter. Nightly, you’ll find a thick, juicy half-pound cheddar cheeseburger on a sesame-seed bun, as well as some kickin’ spicy chicken nuggets.

With their weak sauce and soggy drums, the buffalo chicken wings left a bit to be desired. But the quesadilla was crammed with great hunks of spicy chicken. And while the crab fritters were more akin to over-breaded hush puppies, containing only stray bits of meat, the spinach and artichoke dip was gone in seconds.

GIVE IT A SHOT: The $1.95 will also get you a pair of raw Willapa Bay Oyster Shooters, served chilled in a shot glass with a thin layer of cocktail sauce and lemon wedges. Douse the big, meaty bivalves with a little lemon juice and then — bottom’s up. But wait till the end of the happy hour — they’ll fill you up fast.

jerry.portwood@creativeloafing.com??