Greenville Date Night: Make happy hour a new couples tradition at M. Judson downtown (2024)

Welcome to Date Night, your weekly inspiration and themed itinerary pairing a local cultural activity or event with a corresponding dining experience. Want to win at going out? Impress your significant other with your newfound, niche planning skills? Or simply answer the weekly “what are we doing tonight?” I got you.

Happy Hour. That’s our topic today and one that always seems to draw strong opinions. As if scooting out of work a tad early for a brief intermezzo before entering the evening portion of the day is all that controversial?

I think, the problem is, we don’t have a vibrant happy hour scene in Greenville— unlike some cities and destinations where happy hour is the thing to do and the prices make it almost unavoidable when you can fill up on small bites and beverages for $20.

That’s not to say there aren’t good happy hour deals and options in Greenville— because there are — but going to happy hour on a regular basis is not really (or yet) part of our city’s ingrained culture.

The history of happy hour is interesting enough to mention.

The first documented happy hour was in 1914 and was designed to relieve the boredom of Navy sailors. It had nothing to do with the brilliant marketing of half-off drinks and appetizers that restaurants caught on to in the mid 1900s.

But if you think about it, isn’t the way we happy hour similar in intent to the original? You know, relieving you of whatever slog might have been part of the workday or even preemptively providing a boost for what’s to come later. Maybe your dating life could use a little happy hour — a little something easy and fun and kinda like playing hooky from your responsibilities for a whopping 60 minutes.

Your schedule can handle it, and I know just the place.

Date Night Theme: It’s Your Golden Hour

To do:

Golden Hour

M.Judson Booksellers

Daily, 4 p.m.-close

Speaking of brilliant marketers, the lovely humans at M.Judson have concocted the perfect after-work trap via their new happy hour offering they’ve named Golden Hour. Whether your brain goes to Harry Styles, or JVKE or Kacey Musgraves, or even Rick Astley, there’s a song that goes along with that name. Let that set the tone for this sweet little detour from the norm.

The beauty of this Golden Hour arrangement is that spontaneity can be your friend. With a daily wine and small bites offering from 4 p.m. to close, you can pick literally any day of the week and even spring it on your date as a bit of a surprise.

But again, this is a small thing. Just a little happy hour. Not a big ordeal with hours of planning or thought. But just enough thought. And that’s the key. It’s like an amuse bouche. It amuses the palate but doesn’t fill you up. And it’s easy enough it could become a mini ritual for the two of you.

Meet up at the bookstore and browse the shelves. Grab one of the staff suggested books, or pick out a cookbook to peruse to really work up an appetite (and how about buying it for a future cooking date night?). And then find a landing place where the snacks and drinks will encourage the conversation.

And one of the selling points of this arrangement: Sunday-Thursday the store closes at 7 p.m., so only on Fridays and Saturdays with closing time at 9 p.m. do you run the risk of happy hour turning into your whole evening. Not that that’s a bad thing.

To eat:

Golden Hour

Chef Teryi Musolf has teamed up with her friends at Mission Grape to provide savory bites and pastries to pair with a select few wines. They make quite a perfect pair already with other events, and this is no exception.

Musolf is known for her stellar baked items, and since that’s most of the menu, order it all. Or have more moderation and get just a few bites so as not to spoil dinner. A chorizo and pepper jack muffin and a mushroom puff sounds like the perfect start to the best hour of the day. But then the parmesan biscuits, marinated olives and snack mix also have a place. The wine can keep pouring to match your order.

Per my previous, good luck not ordering the whole menu and turning that one hour into three.