Vesta Dipping Grill puts the happy back in happy hour

As ambassadors of good will, good drinks and good food, Vesta Dipping Grill, 1822 Blake Street, recently awarded free happy hours to thirty local businesses and non-profits, which, as you can imagine, made for some damn happy employees who'll get a few more hours of happy time at Vesta's bar with free drinks and food during the month of June.

And  now comes word that the generous staff at Vesta plans to continue the happy movement through the second week in July -- and possibly longer. "We know that companies have had to cut things like happy hours out of their budgets, and it might sound idealistic, but we really wanted to boost morale and give office employees something to look forward to at the end of the day -- and something to feel good about the next day at work" explained Vesta owner Josh Wolkon. "And if everything continues to feel positive and things continue to go well, then who knows how long we'll do this for?"

Initiating feel-good happy hours was also a great way for the restaurant to support the local economy: "We've replaced a lot of our national beer, wine and liquor brands with local brands and products," Wolkon told me.
That means the shelves are now stocked with everything from Infinite Monkey Theorem wines and Oscar Blues brews to Stranahan's Colorado Whiskey and Goat vodka from Peach Street Distillers. "This is the first time since we opened twelve years ago that we've ever had a happy hour, and we decided that if we were going to do it, we would use as many Colorado products as possible," Wolkon reasoned.

If you think your business homies deserve to belly up to the bar for free booze and grub (shrimp and scallop ceviche; Thai tuna; sauce and salsa samplers and Saigon beef skewers), here's what you need to do: Go to Vesta's put the happy back in happy hour web site and pour your heart out. "We got hundreds and hundreds of applications, some of which were just amazing," said Wolkon. "It's obviously a subjective process, but at the end of the day, we're looking for the creativity aspects and quality of the responses."

Ready, set, beg write!