Best Happy Hours in Baltimore

Baltimore hides its prices behind one string. Two in five listings in the city say only that a dollar comes off every drink, a concentration on one deal matched only by Philadelphia, which means the number you actually pay is rarely the number on the page. Chase the itemized entries instead. Heritage Smokehouse on York Road lists $2 Hamm's and High Life. Wiley Gunters in Locust Point lists $2.50 Natty Light and gives Tuesday over to it entirely. Ale Mary's on Fleet Street lists $3 drafts.

The city is walkable in long lines rather than clusters. Thames Street and Aliceanna Street run Fells Point into Canton along the water, Light Street and East Cross Street cover Federal Hill, East Fort Avenue continues into Locust Point, and West 36th Street is all of Hampden. Order of the Ace on Aliceanna lists $5 beers on weekday evenings, The Bluebird on Hickory Avenue lists a $5 rotating draft, and The Coral Wig on East Read Street in Mount Vernon lists $10 painkillers.

Then there is the calendar, which is unforgiving. Fewer than one Baltimore listing in twenty-five includes a Saturday or Sunday, among the most weekday-locked markets in this top fifty, and two-thirds of the windows open at 4 PM sharp. Johnny's in Roland Park is one of the few that reopens late, listing $5 cocktails again from 9 to 10 on Friday and Saturday.