Note: this review is about The Porch's happy hour.
The Porch has an ongoing happy hour special weekdays 4:30-6:30pm with $3 draft beer and $5 glasses of wine. This is a good deal. The rating isn't reflecting on the deal itself, but rather how the restaurant manages to spoil it with an obscure policy about where you have to be in the restaurant in order to take advantage of it. Basically, you need to be standing at the bar. If you're at a table you don't get the happy hour special.
This is unfortunate because if you come in with a group of people at that time of day, chances are you want to get yourselves set up in a comfy booth and enjoy the late afternoon over a few drinks and, probably, a tasty pizza. I've been in on a number of occasions and suffered at the hands of this peculiarly particular Porch policy. I have sometimes taken issue with my server and had my issue raised with the manager. One time the manager decided to give happy hour drink prices to my table. Every other time the manager was less cooperative.
I'm a stickler for service and expect high standards--even in casual places like The Porch. What bothers me the most is when policies don't make sense. Unfortunately, this is one of those times.
Will I be back to The Porch? Of course--I work down the street and this is the best bet for lunch or a casual dinner on the Pitt campus. Do I like this weird happy hour policy? No, but what can one do? Other than sit at the bar, I suppose...