MOTIV

THE BUZZ ON MOTIV

Happy Hour – 7 days a week, 4pm – 7:30pm

Draft beers and well drinks - $4.00

Grassfed Burgers, choice of salad or fries - $5.00

3 Tacos, choice of grilled Chicken, skirt Steak, Tilapia, or Sweet Potato - $5.00

Specialty drinks in the upstairs bar - $6.00

MOTIV Website 

Motiv is the upstairs, downstairs of happy hours - it has it all: two bars with different ambience, happy hour seven days a week until 7:30, great food and a dance floor with music playing and DJs every night.  No matter what you want to do - eat, drink, talk, look at art or dance - you can do it all at Motiv.

Jo and I started at the downstairs bar.  I arrived a little late and a bit flustered because I'd lost my cell phone which I was planning on to use for photos. Jo was already there. There were still plenty of seats at the bar. 

In the past, Motiv was the gay bar, Dakota, downstairs and Pearl Alley Bistro upstairs.   The ambience downstairs is sports bar with art on the walls and a window view of Pacific Avenue.  Motiv is a must on First Fridays as they feature a different artist every month.  The upstairs "lounge" has a quiet, casual atmosphere with specialty cocktails.

I got my standard rum and diet coke. Well drinks are $4 during happy hour.  The drinks downstairs at Motiv are your typical happy hour drinks - not too strong, you can almost taste the alcohol - pretty basic.

I always order a glass of water with every drink, which often bartenders forget or take a long time bringing.  One of the nice touches at Motiv is that they have two bottled dispensers of cold water, so you can help yourself to water any time.  Great feature.

The bartender was a sweet young woman who was fairly attentive.  My drink came quickly and she took our food order.  We told her Motiv was our first entry on our Happy Hour blog and she said it was the best happy hour in town.

The two things I love most about Motiv is the food and the fact that happy hour is 7 days a week until 7:30.  Working in San Jose it is hard to get to this side of the hill and hit a happy hour before 6:00.  I'm often racing in, calling phone orders into Jo to make the happy hour cutoff.  This is never a problem at Motiv.

The burgers are great – a large grass-fed beef burger for $5, $1 extra for the cheese. ($8 not during happy hour).  I always get a salad rather than fries and it is an amazing salad - spring greens, fresh strawberries, walnuts, goat cheese with homemade basil vinaigrette.  Our bartender says the cook makes the vinaigrette fresh daily.  No wonder it is so delicious!  This is a salad that you could easily pay $9 for elsewhere and it comes with the burger for free.  A great deal.

I should have asked for my burger to be medium rare, because it was well done, my bad.  It didn't have the cheese on it, but the bartender rather than taking it back to get melted cheese brought me a plate with cheese and aioli that I requested since they don't have mayonnaise.  

One of the down sides of the upstairs-downstairs arrangement is that the kitchen is upstairs, so any extra kitchen requests means running all the way upstairs, which can be a problem.  We got forks and napkins with the meal, but no knives which would have been handy as this is a big burger. Jo asked for ketchup and mustard that came fairly quickly.

Once settled with all the necessary accoutrements - we both thoroughly enjoyed our burgers, even well done and without the melted cheese, it was delicious.  The music from the dance floor was a little loud and a game of some sorts was on the TV, but we could still talk comfortably.

I stopped for a quick dance on the empty floor.  I love that the music is going all night.  Having a nice open dance floor is a great feature, for those of us who love to dance.  Not quite sure about the music they were playing, but it changes with different DJs.

We headed upstairs to try the more relaxed atmosphere.  Here the drinks are more expensive, but made fresh by mixologist bartenders.  One thing I don't like upstairs – because I like the ambience better for meeting and talking -  is that the well drinks are $6 even during happy hour and you can't buy a drink downstairs and bring it up. If you are paying $6 you might as well get a fancy drink.

I ordered the Soquel Sour on the recommendation of the bartender.  It is made with "honeycomb and lavender Buffalo Trace bourbon” I’m not a bourbon drinker but it was quite tasty.  I liked Josephine's Basil Gimlet, better, however.  It was absolutely delicious.

Our upstairs bartender was knowledgeable and friendly.  When hearing about our blog he commented, "Motiv has the best happy hour.  I'd be here all the time, if I didn't work here, but who wants to hang out where they work?"  A dilemma indeed.

In sum, the hours aren’t can’t be beat and the value is definitely there, the ambience gives you choice and variety.  The service and the food could use a little improvement in terms of the details, such as getting the order right and asking up front how you want the burger cooked.  Would still like to have the choice of a happy hour well drink upstairs.  Still, this is one of my favorite happy hour spots!!!

Julie’s rating:  4 shots

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Motiv is a nightclub bar that serves up a fine happy hour.  It seems like it’s usually quiet during the day,  happy hour never seems that busy unless your there during First Friday.  The inside is fairly dark besides the natural light coming through the window, the first section is where the bar is with booths across from it. The next section is the dance floor with a good size dance area and the DJ booth in the corner, of course one side of the room is all mirrors. 

The upstairs has more seating and the other bar where all the specialty drinks are being mixed. Since there are 2 bars they have different things happening at each.  You can get the happy hour food at either bar but the basic cheap well drinks and drafts are downstairs, the slightly pricier specialty drinks are upstaris

Standard drinks and draft beers, my Basil Martini upstairs was very yummy, but Julies drink looked good, like it actually had some booze in it. 

I have to say what Motiv has going for it the most is the grassfed burgers.  THEY ARE DELICIOUS. Always moist and juicy and a lovely salad with fresh strawberries, walnuts and goat cheese, seems like a fairly healthy meal for $5.00.  The fries are good too.

The bartenders were friendly enough, maybe could have been a little more attentive given the amount of customers they had (it was pretty empty but it was a Tuesday). I like a more livelier crowd at happy hour so Motiv is a good place for a quiet drink, food and conversation.

Jo’s rating: 3.5 shots