Severinos

THE BUZZ ON SEVERINO’S

Seven days a week 3-6, Sunday and Monday 3-9  

$6 appetizers: chicken quesadillas, cheeseburger with fries, chicken Caesar salad, calamari, ceviche, carnitas nachos and Buffalo wings

$2 Coors light draft; $3 wells and premium draft beer; $4 margaritas, house wine, well martinis and well manhattans

Severino's Website

Julie’s Review

One good thing about being part of the “Buzz” is that it encourages us to boldly go where we haven’t been before.  That is the case, for me, for Severino’s.  Severino’s is the restaurant at the Best Western Inn on Seacliff Drive in Aptos. This is not my usual neck of the woods.

Fortunately, their generous happy hours:  seven days a week – 3-6, Sunday and Monday 3-9, made this a perfect spot for a Sunday rendezvous.  For a hotel restaurant, Severino’s is a lot of fun.  In fact one of the elements I liked was the mix of locals and hotel guests from out of town.

Severino’s is a nice restaurant with a dance floor that has live music on weekends.  The best part of the bar is the windows overlooking a lovely waterfall and pond.  There is seating outside with heaters.  It was rather chilly that day, so although they offered to turn on the heaters – we chose to sit inside by the windows to enjoy the view.

We arrived at 4:30 so there were plenty of seats (always important to me, as our regular readers know).  Our waitress Emmy quickly came over to take our order. 

The happy hour drink specials are a great value:   $2 Coors light draft; $3 wells and premium draft beer; $4 margaritas, house wine, well martinis and well manhattans.  My husband Bill would have liked the $2 draft beer.  They have Guinness on tap – where can you get a Guinness for three bucks?  These are cheapest well drinks we’ve come across, except for the Jury Room for goodness sake!  The well drinks are straight mixed drinks with well alcohol– no bloody marys or frou frou drinks.

Jo ordered the margarita and I ordered a vodka gimlet so we would have different drinks for the pictures.  Ironically, they looked exactly the same.

There is a good happy hour food selection here: chicken quesadillas, cheeseburger with fries, chicken Caesar salad, calamari, ceviche, carnitas nachos and Buffalo wings all for $6.  Jo wanted wings, being a wing connoisseur, and especially since she was getting ready to head to upstate New York, the home of Buffalo wings.  I wanted the calamari, of course and we decided to try the carnitas nachos, as well.

We were joined this happy hour by Lysa.  She has been to Severino’s often as she has lived in this neighborhood before.  She likes the food, drinks and ambience at Severino’s.

The service was excellent.  Emmy kept us plied with water and drinks and our bar busser, Nevada, kept our table cleared.

As we sat and enjoyed our drinks and the view, we noticed a fly flying around our table.  We joked that we needed my cat, Eddie – the fly hunter – to come get that fly.  I’m not big on flies in a bar, even if I am a bit of a barfly myself! Lol.

Our food arrived – first the wings and calamari.  The food was tasty, but not outstanding.  The calamari was cut into strips so they almost looked like French fries.  No tentacles here!  We joked that it was “tame” calamari – well groomed.  I like a crispier flash fried coating, as well, though this didn’t stop us from polishing off the plate in no time.

The wings were good, but again not outstanding.  Josephine our wing expert thought there was an odd taste to them. I love almost any chicken wings – so as long as I get my ranch dressing (which Emmy quickly brought) I am happy.

The carnitas nachos were tasty, but a bit of a disappointment because they were soggy underneath from the meat juice.   They were a little difficult to eat because the chips fell apart.  I’m not used to eating nachos with a fork, but will do what’s necessary to get the job done.

I went and talked with the women at the next table, who are regulars.  They live nearby and think Severino’s is one of the best deals around.  While we were chatting my friend Harry came over.  He lives in Lompico, like I do, so what are the chances we would run into each other in Aptos!  By this time almost every table was filled and the place was happening.

As I said earlier I liked the mix of locals and out of town visitors.  I changed to my standard rum and diet coke at this point and Josephine had a beer.  We chatted and talked and felt that nice happy hour buzz feeling. 

In sum, I liked Severino’s.   The service was good – Emmy and Nevada took good care of us, the hours get a five shot rating – seven days a week – starting at 3:00 and having Sundays until 9:00 is great.  The drink value is impressive, ($3 Guinness and wells).  On the down side, I would have liked to have the appetizers a little cheaper - $5 for appetizers would seem more in line for happy hour.  The food was good, the ambience was pleasant with the view and windows.  Nice people, a happening atmosphere, and with the $2 Coors Light draft I will be definitely be bringing my husband next time.  I will be coming back here – it is worth the drive!

Julie’s rating:  4 Shots

Jo’s Review

Severino’s Bar and Grill is located at the Best Western Plus Seacliff Inn in Aptos. This specialty Best Western Inn is located just minutes from the beach on some lovely landscaped grounds with a Koa pond and small waterfall.  They have a formal dining area, some outdoor seating right by the pond, and a large bar area with plenty of seating and a dance floor. After all it is a hotel bar and you have to keep the guests entertained. They have an event calendar that lists live bands Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

One of the main things we look for in a happy hour is timing so when you see Happy Hour every day from 3pm – 6pm, well they are already off to a good start and on Sundays and Mondays the times are 3pm – 9pm. Gotta love it. Julie and I immediately pop in and start snapping pictures left and right of the place and we receive the usual strange glances.  The patio with the Koa pond is beautiful, but a little chilly today and even though they have heaters for the patio we opt to sit inside.

The waitress is Johnny on the spot, actually her name is Emmy, and she gives us the low down on the Happy-tizers. All the food items are $6.00 with $3.00 well drinks, $4.00 Well Margaritas, Well Manhattans, and house wines, $3.00 draft beers (this includes Guinness) and $2.00 Coors lights drafts. The drink prices are sitting well with me too. So we start off with a Margarita for me and a well Vodka gimlet for Julie. 

For food we decide on the Buffalo wings (no brainer) and the fried calamari.  We are expecting my friend Lysah to come by so we decide to get the Carnita’s Nachos as well. Who are we kidding we would of ordered the nachos whether or not Lysah was coming by, but this gives us an excuse not to look like pigs. The drinks arrive and because Julies Gimlet is on the rocks our drinks look very similar.  Both are tasty though and not far behind our wings and calamari show up. We start right in munching away and Lysah shows up too.  She decides on a Vodka cranberry and she leans back in awe at our speed and agility at attacking the food. 

The wings are juicy and tangy. I thought they were a little on the mild side but they have good flavor, and we had lots of blue cheese dressing for them. The calamari was served in strips, lightly breaded and very tender.  No tentacles were served though just the steak strips and we had plenty of tartar and cocktail sauce for dipping.  The drinks are going down fast as well and I’m ready for another.  I decide to move to beer and get a Sierra Nevada, pint size draft while Julie goes for her rum and diet coke. 









Then the nachos arrived. We dove right in before we could get pictures.  We managed to arrange it back so it looks good for the pic.  They were tasty, yummy pulled pork smothered in cheese with Pico de Gallo, lots of guacamole and jalapenos on top.  Of course we opted for extra jalapenos which came on the side.  Well let’s just say between the food and the drinks we are starting to get happy.

Julie who does the PR for us starts chatting it up with the waitress Emmy and the Bar Bus Boy (say that 3 times fast) Nevada and they agree to a picture.  Emmy has been very attentive making sure we have full glasses of water and of course the other drinks. Nevada got to the empty plates before we could say, “wait leave the dipping sauce”, we probably didn’t need it anyways there wasn’t much left to dip.  We are eating, drinking and have a good time. 

Lysah leaves us and Julie and I settle in for some gab time.  I’m going on vacation soon and won’t be making  any happy hour runs in town for a while (notice I said in town, I’m sure there will be a happy hour or two in the town I’ll be visiting, stay tuned). While were talking it up we see all these other items on the menu that we didn’t get and boy, it all looks good.  I had to get a shot of the Ceviche and chips, next time and there will be a next time.

All in all this was a fun happy hour.  On our way out we start looking around and find some interesting décor in the foyer. We left the place in full swing, lots of folks also eating and drinking and have a good time at a nice homey laid back bar with a touch of class.

 Jo’s rating: 4 shots!