Where to happy hour on Petaluma’s south side

Beer flights for $4? Yes, please!|

Editor's note: This is the fourth in a four-part series on local happy hours. To see the other neighborhoods, click on the related stories box in the copy below.

For those coming up Lakeville Highway or in from Sonoma, the south side has a couple excellent, yet often forgotten, happy hour options. Tolay, located in the Sheraton Hotel at the Petaluma Marina, presents food and drink specials weekdays from 4 to 7 p.m. Drinks are $4.50 for craft beers, $5 for house wines, and $6 for either well drinks or Moscow mules. The food menu includes beef sliders ($4), spicy chicken wings ($5), lemongrass chicken lettuce cups ($6) and crispy calamari ($6.) If Tolay's happy hour is half as good as their dinners, this is an excellent spot to wait out the evening traffic.

One of the biggest happy hour surprises was Pub Republic, located in the Lakeville Business Park, on the southeast corner of Lakeville Highway and South McDowell Boulevard. The surprise was not how good the food and drinks are, because we always enjoy our meals at Pub Republic, but how large, diverse and thrifty the options. Although limited to the bar and high top seating, Monday through Friday, from 3 to 6 p.m. Pub Republic delivers a great selection of drink options, from bottle beer specials ($3), to draught beers ($4) to house wine ($5) to cocktails, such as ginger peach Bellini's and Meyer-lemon champagne cocktails ($6 each). However, my favorite happy hour drink special in all of Petaluma is Pub Republic's generous beer flights, which come in four options – light, dark, IPA or master, each consisting of four 5-ounce samples. Normally $7, during happy hour, this diverse sampling is only $4.

Complementing great drink specials, the food menu at Pub Republic is also impressive. The largest basket of house-made seasoned potato chips are only $2 and is followed by three fries options - sweet potato ($3), truffle parmesan ($4) and bacon cheese chipotle ($4), two sliders - pulled pork and crispy onion ($2) and blue cheese and bacon ($3), two tacos - pulled pork ($3) and Pub Republic's famous Brussels sprouts tacos ($3), Cajun fried calamari (half order $6) and vodka-lemon cured salmon crostini ($8). Amazingly, even ordering two tacos, two sliders, calamari, chips and two flights of craft beer, our bill was less than $30, and we had so much food that we ended up sharing with the couple next to us at the bar. The service was also excellent, with bartender Ryan going above and beyond to answer all our question. Although not on the happy hour menu, I highly recommend trying a pint of the Nutty Monk, which is a hazelnut Belgium dubbel, made specially for Pub Republic by legendary 3 Disciples Brewing of Sebastopol.

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