In the 2001 film Not Another Teen Movie, Chyler Leigh plays Janey Briggs, a misfit high school artist-girl who wears a ponytail, paint-stained overalls and horn-rimmed glasses. When the popular starting quarterback Jake Wyler bets that he can turn nerdy Janey into a prom queen, hilarity (or a reasonable facsimile thereof) ensues for the duration of the flick’s twisted Cinderella storyline. Near the end of the movie, Janey takes off her Woody Allen style spectacles, exchanges her overalls for a flattering blouse and skirt, and voila! We see that, beneath the ponytail, glasses and dungarees lie a gorgeous young woman who would be a shoe-in for prom queen at every school from Degrassi High to Ridgemont High. In several self-consciously tongue-in-cheek scenes, Not Another Teen Movie suggests ruefully, “If only she’d taken off the glasses sooner…”
Similarly, the happy hour at Alero Restaurant on U Street would be one of the best in the city if the restaurant would undo its ponytail, take off its glasses and exchange its paint-stained overalls for some after-seven attire. Even if Alero isn’t normally your first or second or even your fifth U Street choice, its happy hour could be worth a visit, so long as you’re not in a rush. Located on the corner of 13th and U Streets NW, right across the street from the metro stop, it boasts a superb location. The bar is long and there is considerable table seating in the lounge area and and the front patio. The happy hour recently expanded, stretching out from 3:30 to 7:00 p.m.
More to the point, the happy hour specials are nearly unbeatable: every margarita is made with Jose Cuervo Clasico and sells for $3.50 a glass and $16 a pitcher. The house margarita is justifiably popular, and Alero offers a healthy pour in each glass. The bar offers Smirnoff, Barcardi, Seagrams, Castillo Gold, Jim Beam, Cuervo Clasico and Cutty Sark as premium rails, which also sell for $3.50. If these offerings were not enough, Alero serves up no less than twelve brands of imported beers for $3.50, including Negra Modelo and Dos Equis Special Lager.
Photo from Alero’s website
