Being obsessed with happy hour is easily one of the top three stereotypes people like to spout about District denizens (falling just below asking “So what do you do?” at parties and the entire institution of brunch), so it makes sense that there’s a locally-made app to help you find the perfect happy hour.
“As we know, when we’re looking for a good happy hour, the answer to where we’re going to go changes every day,” says April Johnson, the creator of the Happied app. “What type of food do we want, what type of drinks, what type of vibe?”
Johnson, a former lawyer, first turned her taxonomy of D.C. happy hours into a blog in 2016. Users were able to search by location, price point, drink type, and other filters to find their drinking destinations. In April, she launched the free Happied app, which works kind of like OKCupid for bars.
After you create an account, you’re asked to answer a handful of questions to build your preferences: Indicate whether you go for cocktails or beer, and as for food, select “I’m Feeling Fancy,” “Feed Me Culture,” or “Keep It Simple.” For your chosen vibe, your options are “chill,” “intimate,” or “lively.” Each restaurant or bar’s profile includes details on the specific happy hour deals, along with menu recommendations. Some elements, though, are a little eye roll-worthy: The summary section—called “The Haps”—on Tiki TNT‘s profile, for example, includes the old adage, “Tiki is their name, and tiki is their game.”
Johnson and her team—which now comprises two other full-time staffers and a small army of unpaid brand ambassadors—say around 1,200 users have registered with the app since it launched two months ago. She chalks it up to the fact that people are more eager to break out of their going-out ruts these days.
“We’ve had such growth in [D.C.’s] dining scene, we have good restaurants and bars, where people are excited, we want to go out, you know, we want to explore these places, and get that relief after work and connect,” Johnson says.
The app also has a paid membership element, offering access to extended happy hour … hours. Their Work Hard, Play Harder program works kind of like Classpass, but for cocktails instead of CrossFit. Users can sign up for a membership period of three months ($19.99) or six months ($34.99), or on a monthly basis for $7.99. Each month, members receive a list of five bars or restaurants where they get access to happy hour prices and deals for themselves and one guest through 9 p.m., by showing their app to the bartender or server. They can visit each location and use the deal as many times as they like within that month, be it buy-one, get-one cocktails, discounted appetizers, or half-off beers.
The program has some limitations: Everyone gets a different list of deals each month, for example, which means you and your group of friends likely won’t all be able to go out together and take advantage of the program at the same time. Johnson says she’s heard feedback that users (there are about 80 so far) have been using the program in pairs, so that they can use each other’s membership and get access to as many as 10 deals a month.
And though there are more than 400 restaurants and bars on the Happied app, they’re keeping the full fleet of spots in the extended happy hour program to themselves. So far, Roy Boys, Espita Mezcaleria, and O-Ku Sushi are the only publicly announced partners.
“If you’re somebody who doesn’t know where to go, or maybe you’re a little indecisive, being able to get this surprise list every single month of really awesome, curated spots is part of the fun of the program,” says Sharon Cao, the company’s director of sales and operations.
Johnson and Cao will be able to test out whether anyone else loves happy hour as much as D.C.: They say they have plans to bring Happied beyond the District’s borders by the end of the year, and eventually expand nationwide.
Happied is available for iOS and Android.
Lori McCue