Esther's Kitchen Happy Hour. Downtown

Three day sourdough is the tell here. It shows up as wood-fired pizza crust, as the base of an entire toast section of the menu, and as the bread that starts most tables. James Trees opened the place in his hometown and named it for the great-aunt who taught him to cook, and when the original Arts District room got too small he moved the whole operation into a much larger space at 1131 South Main. The pastas are the draw for most regulars: chitarra cacio e pepe, rigatoni carbonara, a spaghetti pomodoro that reads simple and is not.

The weekday happy hour sits in the quiet stretch between lunch and the 5 pm dinner rush, which is also the easiest time to get a bar seat without a reservation. Reports on the exact window and pricing vary and the restaurant keeps those details off its website, so treat the discounts on wine, beer, cocktails, and snacks as a call-ahead situation. Lunch is served weekdays, brunch on weekends, and dinner nightly until 11.