Ever since we moved here, the Husband and I have been talking about going to Green Valley Ranch’s Wined Up Friday happy hour at Terra Verde, their italian restaurant with a patio.  With his parents in town for the fourth of July weekend, we decided to take them with us that Friday evening.

For $20 per person. all summer Terra Verde is hosting a wine happy hour.  It includes all you can enjoy wine and appetizers (from a limited menu of course).

Here are some views from inside the restaurant/bar area…

I knew that they had self pour wine options at the restaurant and assumed that these were the wines we’d be drinking.  I was wrong, but look forward to coming back to check these out one day.

After paying at the bar inside, we were directed out to the enclosed patio first to get our wristband and wine glass.

In order to avoid some of the heat (more so for the Husband’s parents as he and I have acclimated quite well thus far to the heat), we chose a seat in the air conditioned inside patio.  This room filled up as the happy hour went on!

After choosing our seats, we took our wine glasses and head out to the patio where the wine was being served and there was lots of patio seating and standing bar tables.

Both of the bartenders were super friendly and knowledgeable about the wines.  Each week, they try to have about 5 wines to serve.  Two mainstays are the Chateau Ste. Michelle Riesling and a Pinot Grigio (I believe).  They then rotate having more or less red wine than white.  This week there were 3 whites (in addition to the above there was a Sauvignon Blanc) and 2 reds.

The Husband and his dad modeled with their wine glasses for me The pours varied in size depending on the crowdedness of the table, how much was left in the bottle, and the bartenders general mood.  You certainly can get as much or as little wine as you want through these two hours.

In terms of appetizers, there was a varied selection provided to us.  Lots of items to snack on.  One plate brought to us included carrots, celery, bruschetta, olives, deviled eggs, and what we think were dates wrapped in bacon.

The other small platter we got included crackers and four kinds of cheese.  We were very impressed with the cheeses! (though we don’t know what they were for sure… we believe, from left to right, it was goat cheese, blue cheese, and then ??? for the other two)

Servers also brought around bites of sliders.  One slider was veal while the other was sausage.

The Husband and I were very impressed with the date wrapped in bacon.  Yum!

As the happy hour went on, we were welcome to ask for more of any of the above.  It may not have looked like a lot but over the course of two hours, we were certainly satisfied.  I think in all we had two plates of cheese and two of the larger plate shared between the four of us.

More pours

When we entered the happy hour, we were provided raffle tickets.  We didn’t know what they were for, but I assumed that there would be a raffle at the end.

There was! To win, though, you need to stay to the end and be outside during the drawing. As you can see below, the happy hour filled out as the two hours went by!

Considering how many people there were, we surprised to hear the Husband’s number called out as we walked outside! He was the first prize winner.  He originally won a bottle of the Riesling but when the bartender saw who won, he remembered that the Husband enjoyed the Merlot-Cab Sav blend.  This wine was good and we’re looking forward to enjoying it at home one of these beautiful evenings

We estimated that there were 7 or so prizes in general – a handful of bottles of wine, the ice bucket that the wines are in in an earlier photo above, a decantur, and then a wine rack.  With how many people there were, we were even more surprised when the last number called was the Husband’s mother’s number! The wine rack is quite tall and heavy so she showed off her raffle ticket for my photo op

We collected the wine rack after a few hours of gambling/game playing.  It just barely fit in the back seat of the car on top of our laps.  Since the Husband’s parents were only visiting and this certainly wouldn’t fit in their carry-on, we’ll be keeping the wine rack for safe keeping

Overall, we enjoyed ourselves at our first Wined Up Friday at Terra Verde.  We are pretty sure we’ll be back before the summer is over and we’ll likely stay for dinner.  The menu looked good and reasonably priced.  You know we’ll be back with a blog post when we do!