At Zona 78’s midday happy hour, you can get a Dog Fish Head for cheaper than a glass of iced tea. If this image doesn’t disgust you, that means you’re a beer snob. And if you’re a beer snob, this is the place to binge.
The deals: The mid-range Italian bistro on River Road (the Tanque Verde location offers the same happy hour) serves a number of $2 microbrews from 3-6 p.m. Monday through Saturday. In addition to the aforementioned Dog Fish Head IPA, you can get Fat Tire, Nimbus Blonde, Moretti Birra, 8th Street Ale and more on tap.
And while you’re at it, you can get some pretty cheap food as well. During happy hour, all of Zona 78’s different bruschettas and appetizers are half price. We started out with the antipasti platter for two, which is normally $13.
The food: For the $6.50 we paid, we got a mountain of food: several slices of prosciutto and salami, olives, lightly grilled zucchini, pepperdews, roasted red peppers, three types of cheese, garlic toast, artichoke hearts and two pieces of marinated sweet fennel, which tasted pickled onion. If I had attempted to get even half of these items at the store, I would have paid much more, nevermind all that time it would take to prepare. The cheeses—several slices of house-made mozzarella, a brie-like tallegio and a thinly sliced fontina—were first-rate, and paired beautifully with the crisp, buttery toast. On top of that, we got several slices of rustic bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar on the side. I liked to mix and match the different pieces, making little sandwiches out of an artichoke heart, cheese and a piece of meat.
The plate was alone to fill me up, but we also ordered the bianco pizza ($4.50, normally $9), a thin-crust cheese pizza with a layering of white truffle oil. The mozzarella and parmesan-reggiano cheeses had been baked into multiple uneven layers of paper-thin shavings, giving the top a dotted texture like an ornate piece of dry coral. The crust was thin but doughy, and you could taste little hints of garlic popping out from the cracker.
The goat cheese and asparagus bruschetta, ($4.25, normally $8.50) was superior to the pizza, mostly because it was covered with rich, smoky shreds of pancetta, or Italian bacon. The soft meat, sticks of asparagus and creamy chevre provided an excellent topping for the crisp bread. It just goes to show that you don’t need tomato on top of bruschetta to make it taste good. As long as it’s all covered with cheese.
Bottom line: Zona 78′s well-crafted starters are surprisingly more authentic than their name and location would suggest. While the atmosphere has a more casual Foothills chic-ness, the food mimics the temperance and care of an Italian master. Plus, their deals are out of this world.