Fairmount Martini & Wine Bar

Limited food selection but the drink menu is great!

Highly recommend Fairmount happy hour and patio.  I come here pretty often with my girlfriends--if we want a quick drink to catch up or to drink away a bad day =)  If you come for HH, it's $5 pizzas and half off martini's.  The pizzas are pretty damn good.  For drinks, I recommend the Dark and Stormy (rum and ginger beer-so delicious and strong), Moscow Mule, Blackbird (their berry compote is to die for), La Verdita (if you're feeling adventurous and love you some spice), and if you're jonesing for something girly the Chocolate Martini.  They also have a lot of good wine and beer options (Christmas ale!). Servers are pretty attentive and friendly, although sometimes if it's busy service can get pretty slow.  I recommend just going up to the bar in those cases.  The patio is a must if it's nice out!

Alas, I must update my review in all positive ways.

First, the drinks. The drinks are all fantastic. I have some standbys that I love to get (Hemingway Daiquiri, dirty martini, New Brown Derby) and they are always delicious, but I decided to branch out recently and wasn't disappointed either! The Island Cocktail is fantastic and the Fairmount Caipirinha was rummy, fruity and perfect!

Next, the food. I've had quesadillas, burgers, and pizzas here. All are tasty and very difficult to choose from. The apple pizza is definitely a unique taste as well as the caramelized onion one, and while the BBQ chicken was fantastic, the pesto scallop combo takes the cake hands down.

The service is always pretty good when we can get a bar seat. But, sometimes, the whole place packs tight (on a Wednesday night?) and you'll have to wait a significant amount of time for drinks and just to be able to place an order. This is difficult and I can see how a first timer might get impatient, but trust me, it's worth it. If you do sit at the bar, it seems it's a little easier to escape the poor acoustics, but otherwise, it gets really loud in there really fast, so be prepared to just observe for a bit. The staff itself is great and everyone really knows what they're doing as far as I can tell. I've never had any issues and it's great to chat with them on slow nights--drink experimenting is always fun!

Worht mentioning is the patio outside. Once they open it up, they serve from another bar out there as well. They also have heaters outside for chillier nights, which makes it easier to escape the volume inside.

Overall, I really like the Fairmount. We've had our ups and downs, but it was a relationship worth giving another chance. So, go! Have a cocktail, eat some pizza and enjoy!