When you are doing 3 or more complete turns per evening shifting some of that business... especially that portion of the business which tens to linger to the earlier hours... when you have the same staff and overhead on hand anyway... makes good business sense.

But when the volume drops from that 3 (or more) turns per evening to barely two on a weekend... you may as well squee er serve all those customers in a tighter time frame. You have the dining room looking busy and the business looking healthier.

Besides, the bargain hunters are making other arrangements altogether.

McCormick & Schmick on Pier 5 has a Mon-Fri 3:30pm-6:30pm Happy Hour menu in the bar. My favorite is the $3 half-pound burger.

Early bird special dinners are HUGE in Central Florida. I wonder if they are more popular in areas with more seniors who tend to want to eat dinner much earlier?

The lack of early-bird specials probably correlates with your earlier finding that everyone in the known universe (ie, the Baltimore/Washington area) makes their dinner reservations at 7pm!

So young and yet so wise. EL

here's a thought, from the other side of the fence, how would you get servers to work those hours? "bargain" customers don't tip, and we all know that, even if they do tip, it's on a $15 check for two that adds up to nothing. it doesnt bring in enough money to support the staff needed to make the food either. like for instance where I work, in the morning we have 12 kitchen staff cooking and preping, all who make an average of $12 an hour, who are staggered in between 7am and 11 am. by 3pm only 3 are left. there are 11 servers and 1 bartender staggered in from 9:30am to noon, by 3pm there are 3 servers and 1 bartender. at 4pm the new shift starts, with 3 new kitchen people with 9 more by 6pm, 3 servers and 8 more by 6pm and 2 bartenders. we use the time between 2 and 5 to restock, clean and set up. I don't think I would eat at a place that was busy all the time, when would they clean? what would that kitchen look like? just a thought.

BJ'S on the water in OC has one don't know exactly what it is but it's always on the sign when I ride by there

barkeep77, if so many Florida restaurants are able to offer early bird dinner specials, they evidently have no problem hiring servers and other staff to work those hours. They also must be able to cover their costs; otherwise, early bird specials would fade away into oblivion.

Oceanaire at Harbor East has one. IMO, that's when the prices are appropriate for the food.

i love two posts in a row with pictures taken in the same building but completly differnt restaurants.

This is on topic but isn't for a restaurant in Baltimore: while I was at the beach on the Outer Banks last week, I saw what has to be the earliest Early Bird Special ever-- it starts at 3:30 and ends at 5:00.

(That's lunchtime for me.)

I saw you mentioned FindMeSpecials.com - they have a lot more than happy hours and show tons of good food specials as well. You can filter the results or use the keyword search. I use it all the time before going out.

Spam at 9:35 am.

Came across your article while looking for a restaurant after a visit to Baltimore's Visionary museum this coming Saturday. Too bad about the early bird specials. If you are in DC, our favorite restaurant with early bird special (5 to 7pm) is Bistro Francaise. You can see their menu on the web. $25 including wine, appert, entree and dessert.