Happy hour on a budget: What we ate & drank for $25 at an Uptown spot
For this round of Columbus on a Budget, I decided to drag newsroom colleagues with me on my hunt to find fun things to do for under $25.
While I know I’ve pushed the limits of my budget before, this time I spent exactly $25, had a cocktail and a full belly.
Animal Farm in Uptown is one of Columbus’ favorite places to eat, but it also has an excellent and really budget-friendly happy hour.
Everybody knows I love a good cocktail, but I don’t love paying $14 for it. With that in mind, my fellow reporters and I headed over to see what we could really get. We discovered that Animal Farm genuinely offers an affordable way to treat yourself without making your wallet flinch.
Sitting in the farmhouse-style, busy dining room at Animal Farm, I had a few thoughts: it’s low-key, stylish and just indulgent enough to feel like a treat, not a splurge.
Know before you go
Happy hour is available Tuesday through Saturday, from 5 to 6 p.m.
All the cocktails on the happy hour menu are $6
The handful of bites and appetizers range from $7 to $12
There are a few things you should know if you really want to maximize your $25 and get the most for what you spend.
It’s a short window, so get there right on time.
The dining room and bar fill up quickly.
Order everything the first time the server visits the table, even if it means ordering two drinks at once (which is what co-worker Kelby Hutchison did).
Go with friends to get a nice sampling of the menu.
What we ate and drank
There were six of us enjoying happy hour, so we decided to order one of each of the offered appetizers. Since I was determined to spend my $25 wisely, I opted for one drink and two apps.
I ordered the AF Margarita ($6), deviled eggs ($7), and the pigs in the blanket ($7), which with the tip, met my budget limit to the cent.
Grace McClung, our intrepid intern, who isn’t quite 21, still found something she liked, and she and Jordyn Paul-Slater ordered the Coconut Chili Popcorn Chicken, which was enough to share with the rest of us.
This app was the hit of the table with its sesame slaw and the crowd pleasing boom boom sauce.
The other happy hour warriors, Kala Hunter and Mike Haskey opted just for cocktails, coming in way under the spending limit.
The tasty AF happy hour menu:
The appetizers:
The deviled eggs are topped with bacon and everything seasoning, but they could have had me with just “bacon.”
The Pigs in a blanket are a bougier version of what you ate when you were a kid.
I will be thinking about the hot pimento crab dip until further notice.
The Coconut Chili Popcorn Chicken made us want to lick the plate.
The cocktails:
AF Margarita - a classic margarita made with agave and a generous salt rim
Planter’s Punch - vacation in a glass with rum, demerara, black tea and mint
Old Fashioned - a solid choice for the bourbon lovers
Mojito - boozy enough to do the job, but light enough to have two.
Cosmo - Carrie Bradshaw wishes she could get a Cosmo for this price.
French 75 - the champagne/gin combo makes it right for your classy, flirty friends
Manhattan - the rye appeals to the grown folks in your crowd
The vibe
Animal Farm has a polished, unfussy aesthetic with high ceilings, an open seating area and a respectable drink menu that doesn’t feel pretentious. Our server was friendly and very accommodating to our party of six and even as busy as it was, he kept our drinks full and brought our food out hot.
Although happy hour was busy and flew by, Animal Farm also has a farm-to-table brunch that matches the happy hour feel and dinner specials that give “elevated yet accessible” vibes.
If you’re looking to treat yourself on a budget and your friend group can find an hour a week, Animal Farm is a sure thing.
Do you have any suggestions for what my next Columbus on Budget adventure should be? Email me at srose@ledger-enquirer.com or find me on social media.
This story was originally published June 23, 2025 at 10:31 AM.
