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Nothing is more exciting than seeing the clock strike 5 p.m. when you're at work. You and your fellow employees dash to the front door of the office, elbow anyone who gets in your way, and head out in search of happy hour awesomeness.

Check that. Nothing is more exciting than sneaking away from work an hour early at 4 p.m. and hitting one of the best happy hours in the area.

We suggest Dirty Oscar's Annex. The Sixth Avenue watering hole with the talented young chef in the kitchen introduced a new happy hour Monday, running 4-6 p.m. and 10 p.m. to close daily, with Friday's happy hour beginning at noon since it opens that day at 10 a.m. for breakfast. With Chef Aaron Grissom in the back, it's not a surprise its happy hour focuses on food.

"The idea is to offer something for those that are starving right after work, but not have the dish be so big that you're too full for dinner with your family a few hours later," says Jennifer Johnson, operations manager at Dirty Osacr's Annex. "With portion size in mind, I also wanted to offer food after 10 p.m. that wasn't too large. Our burgers and entrees are huge, and that can actually be a deterrent later at night. Prices are lower than our regular menu items to encourage people to try more than one item and share with friends. I don't think anyone wants to have their leftovers sit unrefrigerated on the table while they hang out for a couple hours having drinks. The smaller dishes on the happy hour menu solve both issues."

Dirty Oscar's Annex's happy hour consists of 14 dishes in the $5-$8 range. Chef Aaron has taken sliders, wraps, corn dogs and burritos and waved his magic New American style wand over the dishes. Out popped ground beef sliders ($6) with peanut butter and tomato jam; pork belly sliders ($8) with sausage cream, Parmesan, sunny egg and chipotle maple syrup; a kielbasa corn dog ($5); the Oscar dog ($5), which also centers on kielbasa, but skips the corn meal for onion straws, kimchee puree, cream cheese, sriacha ketchup and yellow mustard — and many more. Click here to see Dirty Oscar's Annex's happy hour menu.

In addition to the food specials, Dirty Oscar's Annex also offers happy hour $3 wells and drafts, $5 wine, $2 tall boys with its moonshine cocktails and shots ringing in at a dollar less. There are early week gourmet burger specials, too. From 4-8 p.m., you may dine on the blue burger Monday, chipotle buffalo chiliburger Tuesday and Dead Elvis burger (candied peppered bacon, fried banana, sunny side up egg, peanut butter) Wednesday - all with half-pound Prairie Farms beef patties for $10.

DIRTY OSCAR'S ANNEX, 2309 SIXTH AVE., TACOMA, 253.572.0588

LINK: Weekly Volcano's South Sound happy hour app