How our scores work

Every listing carries a Gather Score from 0 to 5.

The Gather Score isn’t a star rating copied from review sites. It’s our own score, built to help you find a genuinely good happy hour. We calculate it from five things:

Happy hour — the biggest single factor. A real happy hour (especially a drinks happy hour) scores well; a spot with only an everyday value menu or no happy hour is scored down.
Value of the drinks — a blend of how cheap the happy-hour drinks are versus other venues and how deep the discount is versus the venue’s own regular prices (plain sodas don’t count as a drink deal).
Value of the food — same idea for food: cheap versus other venues, and how big the markdown is versus the regular menu price.
Ambiance — the feel of the place: the patio, the view, the vibe.
Staff friendliness — how welcoming and attentive the service is.

Because it leads with the happy hour itself, a place that just has cheap everyday prices won’t outrank a genuine happy hour. For the price-based parts, we compare every venue against all the others — the cheapest happy hour earns full marks and the priciest the least — so scores can shift slightly as we add venues.

Ambiance and friendliness come from community ratings, which are coming soon; until then we weigh the other factors a little more. A spot shows “Not yet rated” when we don’t have a happy hour or confirmed deal details for it yet.

We also hand out a few badges for standouts: Best value drinks Best value food Longest happy hour.

Every listing is a draft pending verification, and details like prices and times change often — always confirm with the venue. Spot something off? Let us know.