Carmine's Italian Restaurant Happy Hour. The Strip

Everything at Carmine's arrives family-style, in portions built for three or four people, which shapes how you should approach its happy hour too. This is loud, red-sauce Italian-American food: fist-sized meatballs, chicken parm under a blanket of mozzarella, baked ziti that does not believe in restraint. The happy hour runs Monday through Thursday from 2 to 4pm, at the bar only, an early afternoon slot that fits day drinking or a bridge between lunch and dinner.

The drink list is short and worth knowing. Virgil's draft ale is $6, house wine is $8, and martinis and cocktails run $9 to $10. The martini is the order here, made the old-fashioned way with gin or vodka and an olive or a twist. Appetizers land between $8 and $14, and even the smaller plates skew generous, so a couple of them plus a round will feed a table.

Bring a group and treat it like an extended lunch. Pass plates around, order a few apps, and let people split things. Solo or in a pair, it loses some of the point, since the kitchen is built for sharing.

Carmine's is in the Forum Shops at Caesars, easy to reach from the casino. The 2 to 4pm window is narrow and weekdays only, so this is a plan for a Tuesday afternoon, not a Friday night.