Happy hour | Rum's the word at Ballard's La Isla

Recently, I overheard some happy-hour revelers noting that even though La Isla summons images of a beach bar, they couldn't pinpoint why.

No beachfront view. No faux straw-hut décor (thank goodness). Well, here's your answer: It's the menu. It features Puerto Rican cuisine and a drink list with every beach drink that you've ever had under the cabana — daiquiris, margaritas, mai tais, rum-and-Cokes, and late-night $3 happy-hour mojitos.

Cocktail geeks, though, should bypass the tropical drinks and flip straight to La Isla's rum menu, one of the city's most extensive and most impressive: 32 aged rums from around the world.

The happy-hour food is a break from the usual slider-and-chicken-wing fare but hardly exotic, such as butterfly-sauteed shrimp drenched in garlic and olive oil (too much oil), and generously stuffed $2 empanadas (order the pulled pork or ground beef; skip the flavorless bay shrimp version).

La Isla's best bar snack: gandules dip, a pickled version of salsa that's a delicate balance of sweet, sour and spiciness with onions, garlic, red peppers and pigeon peas in an olive oil and vinegar base with spices. You can scoop up your gandules dip with smashed plantains shaped like teacups.

La Isla, 2320 N.W. Market St., Ballard, offers happy hour daily from 3 to 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. to midnight, when bar food is $2-$5, mojitos $3 (during the late-night happy hour), beer $3, and other rum cocktails are discounted to $5.50-$10 (206-789-0516 or www.laislaseattle.com).

Tan Vinh: 206-515-5656 or tvinh@seattletimes.com