Happy-hour pick: Barra Rossa

Barra Rossa, 929 Walnut St., 4-6 p.m. daily and 9-11 p.m. Friday and Saturday

This bustling, contemporary Italian wine bar/pizzeria at the corner of 10th and Walnut Streets serves diverse constituencies — Jefferson Hospital staff and patient families, theatergoers, and the usual Center City crowd — and it tends to do things well.

The $6 happy-hour food specials include a few fried dishes (Buffalo calamari; fries topped with mozzarella, bacon, and tomato sauce; stuffed poppers; and chicken parm bites), as well as mussels in beer broth and a mighty fine 12-inch pizza called the Stinger, whose cheese combo of ricotta, mozzarella, Asiago, and blue gets a zing from hot soppressata and a drizzle of honey. Drinkwise, for $4 you can get a draft Peroni, a choice of two wines by the glass, and a daily beer bottle special; for a buck more, get the house specialty cocktail known as blue scrubs lemonade — Stoli blueberry, lemonade, basil, simple syrup, and a splash of blue curaçao for color.

You can even make the specials dovetail with a show at the Walnut. That 2 p.m. Legally Blonde matinee lets out in time for the early happy hour, while those attending an 8 p.m. show on a Friday or Saturday can hustle to catch the end of the late happy hour (it’s on till 11 p.m.).