Replacing one's stoves and ovens with an all-purpose, food-conjuring rain stick is a delicious solution until that musical stick runs out of culinary precipitation. Today's Groupon saves the belly with $20 worth of fresh cooking at Houlihan's for $10. Fulfill a sojourn in either of the hot spot's Springfield locations for eclectic menus of inspired grub worth chewing the recommended 24 times.

While technically a chain restaurant, Houlihan's bedazzles its chain with glitter and winsome intrigue, boldly preparing every last bite of its savory fare by hand. Hosts of diverse ingredients culminate inside one open kitchen where professional food handlers slice, sauté, marinate, and arrange food to its tasty and aesthetic best, allowing each meal to display its individuality before being broken down into individual nutrients for absorption in the body. Each meticulously designed restaurant peppers a patron's experience with a playlist of hand-picked tunes and customer-designed coasters that give a voice to condensation-catchers.

Slight variations exist among the different lunch and dinner menus at each Houlihan's location (check out the full menus for Glenstone and Republic Rd.), but shared highlights include the mysteriously-monikered Cheesy Royale Yum Yum Good Times burger, smothered in a secret sauce ($9.95), and the Buffalo Bleu salad topped with chicken and wing sauce ($10.95), both from the lunchtime menu. Suppertime calls for breaking bread and slurping soup, with curtain-raisers like the baked potato and the provolone-topped French onion varieties ($3 each) paving the throat for a Down Home Pot Roast platter, with meat, mashed potatoes and veggies doused in a red wine mushroom gravy ($13.25). A decadent dessert sampler ($7.50) will finish the feast on a sweet note no matter how many times your dinner date throws an espresso martini ($6.25) in your face.