Axe and the Oak Whiskey House — Restaurant in Colorado Springs

Decent whiskey at hipster prices. This place sells more pretension than they do spirits and pretension does not mix with whiskey, at least not where I'm from. Take your west coast high brow bullmess out of my booze.

In short, if you're a posh person without a firm grasp on good whiskey who cares more about a chic environment than you do the overpriced drink in your glass then you'll do fine here. Luckily for A&O, there are plenty of those in the Broadmoor area, as indicated by the amount of peroxide and botox in their reviews. Which brings me to my biggest criticism, that A&O is milking the wealthy west side locals for all they are worth while pricing out anyone who isn't in Colorado's upper crust. I paid $20 for a single shot of each of their three spirits, and one of those was moonshine. I hail from Appalachia, where moonshine was born, and I can promise you I've had better moonshine at $10/quart. It's a simple spirit to make and should never be priced as high as they have it here. You may fool the ignorantly wealthy with that jazz, but that's offensive to anyone who knows the slightest about whiskey.

You make decent whiskey A&O, but you're pricing out the folks that know whiskey best to cater to the pinky out crowd, and they'll praise anything that makes them feel exclusive. Make your...

By far THE BEST drinks in Colorado Springs!!

Axe and the Oak is an Experience. Not your typical bar. When you go, you go to enjoy the ambiance. Enjoy the live music. Enjoy the laid back vibe. Enjoy the delicious whisky. Enjoy watching the detail that goes into each drink.... the smoke in the glass, the roasted orange peel... the whole thing.

The drinks are strong!! So one or two will do you just right.

I can't speak on the food to much as the only thing I have ever ordered food wise was the meat and cheese platter. The cheese was delicious but the meat seemed like typical deli meat... except the prosciutto, that was really good. They offered pesto, tomato, glazed walnuts etc. but it seemed like there needed to be more then 2 small slices of bread for the side dips to be used. Also, the large serving of pickled onions seemed a bit off. I don't know of too many people who just eat pickled onion plain, but maybe they are out there.

Next time I'll try other food and update the review. I am sure the other food there is yummy cause, come on... your not going to have the best drinks in the springs and less then tasty food. :)

The staff is all really friendly too which is nice.

I definitely recommend Axe and the Oak and have made it one of my favorite places to bring people who...

I’m not a whiskey drinker ordinarily. So the fact that Axe & Oak can make some drinks that a non-whiskey drinker like myself can enjoy puts them in the upper rankings of nicer drinking spots in my heart.

The atmosphere here was very intimate and fitting of a speakeasy vibe. I really loved it. All the staff were helpful and attentive and didn’t act like snobs when I admitted I didn’t know what I was doing. I was recommended the Noble Experiment which is a fantastic cherry infused cocktail. It wasn’t overpowering but the hints of whiskey present were still enjoyable and spoke of good quality. I also tried the old fashioned as I got braver and that was also amazing.

My only one complaint is that the band they had in that night was way too loud. The band was good - so it’s not about quality of entertainment - but the sound was too loud for such a small space and didn’t match the chill vibe that Axe & Oak seems to be about. My buddy informed me that usually they have more laid back folk and acoustic styles music, in which case would’ve been preferable. But I’ll go back and try to catch a night with a less...