Jack & Dan's Bar & Grill — Restaurant in Spokane

Guests, truly be beware! Especially those who are younger and female, please be cautious.

I had entered this bar, excited to for my friend who was joining me moments later. I was received with a fairly cold welcoming by a bartender named Blake as I sat at the bar rail and he proceeded to asked for my ID. For pretense, I am a 26-year female with an enhanced Washington State ID which has been in my possession for over four years now. Blake took my ID and needed several minutes to verify it. After staring it with zero movement for a minute, he then used a black light to inspect the hidden details for even longer. Since it was still too challenging for him to distinguish the ID, he decided to show two random older men at bar, who are clearly drinking, to aid him in verifying lol. Attached to this review is an image of the unexpected incident. I do not know these older men, and for Blake to be displaying my personal information to them, including my full government name and home address, especially while in my sight of vision is beyond levels of unprofessionalism. This is also an incredibly obvious safety concern. While immensely uncomfortable and disappointed this moment just occurred, Blake appears to me and tells me he's not comfortable serving me, assuring me that my ID is fake.

As someone who's worked in the service industry, I've been put in similar situations before with fake IDs. For me to come in alone at first, I also completely understand the possibility of a sting operation occurring with the Washington liquor control board. However, I've never experienced a bartender with such a substantial lack of knowledge and understanding for valid ID verification. Calling Blake uneducated on the subject would be considered an understatement lol. When I questioned why he didn't accept my ID, he proceeded to state that "They just started coming out with enhanced licenses, so there's no way you would have an enhanced ID for that long now" LMAO. I can only assume he was referring to the "Real IDs" that are required now for flight travel. He then mentioned that the hidden emblems on the ID under black light weren't glowing right, that the ID didn't feel right, and that my picture looked nothing like me. (???) My friend who joined me moments later asked him to compare her two valid IDs, which felt the exact same as mine, and he said hers most definitely felt real! 🙂 She's also worked service industry for a long time so we both got a real kick out of this tbh. From my guess I can only assume he was highly anxious thinking it was a sting operation, and when realizing he was wrong, chose to double down instead of holding himself to accountability and integrity. Or Blake's management failed poorly to educate their employee on proper protocol, ranging from actually knowing how to validate ID, to exerting actual professional, kind, and quality customer service to begin with. Darn shame. To have someone severely uneducated in ID verification working in a college bar sounds like underage drinking is inevitable, and that the liquor control board should be more deeply involved.

Unfortunately, Blake is not the only one in this situation lacking both accountability and integrity. I spoke with owner of the bar, Kevin Macdonald, over the phone. When I mentioned the issue to him, he supported Blakes actions and behavior. He did say he would speak to Blake about enhanced IDs at least. Kevin showed complete lack and disregard in safety concerns towards Blake showing random men my personal information, stating "it was probably just a manager or something". Do managers drink on the clock here?

If you decide to attend this bar, make sure to bring multiple forms of identification, and to be prepared for your home address to be shared with random drunk old men. Hopefully and God-willing this review finds some readers and guides them away from this unprofessional establishment. Based on reading the multitude of other negative reviews left before mine, looks like Kevin is doing a great job of...

So, I'll just get right to it, and this will be long: If your bouncers think any photo ID appears inadequate, then they have every reason to check it over and scrutinize it. But if the ID's clearly legal and she's of legal age, you should probably have some better grounds to refuse entrance, especially when she attempted to list her personal information as you silently returned from checking her ID from behind the bar.

Alright, didn't like the clean pullover sweatshirt and yoga pants she wore to your "classy" establishment? Oh, well then tell her that. Don't tell her her real ID is fake. She's capable of changing. But, as you can tell from my language, those suggestions didn't happen. Nothing was directly said about her outfit, and you don't have a "sexual objects only" dress code for women listed on any website I could find. To that end, she has gotten in countless times before when dressing in a more "appealing" fashion -- without any questions about her ID. You can see where this is going.

So, then the next question: How's one supposed to respond when a bouncer takes your ID, doesn't say a word, and starts walking away with it? Maybe a little curious? Yeah, I would be, especially if I'm a regular patron like my girlfriend, who also has a rare out-of-state ID. So, saying she's being "too sassy" when she's trying to find out why her same ID is getting looked over behind the bar she goes to almost every weekend is a pretty lame excuse for asking her to leave... Oh, did I say asking her to leave? Because that didn't happen either.

I hope this reaches management: teach your employees manners, or at least some common sense of decency when dealing with other human beings.

Not only did my 22-year-old girlfriend not get a justified reason as to why she wasn't let in, but she also had to suffer further unnecessary embarrassment when one of your fine employees silently and very intentionally dropped the ID of my comparably tiny girlfriend - who, mind you, was in line by herself - on the wet floor in front of an entire line of people waiting to get in. He said nothing. He didn't move. Now, that's pretty low for any person to do, let alone an employee of a bar that on many accounts has united the Gonzaga Community for decades.

So, don't let people in if you don't want them to be in your business. But you should definitely tell them why. Give them a reason. Be straightforward. Don't passive-aggressively toss their property on the ground in the rudest way possible, or you'll see more ratings and rants like this on the public platform.

Thanks to whomever ruined one of the last nights a senior gets to...

We had a whole group of Gonzaga alumni from out of town/country to celebrate a 10 year university graduation and a wedding, and not only did the staff refuse to accept valid UK drivers’ licenses of my 72 year old father-in-law and 34 year old husband as proof of ID with a group of 10 American people over 30, but they also told us sarcastically “good luck getting in anywhere”, when we went immediately to another bar (and had been to many local bars, restaurants and stores during the trip) without them needing to carry their original passport with them. The UK license they hold is enough to drive legally in the USA, so staff should really be trained and capable of validating a license for the purpose of having a few beers (particularly when the guest are clearly at least 1-5 decades above the drinking age). We also offered to share high quality scans of the passports to complement their completely valid universal driving permits, which apparently weren’t acceptable (as if anyone carries their original passport on a night out to have a couple drinks).

Another bar received our business for the evening, but it’s still a bit ridiculous we brought our guests all the way here only to be told condescendingly that we wouldn’t get in anywhere else due to “the law” when this is the single bar in years of visits to Washington that we’ve ever had an issue. Saying we couldn’t be served at this specific bar due to their policy would have been enough without the patronizing tone...