Jack Rose Dining Saloon — Restaurant in Washington

4 1/2 stars

I'm an ambivalent skeptic when it comes to karma, etc., but it's hard not to believe the universe had a hand in this one. My top-tier chum who literally went to the school of hospitality and I were wandering south from the Adams Morgan neighborhood and she'd been given the assignment of finding one last stop on our day's adventures before heading back to the Airbnb. She saw the name of this establishment from across the street, started squealing Titanic quotes, and of course we came in. We're both big bourbon drinkers, so it was pretty unnerving to find out almost immediately that we'd accidentally picked the bar that literally had the largest selection of whiskey in the Western Hemisphere. There are coincidences and then there are coincidences.

When you walk in, it feels like a boozy library - there are bottles of (presumably almost all) whiskey stretching from end to end, ceiling to ceiling. Think that iconic scene from Beauty and the Beast if Belle had been a drinker instead of a reader. It's quite something to take in. The bar was not crowded at all when we got there and we just plopped ourselves down on the nearest chairs and made ourselves comfortable.

We respectfully disagreed on this point, but the bartender for me got pretty much top marks across the board. My chum thought she was robotic in her delivery, which WAS true early on, but she warmed up after a while and became much more personable. In her defense (which I immediately came to), she had a lot of information to convey and was very much in command of that knowledge. Because we probably have more refined bourbon palates than the average person at this point (though maybe not in terms of the clientele that comes in here intentionally), she used that in her sales pitch and got us some really impressive drinks. I now have an official bourbon I'm looking for going forward, which somehow wasn't the case before.

We'd told her almost immediately that we'd had excellent bourbon at the Ritz a few nights earlier, the Angel's Envy. She not only was familiar with it - I don't think it's obscure - but described the three variations they had here, including the one I emotionally imprinted on, finished in sherry wine barrels, making it pretty fruit forward. It is pretty ridiculous how much money we spent on the Old Fashioned featuring that specific bourbon (I think it was honestly like $65, but it WAS a mini vacation), but it was literally the best one I've ever had. You really could tell how excellent this bourbon was. After we had that, my chum asked for a cheaper variation in the $20 range, and the bartender was immediately able to pivot on that front and gave us some detailed, informed recommendations. Really good, memorable stuff there.

Honestly the only area and obvious need for improvement was the food options. These by definition are going to be boozier drinks, so I think you should have an arsenal of legit apps/entrees to sample and keep the night from getting too out of hand. We'd had a very big lunch a few hours earlier so there wasn't a red alarm, blaring need in that regard, but we did get some truffle fries to munch on. Eh. On the soggy side and the truffle seasoning barely saved them. These weren't explicitly referenced on the menu, which is a point worth making (my chum felt confident that with the amount we paid for that Angel's Envy cocktail she could get them to make anything, which turned out to be a pretty fair assessment). So the counter is they weren't prepared to make this at a high level but if that's the case, I just wouldn't make it all. It's going to be difficult for the food to match the bourbon, but it should be a closer race than this.

Awesome stop; felt like the powers that be wanted us to get in here...

Inside the bar is really cool, received great service from the bar tender and generally had a great time while visiting from the UK. However, the problems started after I returned home.

I visited Jack Rose on the 17th February with two friends, we enjoyed our cocktails and I opened the tab with my debit card. Upon finishing our drinks, I opted to pay in cash and closed the tab with cash with a signed receipt for both the Merchant and myself. Upon returning home (around the end of February), Jack Rose took two transactions off my card (the one I opened the tab with), one was pending and one was completed (essentially paying 3 times for 3 drinks totally around £150). I tried to contact Jack Rose by phone, nobody answered. I couldn't leave a message. I messaged on Instagram which has still gone unread (I was later advised that they don't receive their instagram messages). I then emailed them to which I didnt receive a response and brought up a charge back action through my bank for the extra charges. I got my friend who lives in DC to call them as I was unsure if it was because I was calling from a UK mobile that was the issue, she spoke to somebody who told her that emails are answered within 24 hours.

I sent a follow up email on the 16th March to which was responded by Melody, she apologised for the double charge but then said that I hadn't worked out the time difference and that's why they weren't picking up? Totally not true as I had made sure to call at 10pm UK time. She advised me as I had started charge back proceedings she couldn't refund the difference to me - totally understandable as they have their own procedures.

I responded back to Melody on the 17th March explaining that as I no longer had the receipt for my drinks (I didn't think to keep it because weirdly enough, this would never happen in the UK? Or there would be much clearer recourse of action...I digress). I explained to Melody this issue, told her the time my friends and I were there and asked her to please check the CCTV so that she could see that I had paid by cash, as I had signed a merchant copy of the receipt, please could she take a photo of it and send it to me - it has my signature after all so I could pass it along to my bank so that I could have evidence for the charge back.

I received no response to this email at all. The pending charge has come back into my account but I have still paid twice for drinks I had once (once in cash, once by card after returning to the UK), so have paid £100+ for 3 drinks.

I am not sure whether their book keeping is wrong or this has been a serious communication issue but this has seriously burned me from trusting Jack Rose and will not be returning the next time I am in DC.

Until now, I have received no response from Jack Rose and even though the issue has been admitted, they have done nothing to try and rectify the situation, either through the bank or through messaging me a copy of my receipt which proves cash was paid for my tab. It's very worrying.

Please find attached photos that prove I actually was in the bar. Hopefully this doesn't happen to anybody else in the future, its a shame because we were really excited to be there especially as one of our party really enjoys whiskey and was excited to show...

Please take my review with a grain of salt because this was one bad experience out of many great memories I’ve had at Jack Rose. Last night started great - seated at the end of the bar with two other friends. One gentleman pulled a tasty whiskey and went on to help others, and when it came time for us to buy two more glasses, there weren’t any bartenders at our end of the very long bar. I raised my hand. A hefty bartender with a beard and ponytail came down and gave me a high five, but he didn’t ask me why my hand was raised. When I inquired, he said I don’t answer to people waiving their hands in my face. 1) I was trying to signal the out original bartender and 2) I didn’t waive anyone down - I’ve worked in restaurant service and I find that to be unnecessary. I asked what do you prefer on a busy night, when no one is around. He said, “eye contact”. I said, “I don’t have my glasses on - I can’t see distance at all, so I can’t do that”. While I was trying to explain no one is is trying to be rude, we just wanted two more glasses, he cuts in to say, “I get paid either way”. And he walks away. To the staff’s credit, another bartender walked over, and I did try to explain why we were leaving and why I was confused and upset, but I was flustered and so exhausted by the exchange that I gave up. I’m just disappointed and sad because I had one of the best bar experiences there due to the staff and creativity of the bartenders making drinks off menu, then during the pandemic my friends and I supported Jack Rose (and many other places), and upon returning to DC for school, giving me the opportunity to visit my favorite places and excited to share it with friends, this is what happens.

The takeaway - no one should assume that there is someone trying to be rude. No one should assume their idea of trying to signal for assistance is the only way. It was incredibly annoying to have some random man tell me that I NEED to make eye contact with him (at the other end of a easily 30ft bar) to order two more drinks, and I can’t even make eye contact with someone who is two seats away. Horrible end to what was a fun evening. Special thank you to the man with another beard that came up and try to fix it; sorry I couldn’t get past the moment and continue to...