Jack Rose Dining Saloon

Words by Camper English

Address: 2007 18th St NW, Washington D.C. , 20009, United States
Tel: 1+ 202- 588-7388
Website: view Jack Rose Dining Saloon’s website
Style: Cocktail bar

Review

The massive Jack Rose in the Adams Morgan neighborhood contains a stylish whiskey bar and restaurant downstairs, and a deck-like roof-top level party bar upstairs. The rectangular street-level restaurant is a bourbon and Scotch lover's dream, with over 1,400 bottles spanning most of three sides of the room behind the bar up to the ceiling. The bar seating and standing section spans one side of the long room, while booths and two-top tables for diners make up the rest of the space. There is a list of ten each classic and original cocktails, though whiskey (and the 20 beers on tap) are the main emphasis in this room. As is becoming de rigueur in better cocktail bars, there is a cocktail on tap (along with a tap of Willett bourbon), and a stave-aged (rather than barrel-aged) Manhattan that proved to be delicious.

Upstairs, beneath a retractable roof and surrounded with heat lamps, the atmosphere feels more casual and congenial with taller tables, food from a grill, and a five-cocktail menu. It is built for volume service so the amazing whiskey selection of downstairs is nowhere in sight. At either end of the room are balconies, both with views, often reserved for private events, parties, and tastings. Despite the lack of a dancefloor, the venue is known for being quite crowded and clubby at night, with doormen in place to maintain order among the masses. The two levels have separate entrances and maintain independent identities, though both are bustling venues at night.