Jack's Restaurant and Bar, Washington, D.C.

Last night my friend Mark called out of the blue and said he was in the mood to drive in to town and go to dinner. That's kind of unusual, since he lives on the Virginia outer fringes of the metropolitan area, and it's quite a trek to and from his place. I was in the middle of stewing a chicken for dinner, but that was easily enough put aside for other creations using cold chicken instead of hot, and I got cleaned up and dressed to join him.

Well, D.C. being D.C., we drove and drove and circled and circled to find a parking place, ending up about half a mile from our intended destination (for those of you readers not in the city, that is considered "good"). Our plan for sushi fell through, though, since we found a line at the restaurant running all the way down the stairs; I checked with the maitre d' and he said the wait for a table for two was at least an hour.

So, we went down the street, and found a place neither of us had previously been, at least in this year's declension, a place that once was Pepper's and then Le Pigalle and now it is known as Jack's Restaurant and Bar. The new name is deceptive. "Jack's" evokes a casual, diner-type establishment in my mind, but this new place would be suited to a much more pretentious name, as it's more bistro than diner.

The place was bustling. While the patrons included typical 17th Street denizens, there were also tables full of families with children. Some people were casually attired. Some people were dressed up. Some people were in club clothes. The waiters were all in black trousers and tight black t-shirts, giving the place a little cosmopolitan flair.

We started with cocktails. Mark had some big martini called a "double espresso" that included Van Gogh double espresso vodka, vanilla, Kahlua, and white chocolate Godiva liqueur. That drink cost more than my entrée!

They had rye in the bar, so I had a manhattan. The manhattan felt a little "thin" on the tongue, so I suspect that the bartender fixed a perfect manhattan (with half sweet vermouth and half dry vermouth) instead of a classic manhattan (just sweet vermouth). That wasn't necessarily a problem; he just went to more trouble to add the third ingredient, though I probably would have preferred the classic recipe.

When it came time to eat, Mark picked the roasted free range chicken breast topped with prosciutto ham and mozzarella cheese served on a bed of mashed potatoes and covered with a ruby red marsala wine sauce. I have to confess that when it came out, both of us looked a little shocked. It looked somewhat less than appetizing. I was thinking bloody, uncooked chicken and he was thinking other unmentionable things. Between the color of the wine sauce and the little bits of wine-colored shallot that resembled blood clots, we weren't really sure what to think. But, once he finally brought himself to sample it, he reported that it tasted much much better than it looked.


My meal was safer. I had a steak and Pommery salad with nice slices of medium rare steak tossed in a light, mild Pommery mustard sauce on a bed of European-style assorted bitter greens. It was very good, and my only suggestion would have been to add just a bit more of the greens to the plate. And, I'm not sure if it was an oversight, but we never got any bread or crackers with our meal, and those would have been a nice balance to the salad (plus, there were bottles of olive oil on the table, presumptively as a bread dip).


Mark wasn't really in a dessert mood (with that big, sweet cocktail, I wouldn't have been, either!), but I was intrigued by a couple of things on the dessert menu. I ordered the "sweet potatoes and cheese," not really knowing exactly what it was I would get. When it arrived, it was a beautiful, narrow, rectangular dish with thin strips of candied sweet potato on one end, strips of quince jelly on the other, slices of fontina cheese by sliced fresh strawberries in middle, and all the fruits drizzled with a bit of chocolate syrup and dusted with confectioner's sugar. Not only was it different, it was actually all quite good!


Jack's seems to be a hit on 17th Street. I hope it has better luck than did its predecessors. Service was good, food tasted good, and the menu has quite a number of things I'd like to try, so I'm looking forward to a return visit.