I had a Gilt City coupon for two pizzas, two cocktails, and six oysters at Black Jack, so I invited Carol W out on a Tuesday night date for dinner. We'd only been to Black Jack for drinks, which we both enjoyed, so we were looking forward to the full Black Jack experience. We weren't disappointed.
We got to Black Jack a little after 5 pm so the place was largely empty. Rather than sit at a table, we opted for the bar. While looking over the food menu, we opened up with cocktails. I had the Sassafras made with Bowmore Single Malt Scotch, Clear Creek Kirschwasser, Black Burch Gomme, and smoked cherry ice. It was complex, boozy, sweet, but not overdone, and smoky aided by the essence of smoke slowly released by the ice melting in the drink. It was an exquisite drink and reminded me of the "Smokin' Cherry" I had at RN74 in Seattle. http://www.yelp.com/biz/rn74-seattle#hrid:GU-TeXVsyWDh_dWRwnPFmg/src:self
For our six oysters, we chose to have three Pacific Orchards from British Columbia, and three Naked Roys from Washington State. Since it was happy hour, we decided to also get the happy hour priced Chesapeake raised Barcats. All of the oysters were fresh, clean, and juicy! A quartet of sauces, a cocktail sauce, mignonette, yuzu-mirin, and their signature "Dive Juice" accompanied the oysters. I love Pacific oysters as I love their briny but clean, sharp flavor. That said, the local Barcats were nicely creamy and delicious, too! While the oysters went great with the sauces, they were perfect au naturale. For our pizzas, we had the Kennett Square Mushroom topped with mushrooms, mozzarella, truffle essence, and rosemary; and the Pie of the Day, which was all-meat pie with prosciutto, soppressata, and a couple of other cured Italian meats. While definitely possessing contrasting flavor profiles, both pies were satisfying, although I wish the thin crust would've been a bit crispier and perhaps charred ever so slightly. On this day, the Kennett Square was our favorite pizza. I closed out the meal with their Sazerac made with Rittenhouse Rye, Kubler Absinthe, Peychaud's Bitters, Lemon Gomme. It made for a happy ending!
Black Jack does fresh oysters and elevated bar food extremely well. Black Jack does cocktails extremely well. Black Jack is a very cool space. While it may not be the best place in each category (well, perhaps the Pearl Dive/Black Jack combo is the best place for oysters in town), Black Jack is a triple threat and certainly has to be in the discussion as the best overall bar/restaurant in DC. read more