This review will be my first; the place that will pop my “food bloggin” cherry. A place that long ago left me wanting more. However, I was left with mediocre value vs. taste sensation, instead of that watering orgasm in my mouth that I experienced back in the summer of 2014. Let me retract a little before diving into the history and get the obvious out of the way. Jack Rose is known for its libations; their hand made syrups, fresh fruits and quality concoctions are the main attraction. The drinks are awesome, no doubt about that. But, I am not here to write about their spirits. I am here to write about their food.

When I first went to Jack Rose back in August of 2014, I had a great experience. The drinks were phenomenal, the food was great and I felt like this would be a potential bomb.com. However, since then, I have gone to this establishment 4 times and every time I feel like I’m slowly being let down.
This last visit on August 7th, 2015, I felt like the food did not live up to the price. The waitress Alex was great! She was knowledgeable and even tolerated without a flinch my questions of her likes and dislikes. As we were browsing the dirty paper menu on a clipboard, my girl and I decided to get the Charcuterie Platter $18, Bacon Wrapped Dates $7, Organic Meatballs $12, and Cauliflower Crunch $8. First, I need to talk about the menu before I start to rip the overpriced foods. I understand if the menu changes from month to month or season to season. However, I have been here a few times to see that it hasn’t changed. Please laminate them or print out several copies. The soft, worn paper covered in food stains is not appealing.

Dates stuffed with a soft cheese and wrapped in bacon with a balsamic glaze sounds devine, right? This simple yet extravagant appetizer had made such an impact on my pallet that I wanted more. Since then, I have grown to not care for it. They were tough to bite through instead of having a soft, moist, bacon wrapping dripping in balsamic. I honestly felt as if they let it caramelize too long and I was chewing bacon taffy. For 3 dates that are about $2.33 each, you better bring your “A” game homie!

Next on the list was the Charcuterie Platter. This was probably the biggest disappointment of the evening. Last year the dish was full of nuts (walnuts & Almonds) and other fruit compotes along with a good amount of cheeses, prosciutto, grapes, and olives.  This platter however did not have as much but still charged the same price. It left me staring at the platter and waiting to see if the server had another plate behind his back for us. To be honest, for $18 I had really high expectations.  I was shocked at the little amount of food I received to be considered a platter. A platter generally means a large amount for others to eat from. For a sliver of brie, 2 sliver slices of <insert cheese name here on top right>, 2 sliver slices of <insert cheese name here on bottom left near bread>, some dabs of olive and garlic tapenade, 3 types of meat that only had 4 slices each, along with 3 balsamic reduction dates was not platter-esque at all.

The next dish we had was the organic meatballs. The price was $12 dollars for 5 meatballs which makes it $2.40 ea. The tomato sauce was really good and had great flavors of garlic and parsley in it. They also used parmesean reggiano which is not cheap but added sprinkles not slices. I understand the grass fed meat raises the price a bit, however, at 3-4 ounces of meat, I don’t think justifies the price. Bring that bad boy down to about $8 which leaves it at $1.60 each and I’m ok with getting two plates.

The last thing we ordered was the Cauliflower Crunch. For an insulting $8 dollas, you get “lightly battered” organic cauliflower and a garlic aioli dipping sauce. The sauce was great. If it wasn’t for the menu, I would think this was fried not roasted. The lightly battered was far from lightly battered, the pic shows you it is heavily battered and looks like a dish you would get at a Midwest carnival where they fry snicker pieces.

All in all, I like this place for drinks. For food, I would probably order it if I did not eat something before I went there or if I was starting to get the drunken munchies. Hopefully this place will get back to producing great food for the price they are asking and stop overcharging for mediocre food.