Jackson's: Mighty Fine, or Just Fine?

Jackson's Mighty Fine Food and Lucky Lounge opened in Reston Town Center last fall and immediately became the area's new meet market/happy hour spot of choice. Just because both the outdoor and indoor bars are jammed, especially Thursday and Friday nights, doesn't a good restaurant make. However, Jackson's is owned by the Great American Restaurant Group, which has brought the Carylyle, Artie's, Sweetwater Tavern, and Coastal Flats, among a few other popular restaurants, to the DC area. They have their formula down pat: good food at fair prices, lively bar scene, peppy, upbeat waitstaff, excellent service.

Even if their food was just eh, I'd go back for the service. It is friendly, happy, quick, eager to please. If you need time, you are left alone. If you need to rush off to the movies, you are expedited right outta there. When, even at white table cloth restaurants the service often lacks, it is refreshing to eat at what is essentially a neighborhood restaurant and be treated like a special guest.

What I don't so much enjoy about Great American Restaurant Group's formula is their apparent disregard for the wine list. It is pedestrian and safe, which ultimately makes it totally boring. Knowing that restaurants often have access to wines that are not available in stores makes it inexcusable to have a wine list loaded down with what you can buy at your local Safeway. If you don't mind drinking something familiar, you'll be happy. If you want to branch out, try their mixed drinks. They're creative, not watered down, and, best of all, made with top shelf liquor as the menu proudly boasts ("No cheap booze!")

Anyway, despite what I perceive as their shortcoming, they are doing something right. I ate their last night with a friend, and for a Monday night, it was really busy.

I've only eaten at Jackson's twice, and shamefully I've had the same meal both times. However, I am a huge fan of the big salad, and Great American Restaurant Group does them right. Their Sesame Crusted Tuna Salad combines avocado, roasted red and yellow beets, and cherry tomatoes on a huge mound of mixed greens dressed in a citrus vinaigrette and flanked by perfectly cooked (that is, rare) slices of tuna drizzled with a cilantro-ginger sauce. Yum. I normally shy away from the big, mercury-laden fish you are always told to avoid when pregnant or nursing. As I am never to be either again, I figure I'm only affecting myself and not someone else's health so what the hey! I'll get it.

My friend had their Roasted Chicken Salad, which was loaded with great stuff. Chunks of roasted chicken, walnuts, apples, avocadoes, bacon, and blue cheese were mounded on spinach and dressed with a Pommery mustard vinaigrette. The garnish was a deviled egg. How retro, how cool, how delicious!

It should be noted that Tom Sietsema did not give Jackson's a very good review in the Washington Post a few weeks ago. He found their sushi to be lacking, and really, it does seem out of place on their menu. He also found the restaurant to be too loud, and boy is it. If the bar is packed and the restaurant is full, you might have to shout to be heard.

The next time I go back, I am having a regular entree and saving room for dessert. Their lemon marshmallow meringue pie sounds divine.