Jack Rose owner opens throwback rooftop bar with $10 cocktails
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Carla channels throwback AdMo nights with wallet-friendly drinks, music and a smoking rooftop. Photo: Courtesy Carla
If you were knocking around Adams Morgan in the early 2000s, $40 could buy a pretty good night out — drinks, food, music, maybe even a taxi, depending on your zone.
- Now that sounds like a fantasy. It's also the inspiration for Carla, a new rooftop bar opening Thursday.
Why it matters: Jack Rose owner Bill Thomas and partner John Roberts are trying to recapture the low-key, affordable energy of their early D.C. bar days — with $10 happy hour cocktails, live tunes and a rooftop where you can smoke a cigar.
- "Maybe it's a Gen-X pipe dream, but it's fun looking back," Thomas tells Axios.
The backstory: Thomas has been part of Adams Morgan nightlife since opening Blue Room in the late '90s, followed by Bourbon and, eventually, whiskey mecca Jack Rose. Roberts helped build the legendary 18th Street Lounge.
Catch up quick: Carla takes over the former Imperial, the ambitious cocktail and raw bar Thomas spent years building before it opened on the eve of the pandemic, and which he separated from nearly two years ago.
- Now he's reviving the prime corner of 18th and Florida with a much simpler proposition: No reservations. No $65 plateaus. Yes lychee martinis and throwback electronica.
The vibe: Think old-school AdMo with nicer furniture. The multi-floor space has two open-air roof decks, including a lounge area where you can sip whiskey, smoke a stogie and watch a game.
To drink: Cocktails include that early-aughts lychee martini for $13 — $10 at happy hour — plus spritzes, beer, wine and N/A options.
- Thomas reverse-engineered the bar in hopes of getting some drinks as low as $5 with a small selection of spirits and low-maintenance drinks.
To eat: Globetrotting bar snacks range from chips and onion dip and poblano croquetas to berbere chicken skewers, lamb chops and bang bang shrimp bao.
Yes, but: Lower prices don't mean cutting corners. Thomas splurged on what he describes as the Gucci of carbonation machines so Carla can pour a properly fizzy Campari soda for around $8.
- "You don't have to serve a lot; you have to serve it well," he says.
The tunes: Expect an eclectic mix — live tunes, DJs, old vinyl and, when the mood strikes, throwback electronic and drum-and-bass.
What's next: A members-only whiskey and spirits club is planned downstairs next year, giving Thomas somewhere to break out custom barrels and some of the "cool, crazy old stuff" in his massive collection.
And who's Carla? A friend from the old scene who, Thomas says, "loves cocktails, loves food, just embraces everything we love about the city."
If you go: Carla. 2001 18th Street, NW.