Inside Jane Jane, a New Bar on 14th Street That Channels a Throwback Cocktail Party

A cozy new cocktail bar opens in Logan Circle this week with a short menu of home-style party snacks and a throwback design that capture the feeling of a loving mother’s living room. Jane Jane will start accepting customers at 1705 14th Street NW on Thursday, August 26.

Jean Paul Sabatier, a culinary school grad who formerly managed Rappahannock Oyster Bar, Maydan, and Compass Rose, is in charge of the food and drinks. Sabatier, who goes by “JP,” is a co-owner alongside Ralph Brabham and Drew Porterfield, a married couple who owns Shaw staple Beau Thai and BKK Cookshop.

Located in an 850-square-foot space in the mixed-use Liz development, Jane Jane organizes its cocktail menu by spirit, listing classics like gin-based Negronis and martinis next to lesser-known drinks like an Air Mail, built with aged rum, honey syrup, lemon juice, Angostura bitters, and cava. A rotating section of seasonal cocktails includes a Pink Corvair made with vodka, Curacao, homemade grenadine, and lemon juice. A handful of craft beers, nonalcoholic cocktails, and wines from Europe, South Africa, and Oregon are also available.

Rey Lopez/Eater D.C.

The bar’s short menu of finger foods lean “salty, crunchy, savory,” Sabatier says. That includes a bowl of mixed nuts spiced with rosemary and cayenne. Both a caramelized onion dip and Jane’s Caviar (trout roe and creme fraiche) come with potato chips. A gouda and sharp cheddar pimento cheese, served with club crackers, is a nod to Brabham and Porterfield’s North Carolina roots. The owners plan to add a weekend brunch in October that will bring in pastries and quiche from Shaw’s Buttercream Bakeshop.

Jane Jane is a reference to Brabham’s mother’s nickname. “She is just a super outgoing, friendly, life-of-the-party type of lady,” he says. “She loves to have people over at her house and can entertain at the drop of a dime.”

Rey Lopez/Eater D.C.

The new bar is a natural extension of Dot’s Spot, a Southern brunch pop-up the Jane Jane partners put together at BKK in 2017. The three friends wanted to create a bar that matched the intimate feel of the small space. “We just want it to be a spot that echoes what we value in hospitality, which is that personal touch and making everyone feel celebrated and part of a little cocktail moment,” Brabham says.

Design firm Edit Lab at Streetsense aimed to create a welcoming feel with lots of honey-colored wood and a plaid mosaic tile pattern that runs across the floor and up the front of the bar. Brabham likens the bar to a “rumpus room in someone’s house from back in the day.”

Rey Lopez/Eater D.C.

Sabatier hopes Jane Jane will play the role of a house party where guests come and go. Customers can stop in to grab a drink or a bite before or after hitting up other places on the bustling restaurant strip. Or he says they could “hodgepodge a meal” of bar snacks, he says.

“I think that in the process of building this bar, we really wanted to make sure that we were adding something to the fabric of 14th Street,” he says. “And I feel like it’s just such a cute place for you to stop by before and after dinner.”

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