My spouse and I dined at BlackFinn Ameripub for lunch on a
Saturday afternoon in mid-February 2018. BlackFinn is open daily for lunch and
dinner from 11:00 am until 2:00 am (with closing hours extended on weekends).
You can book a spot online through the Reserve dot com reservation system.
BlackFinn Ameripub opened in spring 2013 just a few blocks
north of the White House. (We stayed nearby at the Capital Hilton, so BlackFinn
was a convenient place to stop for lunch en route from our tour of the White
House back to the hotel.) Additional BlackFinn venues are located in Ashburn
and Merrifield (Virginia), Charlotte and Wilmington (North Carolina), and
Chicago (Illinois). If you sign up for their “Finn Club” to receive emails
about restaurant happenings, they’ll send you a coupon for a free appetizer.
BlackFinn occupies the street level of an office building.
The interior space is divided into two areas: the bar and the dining room. The
bar offers a long wood bar, with high-top tables and booths adjacent; the bar
space is L-shaped, so additional tables and booths are in the rear behind the
dining room. The main dining space offers table and both seating. In appropriate
weather, you can dine outdoors on their sidewalk patio. The restaurant interior
offers an upscale sports bar feel.
BlackFinn offers American pub cuisine. We ordered one burger
and one chicken sandwich (both served with fries), then shared the “Hot Chocolate” for dessert, a molten chocolate cake filled with peanut
butter and served in a huge mug. (We see a lot of hot chocolate lava cake
desserts, but BlackFinn’s spin on the dessert is more fun and delicious.) Our
only issue occurred when we ordered a cocktail called “El Burro”, but
received a glass of red wine coincidentally named “El Burro”. As the customer, I
was made to feel that this was my error; however, I feel that it was the
bartender’s responsibility to question whether I wanted the cocktail or the wine.
The establishment did not charge us for the mistake, but neither did they
verbally absolve us from the erroneous pour. The El Burro cocktail was
purported to contain sliced jalapenos; when we couldn’t see any in the glass,
we questioned our bartender, and another bartender who overheard our question
replied that the jalapeno was muddled, which was why we couldn’t see it. (As to
why we couldn’t taste it, well, that’s another question!)
We enjoyed the food at BlackFinn
Ameripub, but the drinks left a little to be desired.
