Jackson 20 With a Little Help from Kristina

People who know me know I can be overwhelmed with a great service experience. And a great experience doesn't mean it has to be someone who knows more about the food than the chef or that they can wait on six tables at once or that they can be a step ahead of my every wish. The ones I remember have a genuine sense of niceness about them ... service from a nice person in a nice place. That happened tonight at dinner at Jackson 20 in the newly refurbished Hotel Monaco in Alexandria. Our server was so pleasant, so helpful and just downright nice. I was stunned when I asked her a question about the buttermilk fried chicken and she told me it was a favorite since the chicken was so moist on the inside. That's not what threw me for a loop ... it's that after ordering, I asked if she was from the South. She told me where she was from and I couldn't understand her ... she had to repeat it to me three times as I tried to hear the name of a state or city ... she was telling me Bulgaria. "Oh, well you could be from southern Bulgaria" is all I could say. Kristina Ivanova (sorry about the quality of the foto, I wasn't expecting to take a picture so all I had was my iPhone) speaks spectacular English and has been here maybe 18 months. Is it national pride that we are a nation that only speaks English? It's a shame we aren't at least speaking Spanish, but that's another story.

Kristina is here for five years while she goes to school ... but another kicker is that she won the green card in a country lottery. I don't know any other details but a lottery? ... Wow!

Back to the dinner ... Jackson 20 is a pleasant, reasonably priced (say, not hotel pricing, but reasonable local dollars) and very Southern in concept. Cocktails are exceptional ... but it is the wine list that will blow you away for its generous consumer friendly pricing. Twenty wines at $20 with Virginia wines from Barboursville and Lake Anna included. When my wife told me they had Gruet sparkling from New Mexico on the list for $20 ... I said it must be half-bottles. Wrong, we're talking 750 ml.

The side dishes are mighty nice and I had to laugh when I saw my wife eating the Gouda scalloped potatoes and wilted spinach out from under a very nice ribeye steak. They were gone first and then she started on the beef. The sides were exceptional.

Jackson 20 is worth a visit and if you want to embarrass a nice person, ask for Kristina ... her brother and father come tomorrow to visit and she can probably tell you about that ... in perfect English of course.