Jam Bistro
Jam Bistro sounds like a brunch place, but while it offers a limited brunch menu, its identity is largely forged through an inviting dinner on the popular roof deck. The view is good and atmosphere fun, but the food, well, better to enjoy the view on a pleasant evening. JAM Bistro is like a poorly conceived play with a star or two in the cast, in this case, beef short ribs assuming the leading role, and they are good, but not enough a supporting cast to cause you to return (though the special “fries” menu may tempt you to consider experimenting until you realize Thrashers is only a block away). Brought to you by the folks who own Eden, JAM seems to have an identity crisis – is it a fun brunch / lunch spot, cool evening dining location, or an enjoyable place to find drinks and relaxation? No restaurant can be all things to all people all the time, and remain all that good for all meals, but if location, space, and service all are good, mediocre food is all that is necessary to survive. (N.B.: record-breaker for using the same pronoun in a restaurant review sentence) But restaurants don’t exist just to survive, they are the chef and owners’ tapestry to display delightful (and edible) art, with a hopefully willing audience eager to ingest that art. Sometimes, a piece’s surroundings tempts the buyer, and at JAM Bistro, you might be drawn to the look and feel of a cool dining spot. But with so many other galleries around, get your jam on somewhere else, because JAM Bistro is just another rank-and-file Rehoboth Beach restaurant with a good location, plenty of seasonal foot traffic to fill seats, and nothing too special on the stage. Ahh, back to the Broadway metaphor to describe JAM Bistro, whose closing act suffers from the fact that it doesn’t even have good desserts, err, a good closing tune.