Whiskey Jacks Saloon

Hmmm whiskeys idk. Can a bar be considered obnoxious? Still salty for dropping 34 $ at 50cent beer night. Whatever. This place is the melting pot of state st. Sloshed college students flock to make fools of themselves on sweaty dance floor (guilty). Overly confident guys flock to ride the mechanic bull and end up pulling a muscle. Middle aged weirdo dudes flock to shoot pool and creep on smokes. U better be lit like a homeless man on four lokos if you expect to have a good night at whiskeys
Edit: Haley is the best bartender there. Never had a better bartender in my life. You should give her a promotion.

They have to water down their drinks!!! I’ve been several times and always leave more sober than when I walked in. So if you like over priced water this is the place to be! It literally smells from the stench of nasty men who will try to make out with you on the dance floor. Seriously, men try to stick their tongue in my mouth every single time. They come up behind me on the dance floor. Go anywhere else!!!

This bar deserves 0 stars. My first and only time going to this place was a horrible experience. All was fine until my boyfriend was pushed off the dance stage by Whiskey Jack’s security, proceeded to fall flat on his face and spill his drink entirely on himself. Obviously embarrassed, and luckily not hurt (for Whiskey Jack’s sake), him and I left having not finished our drinks.
Within the next few days I attempted to communicate through Facebook involving the injustice I believe to have happened, including a post explaining the situation in its entirety. Whiskey Jack’s simply deleted my comment on their page with no apology or message of any kind. What complete disrespect from a business! Also being in contact with the police regarding the incident, we later learned Whiskey Jack’s has a strict «female-​only on the dance stage» rule. Bull-$hit. I’m a male and I wasn’t forced off the stage.
If you’re looking for a bar that treats you like a money-​spending customer should be treated, this bar is the furthest from it. I still wouldn’t step foot in the place and even to this day tell everyone this story. Word of mouth can help you or hurt you, and Whiskey Jack’s shows this as I never hear anything good about this dump.
Wouldn’t recommend it, my money is better spent elsewhere, and I don’t need an establishment to tell me who can go on a stage and who cannot when everyone is out to have a good time. Shame on Whiskey Jack’s.

Place is huge but I’m not entirely sure about the integrity of the bartenders. When I looked online at my bank statement I was overcharged by a couple dollars. I called about it and was told someone would get back to me, they didn’t. Called again, same deal. If you do go here don’t use a card.

The bar is okay with pool tables, dj, and live music; however the owner, and staff really should change their attitude about how they treat customers! For example, insulting paying customers, and being rude to them shouldn’t be tolerated! Hey Josh, get this through your fucking head you, I have no interest in talking with you!!! Your a moron owner pushing one of the last legal drugs! I have two professional degrees from uw Madison, I have a real job, so shut up you idiot, we the customers put money in your wallet!

I mean, if, like most of the crowd here, you’re just or not-​quite legal, and you don’t mind getting panhandled while you drink, and you have shitty taste in music, and you like your shots to have six ingredients, and you’re just going to go with it on the fact the bar you hang out in is a black hole, and you’ve never been to any other better bar, and… well, and a lot of things, I could see this maybe being three stars. In other words, this might be just fine if you are an undergraduate student at the University of Wisconsin. I must admit that I had fun getting in the wayback machine and debating with/​lecturing to kids 20 years my junior on how to make flaming shot cocktails. I see that vomit-​tinged college pub culture hasn’t changed much since 1995.
So, it isn’t like I didn’t know what I was getting into here; it’s just that Wisconsin’s bizarrely early 9pm carryout deadline (that I missed) for getting beer and going back to my room forced me to go somewhere to quench my thirst, and Whiskey Jack’s happened to be the first thing I stumbled across. And they do, in fairness, have a pretty good beer selection and, like college bars nearly everywhere in the Midwest, specials that seem to be sold below wholesale. Three dollar PBR pitchers on Tuesday?! No, I’d never go back, but I’m not really sorry that I went, either.

We went there during the day to start off our adventure. The bartender was excellent. Yes we were the only ones there but he was able to do his opening work and hold a conversation.
Large selection of alcohol.
Larger selection of whiskey.
A huge list of shots. Seriously, its huge.
Decent prices
Dart bored
Right on state.

I had a really awful experience while visiting Whiskey Jack’s. I am Canadian and after waiting 30 minutes in line to see the bouncer and was not allowed with my Canadian drivers license due to the fact it was an international form of ID, something I have never heard of before. When I asked what forms they do accept the bouncer stated passports. WHY WOULD ANY INTERNATIONAL TRAVELLER RISK LOOSING THEIR PASSPORT (and on top of that my visa allowing me to go to school in the states) TO GET INTO A BAR? Such a ridiculous waste of my time and awful customer service by the bouncer.

Oh how I wished I would’ve read reviews before the girls and I picked this place. Idk maybe I looked like I wanted to be grinded on (at least buy me a drink). After 45 mins we left, too many creepy guys and the music kinda sucked *maybe I’m just getting old lol

Great place for young 21 yr olds who want to pass out from drinking too many fruity hangover inducing shots.

Walked in around 11am after the Shamrock shuffle to get a drink and warm up. It was pretty clean and very big with a large beer selection. We got Bloody Mary and a fuzzy navel to start and switched to green beer. I can’t comment what it is like at night but I’d be happy to go there again during the afternoon on a weekend for a drink. The bartender was alone and busy but did ok.

Seriously the most racist bar in town. They have a «dress code» and also I was called a «bitch» by a bouncer for helping out my friend who had a bit too many. When I confronted the bouncer he said that one customer’s opinion doesn’t matter and that he wouldn’t care if I came back or not. Absolutely trashy and ignorant bar. do not ever go here unless you wanna hook up with a sloppy drunk or get harassed by the employees.

Totally a college scene. Crowded, fun dancing, next to qdoba to satisfy your late night drinking munchies. The shots menu is posted on the wall over their bar so you can see what goes into the delicious shooters (note– you have to order at least 2). Music was not bad when I went on a Saturday night.
Don’t wear anything too nice, as someone will probably spill a drink or two on you.

Creeps on creeps on creeps.
Whiskey Jacks (or Whiskey River if you refuse to acknowledge the change like myself) is a great bar in concept. It’s big open space that can literally accommodate hundreds of people, and yet there is usually still a line if you get here past 11:30. They have two bars along the right and left walls so your line to the tapper shouldn’t be very long. If you are into games at the bar they have quite a few billiard tables, darts and even some basketball hoops games. They do have a dress code (essentially you can’t be wearing workout attire) which helps limit the creeps in the summer — they usually travel in hordes and one of them has to mess up, but in the winter everyone’s so bundled up that anything goes.
The dance area is the best (if not the only real dance floor) on campus, and they have live music or a DJ every weekend. If you’re here during live music you are bound to have a ton of fun, apparently a pop country sing along is not the scene for a creep. You’re in the clear until after the last set when the DJ takes over, then ladies you gotta watch your back (no really, that’s where they come from, try to make it as inaccessible as possible). There are lots of cute guys here, make sure you pick one to dance with, don’t get prayed on. If you do, you’re going to turn around to a mustached Adidas tank top that smells intensely of Indian food or body odor, you won’t be able to tell which.
You can have a great time at Whiskey Jacks, just make sure you go in with a big group, your big strong boyfriend or incredibly low standards.

I rode a mechanical bull for the first time, so there’s that — otherwise the music was too loud and I almost lost my voice from trying to have an actual conversation with people. Of course, there was also karaōke, and a group of folks who went on stage and totally nailed Outkast. It was amazing, and I shook it like a Polaroid picture. So yes, a good night, but that was because the place was reserved for us and QDoba was catering. Dancing to karaōke is a whole experience of its own.

Ok people, seriously?
You’re in a college town filled with young people, and you go to a college bar, obviously you’ll meet some creeps.
There’s no reason why this place should lose out on points for living up to that stereotype.
This place is spacious, so you’ll have room for all of your «bump & grind» and whatever it is that young kids (LOL) do these days.
The drinks are strong and cheap, which definitely seems to be a trend in Madison.
The only problem I had with this place was the sticky floors and the clientele.
There’s nothing wrong with getting trashed and having some fun, but most people here are a bit too drunk. Expect to be bumped into a lot, mostly by obnoxious bros who don’t have sorry in their vocabulary.

This a perfectly fine place to stop for a cold brew on a sweltering day. It seems funny that such a cavernous place could be so empty, but I guess it’s the night crowd they’re after… and based on previous reviews, I’ll avoid that like the plague. My only complaint is that the floor is so sticky in places that I literally lost a flip-​flop. However, with its window bar seating, this is now tied for Irish Pub for best people watching spot.

If you want cheap drinks and to get creeped on, go here.
This is the typical trashy college bar– each campus has one, the place no one goes unless they are blacked out. Pretty sure this is it.
Came here 1AM on a Saturday night– still wasn’t blacked out enough to be here.
The crowd is not the classiest, and this was just a gross place all around.

Whiskey Jacks Saloon is good at providing three things here in Madison: enough space to support 3+ bachelorette parties at a time, men who enjoy ogling at the members of 3+ bachelorette parties in hopes a stray will separate from the pack, and cover bands that will transition seamlessly from «Mr. Jones» to «Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy». If any of those three things are appealing to you, then you’ve stumbled upon a gold mine, my friend. Personally, it’s not my everyday cup o’ tea but that doesn’t mean I haven’t found myself waiting in line to get in after a long night out with the girlfriends. All you need is one of them to yell out, «I just wanna dance» to know you’re either in for somebody pulling up a YouTube clip of Dane Cook on their smartphone or a cover-​free trip to Whiskey Jacks. At that point, I’m usually only intoxicated enough to tolerate the latter.
One of my last trips to WJ lead me out onto the dance floor where I watched a gentleman make his way through the swaying crowd with a glass of wine held above his head. A young lady inevitably collided with him, causing the glass to fall to the floor. The wine glass maintained it’s shape (plastic is a miracle material) but the wine was not so lucky and the man cried out, «Damnit! Not again!» Hello, hilarity and a few takeaways:
1. A place named «Whiskey Jacks Saloon» is going to disappoint you if you go there for the whiskey, let alone a glass of wine.
2. Never underestimate the breadth of movement people are capable of when Hootie & the Blowfish makes it into a live band’s repertoire.
3. If you’re a straight, single man, getting upset at one of the 10 girls in a crowd of 50 guys means you’ll probably only be going home with a souvenir plastic wine glass at the end of the night.
Service and drinks are sub-​par. Atmosphere is cheesy. Maintain reasonable expectations or move along, cowboy.

Went to Whiskey Jacks recently, I had been here a few times before and had hoped for a better experience… Well that didn’t happen.
My better half and I get there about 945 after stopping at a few places on State Street like Mondays & The Tiki Bar. Walked into WJ and ordered some drinks. 1^st drink was a blue uv with well sprite because WJ doesn’t carry Mt. Dew, great guys what a start… That will be $ 5.00. Wait your charging $ 5.00 for that drink that I just paid $ 4.00 for at the Tiki Bar and $ 3.00 at Mondays and both those places served it with Mt. Dew. What a joke. The place smelled like bleach and Pine Sol inside. The floors were sticky. Not my scene.
About an hour later the cops show up and have 3 individuals detained. Great lets slow everyone down. The bouncers looked less than excited to be dealing with these idiots who had a few too many.
A tip to WJ owners, Please offer some food, bring your drink prices down a little. Offer a wide variety of drinks and stop with the nasty smelling bar and I may come back.