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Whiskey House- Ankeny

HogueNation

HogueNation

Active Member
Nov 15, 2016
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Bartender was 7 shades of ****** up when we were in there this past weekend. Horrible service and very overpriced for the quality of food. Whiskey was good but also overpriced imo. I give it less than 6 months .
 
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It's always been pretty busy when we were there, but I don't know how long that will last, especially with all the choices close by.
 
brianhos said:
It's always been pretty busy when we were there, but I don't know how long that will last, especially with all the choices close by.
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It's busy but I feel like the novelty is starting to wear off pretty quickly. It is awfully close to the highest turnover bar/restaurant in all of Ankeny and that's the pancake place. Can't honestly count how many different places have been in that spot in the last 10 years. I also heard a rumor recently that Whiskey House was suppose to be Whiskey Dixx but that idea got shot down because the proximity to schools nearby. Whiskey River seems to be doing quite well, glad to hear they are going away from the whole sharing tables philosophy with 20 different servers. No wonder they are continually getting accused of messing up tabs.
 
It took them over a year and a half to open, I heard about it a month before I moved to ankeny in June of 2015 an\d it didnt open until Late fall this past year? I moved to des moines and i have no desire to drive to ankeny to try the place. Ankeny is just not a place where people go to drink and that is why it will fail.
 
clonefreek said:
It took them over a year and a half to open, I heard about it a month before I moved to ankeny in June of 2015 an\d it didnt open until Late fall this past year? I moved to des moines and i have no desire to drive to ankeny to try the place. Ankeny is just not a place where people go to drink and that is why it will fail.
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You're wrong about people not going out drinking in Ankeny. The area around Jethro's/Whiskey River/ Fong's has turned into a nice little area for nightlife. I would agree that people not from Ankeny don't come to Ankeny but more and more Ankeny folks are staying in town now that there's more than 1 uber available on Thur/Fri/Sat.
 
HogueNation said:
You're wrong about people not going out drinking in Ankeny. The area around Jethro's/Whiskey River/ Fong's has turned into a nice little area for nightlife. I would agree that people not from Ankeny don't come to Ankeny but more and more Ankeny folks are staying in town now that there's more than 1 uber available on Thur/Fri/Sat.
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I think he meant people don't generally go to Ankeny to drink...yes, if you're already there, you might.

I think the point is drawing power.

We all know that downtown draws from all corners of the metro. West Glen gets business from more than just West Des Moines.

Generally (for emphasis) , people aren’t saying – hey, let’s load up and head to Ankeny to go out drinking. That said, Prairie Trail area might be able to change that a bit, but it will take some serious drawing power to give people reason to drive there. It isn't nearly as accessible as West Glen or downtown for those coming from Des Moines or the western suburbs.
 
capitalcityguy said:
I think he meant people don't generally go to Ankeny to drink...yes, if you're already there, you might.

I think the point is drawing power.

We all know that downtown draws from all corners of the metro. West Glen gets business from more than just West Des Moines.

Generally (for emphasis) , people aren’t saying – hey, let’s load up and head to Ankeny to go out drinking. That said, Prairie Trail area might be able to change that a bit, but it will take some serious drawing power to give people reason to drive there. It isn't nearly as accessible as West Glen or downtown for those coming from Des Moines or the western suburbs.
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Exactly, that is what I meant. No one from any other suburb is going to head up to ankeny to drink over going downtown or to west glenn. That area would really have to step it up for people to go up there. Same goes for restaurants, I lived there for a year and I cant say there is a single place in ankeny that I would say has out standing food. Granted I have not tried The Fletcher or district 36 but I havent heard much about them either.
 
As a big fan of whiskey I had been anxiously waiting the 1.5 years it took to open. Call me underwhelmed. Food was meh. Selection of whiskey was pretty good, but holy hell the markup was crazy. Service was less than great. Took forever to get the food, and when they brought it out they informed one of the people at our table they had actually ran out of what they ordered. So if they wanted something, they'd have to put in a different order. Not sure I'd go back.
 
You don't need to be good enough to get West Des Moines residents to travel to Ankeny. You just have to be good enough that Ankeny people don't leave to go downtown. There are plenty of Ankeny residents to make local restaurants and bars successful, if they get residents to stick around.

I would say it's possible to get Bondurant residents to drive into Ankeny for a bite and a few drinks though. That community is blowing up fast and doesn't have enough night life to accommodate the population.
 
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Tri4Cy said:
As a big fan of whiskey I had been anxiously waiting the 1.5 years it took to open. Call me underwhelmed. Food was meh. Selection of whiskey was pretty good, but holy hell the markup was crazy. Service was less than great. Took forever to get the food, and when they brought it out they informed one of the people at our table they had actually ran out of what they ordered. So if they wanted something, they'd have to put in a different order. Not sure I'd go back.
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Sounds like ownership just wants to make a quick profit off of the recent Whiskey craze in Iowa. Hoping their high priced booze makes them enough profit to cover up their lackluster service and food.
 
I've been there twice and enjoyed it each time. I agree that the whiskey is generally overpriced, but the food was good both times. It's allure (for me) is in its selection. There are simply world whiskeys there that I cannot get a pour of anywhere else, and spending $12 to try one still beats searching out a full bottle and dropping $100
 
Unless you can draw from other parts of metro, offerings will remain underwhelming in Ankeny. Bedroom communities aren’t built for it. You already have the realization of demographics working against it – overwhelming # of young families with kids who aren’t looking for night out spots….or don’t have extra income to spend on entertainment if isn’t family friendly.

I always scratch my head when I hear people move to Ankeny and then complain it is nothing but chain restaurants and that it lacks nightlife. Yeah…that is what you bought into…and it works for the vast majority of people that live there. If you wanted otherwise, then Ankeny was probably not the right choice (although I enjoyed living there for a time for the simple reason that access to Ames was so close).
 
ILiftWithRoyce said:
I've been there twice and enjoyed it each time. I agree that the whiskey is generally overpriced, but the food was good both times. It's allure (for me) is in its selection. There are simply world whiskeys there that I cannot get a pour of anywhere else, and spending $12 to try one still beats searching out a full bottle and dropping $100
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I always thought the Royal Mile selection couldn't be beat. Maybe that is more scotch? (not exactly my area of expertise)
 
I live in Ankeny and wasn't all that impressed with it either. For cocktails The Continental and Juniper do it better.
Whiskey River should do just fine because of the banquet area.
 
Omaha had a high end whiskey establishment called Grane that recently closed it's doors. Between the owners mismanaging that and their other establishment (Brix) it isn't surprising. I think the cheapest drink at Grane was about $9.50 and anywhere up to over $300.
While there are people with money I just don't see there being enough demand for such a high priced place. How many people are there that are going to go out and drop a few hundred dollars on a couple of drinks on a regular basis.
 
5 years ago I would go downtown 30 times for every 1 time I'd head to Ankeny. With all the crap parking and construction downtown, I'd say I head to Ankeny about 25% of the time now. Fongs happy hour is amazing.
 
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Cyclones_R_GR8 said:
Omaha had a high end whiskey establishment called Grane that recently closed it's doors. Between the owners mismanaging that and their other establishment (Brix) it isn't surprising. I think the cheapest drink at Grane was about $9.50 and anywhere up to over $300.
While there are people with money I just don't see there being enough demand for such a high priced place. How many people are there that are going to go out and drop a few hundred dollars on a couple of drinks on a regular basis.
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Maybe they should advertise on CF, since our users only buy houses and cars with straight cash. We can afford these places!

Sidenote: I always hated Brix when i was in Omaha. Mainly because our department had too many gift cards for there so every outing would be hosted there and their food choices are terrible. Good beer/wine selection though.
 
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