If you thought Bill Thomas, the owner of Jack Rose Dining Saloon, only prizes whiskey, think again. His first Adams Morgan bar at the bottom of 18th Street NW houses one of the largest collections of whiskeys this side of the globe, at nearly 2,800 bottles and counting (not to mention an even bigger private stock). But at Jack Rose’s sister restaurant The Imperial, which opened next door last week, Thomas has more room to share an equally hefty range of vintage spirits and an amplified focus on Mid-Atlantic dishes with a coastal French twist.

The Imperial is a 5,500-foot metamorphosis five years in the making. Thomas and co-owner Steve King, who designed the three-story restaurant in collaboration with Gronning Architects, combined three historic buildings into one. In a heavily regulated preservation process, they built a 40-seat ground floor dining room, an adjacent raw bar for smoked mussels and oysters, and a rooftop deck with south-facing views of the city. Downstairs, they hollowed 20 feet below ground for a revised iteration of Jack Rose’s cocktail bar Dram & Grain. Each level has a distinct feel and menu, but many of the dishes and spirits will travel between floors.

“We have always looked at Jack Rose as the complete package of drinking experience,” says King. “We wanted to evolve to give what we have to more people, but both concepts hold hands with each other. A lot of people in the city now are looking for a full conversation and education [around spirits] that we pride ourselves on offering, and this platform lets us do that.”

Instead of making liquor the star feature on floor one, former Jack Rose chef Russell Jones—who ran the kitchen to acclaim until 2016—returns to craft seafood towers, housemade pastas, aged sirloin steaks, pistachio crème brulee, and French favorites like a caramelized onion tart with creamy remoulade. His vegetarian background is evident in dishes like butter-poached cauliflower and beet carpaccio with blue cheese mousse.

To go with dinner, sommelier Morgan Kirchner brings in more than 70 natural wines from underrepresented regions like Bolivia and Switzerland, displayed downstairs in a glass “showquarium” cellar. Andy Bixby, the creative beverage director for both restaurants, chose a dozen low-ABV cocktails “built for food pairings” featuring sherries, sakes, and Tokaji wine, he says. Diners can order “cobblered” cocktails, a trend from pre-Prohibition days that mixes fruit and wine or liquor over cobbled ice (a.k.a. ice that’s been crushed into small pebbles). Others are force-carbonated with CO2 using the restaurant’s 16-line draft system. Bixby recommends that “every single person who walks in” try the bubbly gin and tonic with fresh thyme and tarragon.

Though the team wanted to be able to showcase their culinary side in a more prominent way, don’t think spirits take a backseat. Thomas wrote in an email to DCist that The Imperial “carried over our love for vintage spirits” and a “stellar reputation” for cocktails, giving attention to his non-whiskey collection.

Downstairs, Dram & Grain 2.0, as King calls it, has a moodier, speakeasy feel, outfitted with a fireplace and candlelight in contrast to the bay windows and white lacquer upstairs. After a 15-month hiatus, the oft-booked bar (whose accolades include a “best bar in America” title), has tripled its size to hold 75 people.

The shelves display 400-plus spirits Thomas has been sourcing from estate sales and auctions (some with some pretty out-there stories) for more than a decade. Just as at Jack Rose, he says he wants them to be accessible. There are $6 tastes for curious drinkers, vintage pours starting around $15, and pricier items for enthusiasts: pre-embargo Cuban rum, a 1950s Gaston Briand cognac, a French herbal apertif called Amer Picon that isn’t typically available outside of Europe, strange flavors like banana cordial. The rarest bottle is an early 1900s Chartreuse, produced by Carthusian monks in Tarragona, Spain, which goes for $1,500 an ounce. Guests can try these spirits in “Sacred Slaughter” cocktails, in which bartenders crack a rare bottle of something and make it available in a common cocktail.

Though Bixby says many spirits get better with age, bartenders will assess any newly-opened bottle before it’s served to make sure the drink is “showing right,” as he puts it. The bar is waiting on a digital hydrometer to test proofings and will eventually get into the resealing process to keep old bottles fresh.

In addition to drinks from the past, Dram & Grain will also serve a limited food menu from upstairs (prix-fixe tasting will be available in the new year) and a rotating cocktail line-up only available downstairs. Drinks will make use of Bixby’s creativity with add-ins and garnishes, like baked citrus amaro, fortified cinnamon roll vermouth, black peppercorn tonic, strawberry-toasted mustard seed syrup, and smoked cucumber pearls.

If you’re planning a visit, Dram & Grain has both reservation and walk-in sections, while the raw bar upstairs is first-come, first-serve. First-floor dining reservations are open through Resy. In the coming months, The Imperial will roll out lunch and brunch, and once the rooftop bar opens in the spring, the downstairs cocktail menu and casual eats will be available for meals with a view.

“The best part is that we’re getting to interact one on one with the guests as they come in,” says Bixby. “We’re opening these bottles up literally for the first time in 30 to 50 to 60 years. We want people to be able to just enjoy something that’s cool and from a different time.”

The Imperial is located at 2001 18th St. NW. Hours are Monday-Thursday 5 p.m.-10 p.m. and Friday-Saturday 5 p.m.-11 p.m. Dram & Grain hours are Wednesday-Saturday 5 p.m.-close.