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14th St-7th Aves (1, 2, 3, F, V, L)
14th St-8th Ave (A, C, E, L)
14th Street (PATH)
Mon-Sun. 12:00 p.m. - 4:00 a.m.
you can't miss this place even though it's just a tiny slice of a bar located in the west village...the bright orange neon BAR sign out front beckoned for us as we were walking down greenwich. they have a jukebox that wasn't blaring and was playing a garbage song when we walked in. sorta interesting :) the music continued to be pretty interesting throughout the night with a good mix of old and new.
with one woman manning the bar, service remained speedy and friendly! she kept checking on me to make sure i hadn't changed my mind about not wanting another drink which i found sweet.
the whole bar was decorated for a birthday party with streamers and cute signs and the special shot of the night was birthday cake! now, as tempting and overly sugary as that sounds, i didn't indulge and stuck with my pints of anchor steam :P good bar. good prices. i'd hang out here often if i lived on that side of the country~!
Best. Dive. Ever.
Oh, you're going to sell us beer at closing time so we can maintain the proper start of mind the rest of the night...good by me.
4 Day trip to New York...so good, ended up going here twice.
This place rules. I was meeting a few friends there...walked in on a Thursday night about 6 PM. I asked, any specials? Why, yes we do. $3 Coors Golden, sold. I didn't listen to the rest of the specials. But I heard something about a mixed drink and something about a shot. So a special to be had for everyone.
Nothing fancy going on here, just a good place to grab a drink and be able to speak to whoever you are going with.
This is by far, THE BEST BAR EVER! It's tiny and fun. The drinks are dirt cheap and it attracts a wide variety of NYC characters. It's the only place in Manhattan where you can be sitting next to a model, construction dude, Wall Street tycoon, drag queen, NYU kid, party diva, librarian, and Drew Barrymore at the same time. If you are looking for a down-to-earth REAL NYC bar that promises a good time look no further. The DJ of the night is determined whoever decides to play the jukebox... you'll a variety as unique as the crowd it attracts. From Johnny Cash & Nirvana, to Basement Jaxx & Radiohead.
The bartenders here are superior. They bring a combination of BIG personality, hospitality, and crazy... but they are tough as nails and handle the whole place themselves. Discover this little black hole for yourself. It will suck you in and you will never want to leave. Of course at 4am when the lights come on they'll tell you, "ya don't have to go home but you can't stay here!"
Cool, casual local hangout. Certified douchebag free.
Best part (of any bar, really): happy hour specials all night. $3 shots of the day (yesterday's was rum and orange juice). Beer was normally priced--$3 for a Bud Light and $6 for Stella (on tap).
This bar has potential to be my Cheers.
This is the place to go if you want to be sucked into a conversation about the difference between say, the Chuck Jones Bugs vs. the Clampett Bugs, politics, music or anything else that's on your mind while drinking merrily w/total strangers.
This place has its regulars who will eyeball you for a second, sizing you up for a minute--but they might just include you in a take out order of pizza, sushi or whatever they've ordered from the huge menu of take out places that deliver to this teeny, narrow bar.
I love this place. The drinks are cheap, it's safe to go if you're a single female just needing a cocktail and not wanting the hassle of some jerk molesting you and they have a nice buyback policy that is decent.
It's a nice surprise.
People buy drinks for you even if they don't know ya and the "Buy a Friend a Drink" board has saved me on more than one occasion.
The bartenders are cool and are fairly liberal with the pouring, if you catch me. Oh, they'll cut a sista or brotha off if they need to...I've seen it happen.
But you can't beat the jukebox and the atmosphere. You're there to drink and they're all about accomadating you.
I've never left there before closing.
I've actually been able to sober up before going home.
One of my friends calls it a 'beer drenched womb of a place".
It's apt.
By the way, the dude in the pic of the bar is a regular. He's a cool dude, but sadly not there anymore.
This is a tried-and-true dive bar. In fact, I'm pretty sure most people walk past it without even acknowledging it as a bar. The outside is adorned by a neon sign that says "Bar" and I think that even after my first 4 visits I wasn't sure it actually had a name. I often find myself here after I've decided to go home for the night - I don't know how I get here, but it's always appropriate for a final drink stop.
The drinks are cheap and the people are friendly. Ask the ONLY bartender for toilet paper after midnight and watch out for the local weirdo lurking around one of the bar ends (usually the end closest to the door).
This place is great. At 4 PM. If you come at 1 or 2 AM, it might still be great. But there might be some jacko from New Jersey there, stroking his girlfriend's hair extensions, screaming at you because he can't see who's winning the fucking Florida State football game, eh, dickbag?
This used to be a solid go-to in a neighborhood otherwise devoid of real and cheap options. Now, it's not as cheap (maybe we're paying a premium for their web domain), and you're as likely to encounter the spray tan by numbers set as at any bar within taxi distance of NYU. Too bad.
But I'll end on a positive note. $3 Coors Banquet. Bartenders who are personable. And usually, somewhere in the bar, reasonable people. If not, you can always download a Roxy Music downer onto the juke and clear out the chaff.
I was waiting tables on Christmas Eve, and after I closed out a friend and I went looking to celebrate our first Christmas sans-fam by getting considerably drunk. Alas, no bars in the West Village area were open, except for this place, and it's welcoming BAR sign.
Bartender was friendly, pretty liberal with the shots of whiskey and cheap as well. I would definitely go there again.
As far as dive bars go, this is the cream of the crop. It's just a totally unpretentious laid back place (what else would you expect from a bar that has a neon sign outside that just says BAR?). It doesn't "try" to be a dive bar, or go for a look or anything, it's just a place to hang out and drink (and i mean drink - there isn't food here except for microwaved popcorn, so get your liquid diet on). There are a few regulars who are nice people to talk to; it's a friendly neighborhood-y place.
Vanya is the nicest bartender you'll meet in the city and makes great drinks (granted I usually just grab a beer, but the shot of the day special has always treated me well).
If you like tiny hole-in-the-walls, this is the premier hole-in-the-wall. It's the golden standard, seriously.
I slipped in here while waiting for a friend to get done working. I don't recall leaving...
I kinda' fucking love this place. I never ended up actually going to meet said friend (Oh, shiii...*scrolls through texts to see what happened*), so I ended up sitting at the bar for several hours. If I recall correctly, I sat there so long they ran out of Jameson. I'm pretty sure it is't completely MY fault they ran out...but...ya' know. Anyways, it's exactly what I look for in a bar when I simply want to knock back a few drinks. Small, narrow, ugly, with comfortable stools. It isn't looking to serve any other purpose other than to serve me alcohol, and I love that. Just a narrow room with a narrow bar. I like to be close to the bottles of alcohol. It comforts me.
The night started out fairly normal, but gradually descended into what we will title "Why Daniel Shouldn't Drink Alone". Next thing I know I'm yacking with some local chefs about fucking women in the ass, the bartender is microwaving turbot, making the whole bar smell like fish, and I recall checking some guy out, and then he turns his head, and in the dim lighting what I thought was close cropped hair turned out to be...a PONYTAIL! Guffaw! A ponytail? Who does that anymore?!?
Like I said, I don't recall leaving. I do recall waking up and I'm wandering around the West Village whistling and wobbling down the street with my arms out. Then I kinda black out for a little bit, and dream that I'm performing James Morrison's "Wonderful World" on American Idol, only they're taping it in my hometown, and I'm KILLING it, and then I wake up, and I'm somewhere throwing up out of a taxi window, blackout, wake up again, and the taxi driver is yelling something at me and forcing me to sign something, but his pen isn't working, and he keeps shoving it back at me, finally I get out of the car, "where am I?" I ask the nearest bum.
"Welcome to Queens" he says.
WHY THE FUCK AM I IN QUEENS?
There's a communal beer board. Here's how it works: It's a blackboard with three columns on it. Drink, From, To. Yes, you guessed it. This is how you buy drinks for your friends (or vice versa) who frequent this fine establishment. Nothing better than walking in and seeing your buddy bluhbluh bought you a bud light. As soon as you get over the fact that your buddy is a cheap bastard to buy you a bottle of horse piss bud light, you will appreciate the fact that he was thinking of you even when he was wasted (or only when he's wasted)
Names will be up there for a month I think. But if you happen to convince the bartender that you swear your buddy told you that he bought you a bud, she might give it to you. It's the honor system, don't fuck with it.
On a final note, on the top of the list is a drink for Black Al. Not written with chalk, but painted. If you go enough, you'll figure out who he is.
Admittedly: I LOVE DIVE BARS.
And I loved this place. Went in with a date and some of his coworkers. Completely what you are looking for in a dive bar. Cheap drinks, great bartenders, awesome jukebox, cute patrons.
Would DEFINITELY go back here anytime.
I'm puzzled as to why this very ordinary West Village bar receives so many accolades, not just here but also in publications like Time Out NY & the Village Voice.
The bar has a 2-for-1 afternoon Happy Hour prominently displayed on the chalkboard, yet the inattentive female bartender kept charging us full price for every drink, even after we questioned her. The clientele is surprisingly seedy & scary for post-Giuliani NY, with the regular patrons discussing the subtle nuances of the Rikers Island & Metropolitan Correctional Center prisons...seriously. The bar is ridiculously cramped and very unfriendly...
there are so many other taverns in the area, you will have a much better time patronizing them instead.
HUZZAH - 101st review! (celebrating the 100th is so last year).
I must admit I'm biased because this was the bar I had my first kiss with my baby... *Pause for the rainbow-filled sweetness to settle in*
Anyway, though the snots among you would sneer at such a place holding such romantically fond memories, I say....screw you.
Yes, it's a dirty, narrow dive bar. But boy, love it or hate it, does it have character.
Cheap beers, a couple of nichey little tricks (like the drink board), a decent jukebox, and clientèle that doesn't make me want to rip ironic t-shirts off of people like most bars in the area.
A welcome stop on my nostalgic favorites imaginary tour through NYC.
This bar is extremely narrow. If I were to lay on the floor - which I wouldn't do - and if I were to hold Gary Coleman's ankles as he lay on the floor - which he wouldn't do - he would be able to touch one wall while my feet would touch the opposite wall. I hope this conveys the bar's narrowness.
Drinks are cheap. Bartenders are cool. And they have a lovely MP3 jukebox that has songs I like. I play obscure Smiths and Talking Heads songs and inevitably someone says "Oh wow, I haven't heard that in ages!" and I begin to think I should have been a DJ. But the world needs another DJ like the world needs another lawyer.
When I was there last Saturday a drunken Kiefer Sutherland was also there. Most folks behaved themselves but eventually the pact was broken and a group approached with a shot of something. Kiefer didn't really need the shot, to be honest. But he seemed cordial, and hammered, and posed for the obligatory photos. Eventually he went outside for a smoke, or to merely sit on the stoop outside, not sure which. I overheard people talking about the mobile phone he'd left on the counter, so when I left I suggested he might want to run in and grab it lest he wind up apologizing to half of Hollywood for leaking their phone numbers. I thought this was a nice thing to do, and undoubtedly his publicist would agree.
The bathroom has character.
Used to come here a lot when I lived In NY and it would usually be my last stop of the night. It is the epitome of a dive bar down to the handwritten occupancy limit sign. Yesterday I went there at noon. Had 4 screwdrivers between noon and 2. Service was great since I was the only customer for most of the two hours. For years I never even knew the name of the bar because all you see is the neon sign outside indicating bar.
It's 10:15 AM and I am so sleepy. That means it must have been a good night at Johnny's. I don't really go to bars. I'm more of a club/lounge kind of girl. But Yelpers make me do crazy things. I thought I was finally going to meet the elusive Joolie T. last night as we wandered away from Shag but alas Irene F. just wanted to get drunk and wasn't really concerned with Joolz. We turned the corner and there is a bright red "Bar" sign shining nearby.
There's a 20 dollar minimum on cards so Victor opened one and bought everybody a round. The bar is kind of unexpected for the neighborhood. And the clientele also doesn't look like the West Village/Chelsea type I'm used to seeing but here we were among the locals.
It was Vanya's birthday so the shot special was "Birthday Cake". That was pretty tasty. Then we had a Peanut Butter & Jelly ... It was crazy. I tasted the PB. And we sang ... Oh wow. Led by Justin R. we all joined in for "Peanut Butter Jelly Time". That was hilarious.
Inspired by the choral revue I wanted to hear some of my favorite songs. But the jukebox card scanner didn't work. Lame.
Then, like out of a movie, I was talking with Victor and Justin and I saw a familiar frame at the bar. I approached to find that indeed it was a dear friend and former crush that I had recently been in touch with again .... uhhh ... OH MY GOD! I love running into people I know randomly. It's the best! FIVE STARS TO JOHNNY'S FOR MAKING IT HAPPEN!
We gave shots and a beers a whole new meeting at this lovely (ok, divey) watering hole. The neon sign caught me eye and sparkled, beckoning to me. Simply, it was BAR, and I was sold.
Birthday cake shots, coors light, lemon drops, and more swirled into my belly. Rock on, Vanya, rock on.
This place has everything that I want in a dive bar:
*good selection of beers on tap
*dark and grimy
*cool crowd of people not taking themselves too seriously
*friendly bartender
*spontaneous singing and conversation
*distinct lack of hipsters
I liked it because the people there seemed like they legitimately didn't give a shit. Too many "dive bars" in this city are just pubs with fake wood damage, mood lighting, and a knick-knacks carefully placed to convince me how down to earth they are. This place seems more natural. Extra points for a semi busted neon sign that makes the fron of the place look like an Edward Hopper painting.
This place doesn't try to be anything it's not. It's a dive with some of the friendliest bartenders around, affordable drinks with a big kick, and a loud jukebox. My favorite dive in the city is Johnny's.
I killed more than my fair share of my time and liver at Johnny's during the year I worked in Chelsea Market, as two of my heavier-drinking friends are capital-R Regulars with the tenacity to harangue even the latest-working teetotaler in for a pint or four.
Johnny's has a few things going for it: its novel "buy a drink for a friend" board; a digital jukebox with the depth to find you just the right soundtrack for every flavor of drunken shenanigan; and an insane selection of tasty shots whose quality and creativity takes them far out of the realm of mere "chick-friendly" grope fuel.
The bar staff are more than competent, and often unnecessarily accommodating, especially when you are seen raising a glass with the bar's more outgoing, heavy-tipping regulars. It's this more than the decor that keeps the place close to its dive-bar roots, even though the clientele and the extravagantly bougie neighborhood around it belie its down-market pretenses.
The one thing I could never get over was the size of the fucking place. On any night with more than three people in the joint you can barely reach for your cell phone without knocking someone's pint in their lap, even pressed up obscenely close to the bar. When "posses" of the bar's more obnoxious regulars roll in five or six-deep and (for no apparent reason) do a round-trip of the entire bar in single-file, you practically have to stand on the barstools to avoid having your personal space gravely violated by yammering douchebags.
So Johnny's is a fine place to spend your whiskey dollars, but best experienced early and with a large enough group to secure a healthy amount of seating and space before the crowding starts to suck out the fun.
We found Johnny's Bar by accident on a Friday night. En route to another bar in the West Village, we could no longer bear the frigid gusts of wind and found the first place we could that looked like it served alcohol. Johnny's bright neon "BAR" sign was enough for us.
Johnny's Bar is tiny, which is responsible for much of its charm. It has a good mix of characters and feels very much like the local watering hole. The lone bartender was personable and most helpful, and we had made several drinking buddies by night's end. (We were pleasantly surprised when two people bought us a round for no apparent reason.) This is the kind of place where yelling obscenities across the bar is perfectly acceptable, so we had some fun with that.
Great bar to throw a few back, make some friends, and let go a bit.
Continuing on my night...As we turn the corner and see the bright light "BAR", I take a spill! Must have been the excitement of seeing such a fine establishment or maybe it was those key limes kicking in. I dunno...Thank you Victor for helping me.
I liked the shots, the bartender and definitely hearing about "Peanut Butter Jelly Time" for the first time in my life! Hilarious.
I'm hardly up on my etymology but I hesitate to call Johnny's Bar a "dive bar." I just can't imagine this place ever having designs on being an upscale establishment and, frankly, it's clientele isn't really there slumming for a night. In a neighborhood with more bars than people, and comfortably isolated from the LES, Johnny's is utterly, completely and beautifully unironic. Cheers to that.
In the same vein, the bartenders never try to deceptively flirt you out of an extra dollar for every drink. Absent, also is the insouciant and flippant "what are you having" after having ignored you for 3 minutes to serve the other patrons due to your lack of that international badge of rebellious, arty downtown individualism: the fedora. Just simple, friendly service. Two cheers for this.
Johnny's bar is a total throwback, a place in the West Village where a beer doesn't cost $8 and, as a result, a good number of what I'll call "professional alcohol enthusiasts" gather. If it's a cheap beer you're after, or, perhaps just a rambling somewhat coherent story from the patron next to you, this is your spot.
I told my friend David P. that this could possibly get a 5 star Yelp. It fit the bill so perfectly after getting drenched in some serious beats last night at the Albert Hammond/http://going.com thing at Hiro.
There are a lot of great things about this place. And they all happened on one night, which is awesome. First, two girls from Brighton, England. I kept yapping about the Pipettes to them, which they took note of. But one was getting over a divorce and busting little money waitressing, so they had bigger problems on their mind.
Coors original on tap for 3 bucks. 3.25 shots. 4.50 bottles of Newcastle.
Continuing on, the bar is really a good example of a cozy bar. Passionate leftist slogans adorn the walls, inch by inch, stickers and memorabilia everywhere. It has such a slapdash cuteness to it, you feel like the lasses who worked here before and in the future just kind of add to whatever space isn't covered, taking up time by drawing and decorating with whatever they got. Two small bathrooms at the end, one tv, and SWIVEL bar stools. I advocate more swivel bar stools in the city, they are not only functional, but fun to swivel on.
The front window is wide and opens up, so you can literally just hang on the sill if you're right outside. The ceiling is low enough so it adds to the coziness. No barbacks here, its one of those places, one person on staff and that's it.
The jukebox is superb and frustrating at the same time. When we walked in we just listened to whatever tunes was on, my favorite Mamas and the Papas song came on "Dream a Little Dream of Me".
6 minutes later I caught myself singing along to Shania Twain's version of "You're Still the One" with Dave P. It was AWESOME. I belted that tune out like I was getting married or something.
And then, the next song was (mind you mostly oldies up to this point)......Rammstein. What the frig. Hilarious.
A couple songs later music stopped. I asked the bartender if she had a mix or it was all jukebox. She said go right ahead.
This thing was chock full 'o greatness. They had Refused to Chuck Berry to Patsy Cline to Foghat to Blink 182 to Modest Mouse to Elastica. I was drooling. But it was a digital jukebox. Which means if I shell out enough clams, I could pick any song I wanted to from any of the artists. Problem is, I didn't feel like shelling out too much money, but each album only had one, two, or 6 songs on it playable for one credit, one of those vices that makes me wish it was an old jukebox.
I picked the Marvelettes, some Modest Mouse (hearing 3rd planet in a bar was amazing), Beach Boys, Elastica, The Who (fucking edited version of baba, so pissed), The Platters, Chili Peppers, Sublime, not necessarily in that order. And there was so much more I could have picked.
The guy to my right kept telling stories/long jokes. It was kind of odd.
The bartender, Vanya, was lovely. She sings as her passion, a self described feminine-ish tom boy. Great at conversation.
Is it my favorite place in New York? Possibly. I have spent probably almost a month in here by now. It is friendly, wonderful, fun, and quite possibly the best bar in the whole whole world.
A couple blocks down the street is a deli - buy a bag of peanut m&m's, some gold fish, and some potato chips, come in here, and grab a stool. the shots of the day are insane and almost always disgusting but always great for getting drunk. vanya, theressa, christie, and brooke are the bomb and will always take care of you, whatever you are drinking.
the juke box is amazing - play whatever you want, but please don't do too many play now's as that's just rude. watch out for the men's room, gross - use the women's instead, it always smells so nice! and learn the names of the regulars; they are your friends, even if you don't know it!
johnny is dead, long live johnny!
---- please note, they don't take amex cards, regardles s of what you made read here. also, there is a $20 minimum on cards, but who are you kidding, you don't drink less than 20 anyway.
also, for the board on the wall - beware, they take your name down after awhile. this isn't a place to store your drinks for months and months.
I fucking love this bar. Three-dollar pints, charming and generous bartendress, and an unusually cozy and social environment given the neighborhood. One of the West Villages last bastions of beer-stained greatness.
A cinematic dive that reminds me of the NY of yesteryear (as depicted by early seasons of Law & Order)
This place is exactly what you would want from a dive bar in an area where you wont find many bars like this. Service was good and prices were decent. Definitely worth checking out if you are in a dive bar mood.
i took my dad here last night, cuz where else would we stage a reuniting of such grand proportions except for in a shithole dive bar in the west village? i love my dad* and i love beer too! perfect right? I KNOW!!!
they have yuengling and brooklyn lager which obviously everyone has in nyc but NO ONE cares to stock in sf where it is actually needed, and dear god i have missed you so... in any case, no one gave a fuck that my suitcases were blocking the walkway or that a grown man would start crying like a baby when certain topics were discussed. and as it turns out, my father shares most of the retarded inner turmoil bullshit demons that i do! WHO KNEW!!! so fuck you years of therapy, this shit got handled straight:/
five stars.
*void where prohibited. taxes not included.
This is a bar that smells like a bar. It was a pretty good place to hang out and have some good conversation and reasonably priced drinks. My friend was scandalized by some girls gone wild behavior from one of the other patrons, but generally it was a pretty laid back crowd, and a really good time.
Divey and no, I mean NO attitude. Bartender (Lance?) was nice but still clearly a NY bartender. A girl named Veronica gave me a casserole recipe, which was timely as casserole was a recurring theme this particular afternoon. More on that later. Actually, let's get it out of the way. Jeffrey had been yelling "Casserole!!" all morning, meaning, I think, that we were invited to a potluck later that day. We never did make one, but Vern's involved kielbasa and three kinds of beans (!), if you must know. Back to Johnny's: (A) We met a girl named Sesame. (Secondly) They sell Playboy branded paraphernalia, which I believe Veronica reps. (C) The music was insane- Siouxsie, PJ Harvey, TV on the Radio etc. etc. It says "The Best Bar Ever" on the chalkboard outside, and I am inclined to believe them.
A great small bar. This is pretty much exactly what I would want from a small bar like this. The crowd was pretty cool overall and everyone was having a good time without getting too rowdy. The drinks were on the cheaper side and the bartender was great and very friendly. My only request would be that they add an additional bartender. She was very quick and attentive, but the place was a hair too big for just one bartender. I can see why most people like this place as it would be a great local.
I used to live a block away from Johnny's so I would frequent the place pretty often and I'll miss being able to walk over whenever I was bored.
Small, warm, comfortable bar. $3 Coors on tap. Most better beers are $5 or so. An extra star for being so close to the stairs to the 2/3 train.
I stumbled into Johnny's Bar meeting a friend who was up from DC for only a few hours. We went in, had a drink, and I paid. She then, being a generally good egg, ordered a drink for me on the "buy a friend a drink" board placed above the bar. Not sure if they still have it, but you could buy a drink for your friends for them to have when they came in. If you're a regular (which I soon became until I moved away from the city, despite living 100 blocks away), it's just that nice little touch that keeps you coming back. The other thing that was fantastic about Johnny's was the music-- just a jukebox, but they had such a great set of tunes on there that you didn't ever do the "jukebox cringe" when someone went up pulling out a $20. The sign outside simply says "BAR," so don't get confused. It's a great place to go with a few friends...over and over.
small and friendly. a great stop in the night. always can meet fun people and bartender is always super nice. somehow Johnny's always puts me in the mood to drink heavily. it's cool like that.
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Category: Bars
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Category: Pubs
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Neighborhood: West Village
Category: Dive Bars
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