Smokey Joe's Tavern
208 S 40th St
Philadelphia, PA 19104 (215) 222-0770
- Price Range: $
- Parking: Street
- Good for Groups: Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible: No
- Outdoor Seating: No
- Best Nights: Mon, Thu, Sun
- Happy Hour: Yes
- Alcohol: Full Bar
13 Reviews for Smokey Joe's Tavern
DO NOT GO HERE AFTER 8PM. REPEAT...NEVER AFTER 8PM.
I'm not a penn student and I'm not a loud obnoxious drunk, therefore, I do not frequent smokes after 8pm since those types take over the place.
I like thier $1 hot dogs before 6 and the $6 pitchers until 6. It's really laid back in the afternoons and the bartenders are always nice. I like the chef, he is really funny and comes out to make sure our food is good.
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I am not a Philly native- nor do I pretend to be.... I spent a month living in a crappy U-Penn dorm in 2006 while attending a NIH seminar. The dorms suck. Smokey Joe's was the only spot we found that welcomed us, served a stiff drink and was close enough to the aforementioned dorms that we could wander back. My sense is that during the school year, Smokey Joe's is looked down upon.... but I, for one, want to thank Smokey Joe's for being our summertime go to spot!
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Drink spec ails that aint so special. Maximum douchitude. No thanks.
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Being new to Philly, and just out of college, I wanted to find a good bar to relax after work and throw back a few sips.
I went with my roommate and I immediately noticed a lacking tap bar. Guinness, Coors, Blue Moon, Yueingling(sp), the typical stuff. I thought at first they would have more choices since the place kinda feels like a bar with a good selection, but further came to notice that the row of taps on the far end of the bar was a mimic of the same selections. Kinda dissapointing.
We sit down and order a beer. Comes out great, no problems... gaze over the menu and its typical bar food. Quickly finish the first round and set our empty glasses down. Mind you this place was by no means packed...the bar had maybe 15 people total in the place that were all taken care of, but it took about 5 minutes for him to refill (read: ask to refill) our drinks. Maybe I'm spoiled, but the bartenders i'm used to, when they see an empty glass, their first priority is to refill it. This bartender was just snacking on his hot dog and walking around whiping the bar off... and i did notice him look at our glasses a few times.
Finally I give him the "2" sign of a refill. We ordered Blue Moon for our first round, and it was assumed we would get Blue Moon for our second. I noticed him filling 2 new glasses, and since we were the only 2-person group in the bar, I again assumed they were for us. Well he starts tapping Coors into it, so I think he may be filling it for someone else.
The first glass is placed in front of my roommate full of Coors, and my glass is half full (he set it down to wait for the head to settle)... I mention to him that its not Blue Moon, and he quickly checks it and refills it...No problem.
The real issue now arises. He takes my half glass of Coors and fills it the rest of the way with Blue Moon, which automatically turns the beer from looking like Coors to Blue Moon, but of course does not come close to taste since they are two completely different beers.
Anyway, I mentioned it to him and he took care of it (since i think he really did know what he was doing). We didnt order any food, and our bill came out and it was 4.50 per pint. Again, maybe I'm spoiled, but i dont think there are many pints in this world worthy of $4.50....
So we left a 20 and went home...But still, good atmosphere, great convo's with the other patrons (all were very welcoming since we mentioned we just moved here), and seems like a good bar. The service may need to step it up a notch, but for now, this visit gets a puny 2 stars.
Also, I didnt see any of the college crowd (summer, 7-8:30 pm), but a lot of people (not college kids) started to come in by the time we were leaving, so we might have missed the crowd on this one.
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stiff drinks. and cheap. not my scene, but it'll do. we're not in nyc anymore, kids.
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Great bar when its quiet, god awful when the entirity of UPenn stumbles into it at 11 on a Friday or Saturday night.
One of the staff Joe (not the owner), is one of the greatest bartenders I have ever met. Always friendly and as a group, we struck up a real rapport. He treated us well and vice versa.
The beers limited but cheap and the food was ok, if not spectacular. Bathrooms could have done with a spruce up, they were fairly rank.
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Good bar for a late night college crowd, a guy could easily get lucky here however he will be drinking some crappy beer ie; Yuengling, Hoegaarden, Smokey Joes own Lager that tastes like Yuengling, Bud, Bud Light, Miller Lite, Coors Light, and Heineken are all the ones that I remember. Definitely busy at night from like 10pm+. Be ready for a head charge of $5 I believe. Dress slightly nicer as there are so many young girls and guys around, but not so nice that you'll get pissed about spilling beer on yourself. Have fun, amazing croud!
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As a former Penn kid (ehem), I frequented this place back in the mid- to late-90's. Check that. I spent the better part of 1996 and 1997 in this place, including a streak of 38 consecutive days (don't judge). I recently went back (during the day) as part of a quick jaunt through West Philly (don't ask) and found it largely the same as I left it so long ago. That is:
- Lots of bar area, which never stopped it from being impossible to get a drink unless you knew Joe, Joe, or one of the other less career-minded bartenders.
- Disgusting bathrooms, which was nearly irrelevant back in the day because everyone pees outside on their way home.
- Sticky floors, which usually get cleaned up, but I guess I showed up on a day after some serious drinking occurred.
- Great specials, including the always popular "sink or swim" Wednesday nights and "kill the keg", wherein the purchaser of the last beer from a designated keg gets yet more beer.
- And finally, many, many drunken students doing many, many shots and behaving very poorly.
Great spot.
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If you ever seek refuge from the hair-gel, steroids, and other painfully Jersey-esque nonsense that hounds every meat-market in Philly, head to Smokes. Sure, it's crowded, noisy, over-priced for the dive it is, and full of obnoxious Penn kids (ehem), but hey- you don't have to be a player to find yourself going home with some drunken idiot here.
Smoke's, long ago designated as the nesting and mating grounds for countless jocks (some trim, some large, some just right) and rich fraternity/sorority members (but not quite as rich as the ones who frequent La Terasse just to pound pitchers, yes pitchers of hoegaarden or Allagash or whatever wheat beer is cool now), is a mess on weekends. But as i said-you don't have to be good-looking, and you don't have to be buff. Penn, unlike the hipper nightclubs, values money, stature, and ambition above all else, and thusly all you need to do is impress a girl by being smarter, richer, and more ambitious than you already are (shouldn't be too hard).
So if you want a cheap beer in West Philly, go to Kellians. If you want to meet Drexel kids, I hear Cav's is a good spot. But if you are dying to try and bone some smart drunk kids, head to smokes and lie about what you do for a living. In fact, don't say anything too serious, just giggle a lot and drink. That seems to be the M.O. most nights.
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This bar, affectionately termed Smoke's, is a hit with the UPenn crowd, though when I went, I wasn't wowed. The place is usually packed on the weekends, with hundreds of drunken students wandering around, weaving in and out of the dance floor.
You know the songs that you hear repeated on Q102, over and over and over again? It seems that Smoke's soundtrack consists of those same played out songs. Yes they are popular but a little variety would be good.
There is ample room to dance, so if, like me, you are more of a dancer than a drinker, you still can enjoy yourself. There is even a little podium, oddly similar to those at strip clubs, where drunken girls can gyrate their hearts out and be ogled by equally drunken guys.
Though Smoke's is not my flavor, if you go with a bunch of friends, you are sure to have fun.
A staple for any Penn student. Quizzo, Sink or Swim and Penn artists trying to make an extra buck to pay for more beers. They offer an all-you-can-eat pasta night, because, well, they truly understand college students.
Be warned: these are the smallest, smelliest bathrooms north of the Schuylkill .
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By it's nice wood interior and lengthy bar, if you were to see Smokey Joe's empty, you'd presume something higher of its nightlife. In actuality, this is the B or C-team bar for UPenn's campus, as it's right across the street from campus.
As Jon aptly pointed out, this is a college bar - and unlike neighboring New Deck or Mad Mex, it can't even "sort of" disguise that fact. It's crowded, it takes a while to get drinks, and you'll always see a double dose of that pretentiousness that reinvents the scene "library caaard" scene from Good Will Hunting.
The last time I went here, I left, went to Allegro, bought beer to go, and kicked it in the park. Smokey Joe's gets no burn.
Situated at the west end of campus, Smokey Joe's, or Smoke's, as it's known among students, is the University of Pennsylvania's version of a college bar. For a lot of Penn students, Smoke's is the ideal place to meet up with friends from across campus after a late dinner downtown or a house party on Delancey Street. Pitchers and mixed drinks are much more reasonably priced there than at the bars in Old City, and, with a great location and a long campus history, Smoke's is the one place where juniors and seniors at Penn are guaranteed to run into friends and classmates. From midnight to close on weekends, the place is packed to capacity -- I'm assuming, perhaps generously, that no fire codes are ever broken -- but outsiders, take heed, as many of the student-patrons can seem clicky and, err, standoffish, and you might be left thinking, Damn, why did I come to this uncomfortably-packed bar just to be alone with the people I came with? And DJ STYKX, well, he does his job, playing the radio hits and college bar anthems you'd expect. But again, don't expect to meet any terribly outgoing folks on the dance floor.
On weekdays, Smoke's can be a relaxing place to go with a couple of guys (or gals) to watch the hockey game, snack on some decent bar food and down a pitcher. Monday nights feature a singer/guitarist, Kenn Kweder, who has been hanging around campus for about thirty years -- and, actually, he doesn't sound bad. At 9:30 on Thursday night, contestants form teams and compete in a locally-developed trivia game called Quizzo. And they drink.
On it's website, Smoke's calls itself "the Pennstitution." Which is true. It's also one of the liveliest college bars in Philly proper. But as an alum of the West Philadelphia Ivy, I'll tell you this: a Penn bar nothing like a Penn State bar. Good things happen at Smoke's, but not crazy things. Well, not that crazy.
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