Welcome to the Johnson’s

If you’re looking for a really cheap dive bar this is definitely that place. I repeat, not a place you’d wanna take someone to impress them. This is that place where you want to get trashed and have no class. 3 $ pbr beers and some cheap shots!
Bar staff is friendly. I love that there is a pool table and a juke box that actually plays what you want to hear.

People leaving bad reviews of this place clearly don’t get it. WTTJ is a gem on the LES. This is a DIVE BAR. If you are a princess who needs a vanilla vodka with a flower on top don’t come in here-​they probably don’t want you anyway. It’s the kind of place where you probably shouldn’t sit on the toilet. The best part of this place is the $ 2 PBR cans and plastic couch. Gets mad busy on weekend but during weekday happy hours its not so bad. Bring an ID-​lately all my fav bars in the area have been cracking down on this because they are getting fined big time if they don’t card.

Ignore, completely, any of the reviews from out of towner «hipsters» or newbies or NYU Students. WELCOME TO THE JOHNSON is one of NYC’s greatest dive bars. The décor and its cheap *but great* drinks are fantastic. For anyone to say things about its décor knows nothing about the wit of its décor which is purposely 1960s-​1970s wood paneling chic. I am glad that some posters here won’t be returning. If you can’t appreciate WELCOME I am sure you can find some overly pricey bar close by that you will like.

Dive Bars look like the Ritz compared to this Gem, but I love it. Not great for groups on weekends as it fills up with kids from Brooklyn very quickly but there are some very cute boys here (read: boys not men) and the drinks are C to the HEAP!

The bartender was extremely bitchy and rude, refusing to serve me because «she had never seen my kind of iD before» (internatinal drivers license.)
Needless to say I’ll never come back to this shithole.

Place is shit. Rude bartender. Rude patrons.

This place was awesome. Furniture had plastic on it, the music was ALL over the place, shitty decorations you’d find in a basement, and CHEAP drinks that looked and good and strong. If at any time I have an urge to hang out low-​key and need to get a blast of surburbia, I’m coming here.

$ 2 PBR’s! This place can get kind of crowded. But is great and a bit on the hipster-​ish side.
Reminds me of going to my friend’s place and hanging in his dad’s basement back in the late ‘80s, complete with wood paneling, terrible artwork, and a pool table.
In a great area with other bars so definitely make a stop here.
$ 20 credit card minimum BTW.

Weird smell, diviest of dives. I walked in and didn’t feel welcome — also, the bartender looked uninterested in serving anyone, refused to serve me only because my other friend didn’t tip her enough. I understand drinks are cheap, but with the unfriendly and bad attitude I wouldn’t come here again.

Exceptionally RUDE bartender.
Dive in at your own risk — and preferably hammered so you won’t notice how filthy it really is.
This bar is not nearly ok to treat customers like that. It sucks.
It baffles me how anyone has a good time here.
It’s dirty as hell, but there’s a pool table. There’s also a FILTHY couch by the bar.
Eek! Methinks not says it all.

This bar is a super dive bar, beyond most dive bars. It was so dirty that I was actually a bit weirded out by the smell, which is saying a lot since I do like a good dive. The beers were pretty cheap here ($ 5), and the service was good.

What a shxt show this place was but I had a blast! You can’t beat $ 2 PBR special. Interesting crowd and you will meet friends here and have so much fun.
The theme is trashy American 50s. Plastic on couches really take their theme home, but who cares it’s all good!
I would come back here for another seedy LES experience with friends.

Your typical LES dive. Good prices but limited selection. It does have that dive bar stink. My experience was that the bartender was a little sour towards me, but perhaps that’s part of the charm?

Let me preface this by saying I love dive bars. I can appreciate the dirty ones. I didn’t use the bathroom here btw so I can’t comment on exactly how dirty this one is.
What I hated about this bar was the «vibe» and the crowd. I’ve never felt less welcome at a bar. As soon as we walked in, people were pushing around us with sour expressions. Some really shady looking drunk guy almost fell on us and gave us dirty looks. It seemed super cliquey like everyone was a regular. Some dude was passed out by the pool table. Then some other guy walked in, started yelling and immediately removed his shirt. Wtf? Maybe I wasn’t drunk enough or maybe you need to be a regular to feel comfortable here. I couldn’t finish my beer fast enough. Btw, I look like I belong in a dive, I didn’t walk in here dressed like Elle from Legally Blonde (although that shouldn’t excuse rudeness) but I just mean it wasn’t like I looked out of place, this bar just had a weird, unfriendly vibe.
Oh and don’t let the old reviews fool ya — the clown stickers (my main reason for coming here) are gone from the mirror.

I paid for my song, and it didn’t even play for 30 seconds and they skipped it. What a rip off. So long for the rest of the night no tip. Fuck you.
Where’s the manager?

The diviest of dives. The ridiculous décor attracted us: Christmas decorations and lights that don’t match. The highlight of the evening was the framed unicorn painting next to the bathroom.
Seems to have a hardcore regular crowd. Everyone in the place knew each other except for us, and were SLOPPY drunk. Like, people waving their hands around while talking and hitting me in the face because they were so sloshed they didn’t see me.
Saving graces: cheap, strong drinks and the one-​of-​a-​kind cheesy décor.

There’s dive bars… and then there’s Welcome to the Johnson’s! The toilet pictures pretty much sum up this place– dirty and dingy. The most fascinating part is that the bar TRIES to be like this! These owners are genius because somehow they’ve successfully made a cheap bar like this a place where people actually want to hang out.
You walk in this place and immediately think you’re in an old frat house. Bad lighting, dirty couches, old refrigerator where drinks are kept all = Welcome to the Johnsons.
I give this place 4 stars because unlike other bars, this one purposely tries to recreate your grandma’s basement. They’re not trying to act like this elegant classy establishment. People who go here know exactly what it’s like and know what they’re gonna get. If it is your first time there, make sure you bring low expectations and several one dollar bills for the lukewarm beers.

Keep the black light at home folks. You don’t want to see what’s lining these walls and caking the floors. Hell, the bathroom in all of its putrid odor is visually remarkable for its amateur graffiti layout and a miracle it even has soap.
The appeal is the drinks. Lots of them, for cheap. Do not be surprised if the crowd around you is not only younger but more hammered than you are. If you’re amazed by the prices, I suggest you join in the debauchery and parlay some $ 2 PBRs, or their fantastically priced well cocktails.
You can sit on the couches, but beware of what was sitting there before you. Also, there’s a pool table that many folks on a busy night will jockey to play. The table has more stains from spills than BP does in the ocean, but in patronizing this place you shouldn’t really care.
Welcome to the Johnson’s. The consummate dive bar of the LES faithful. Some things just never change and this is a place where you can escape the pretension and enjoy the atmosphere of a dingy, basement-​like, aromatic (in the nicest way possible) spot that will never lose its charm.

This is your typical LES dive bar. Dirty, dingy, gross, love it. I met a boy here. I thought he was gay, but apparently not, he said he liked women. Or perhaps, he likes both, more power to him. Anyway, I had some cocktails here. The bartenders were great, the crowd was chill, the vibe on point.
A great place to drink, play pool, and be all funky.

A dirty dive that I love! There’s a pool table, tons of kitschy art and always cheap beer. There’s plastic wrapped couches! Yikes! And for Halloween there was the creepiest collections of clown art covering the walls and even the ceiling with a three dimensional clown. I don’t know what it is about me but I always end up and creepy clown bars.
Come here for cheap drinks, fun tunes and a taste of LES.