Welcome To The Johnsons Dive Bar

Lower East Side, New York –

With its wooden DIY sign, ripped and sticker-caked awning, pebbled exterior, and a vibe that attracts drinkers who prefer to swig right out of the can, Welcome To The Johnsons gives new meaning to the term “unpretentious.”

This reliable downtown dive owes its hipness to the authenticity of its 70s suburban rumpus room décor, complete with wooden wet bar, plastic-covered furniture, and collection of embarrassing childhood portraits and pastel landscapes, as well as a dimly-lit pool table crammed in by the graffiti-covered bathrooms.

Burnt-orange couches, high-backed green leather bar stools, and a tabletop Pac-Man game provide a kitschy backdrop for the after-work hipster professionals and colorful regulars chatting loudly over the Devo and Black Sabbath tunes blaring from the jukebox.

Patrons feeling antisocial can plop themselves down next to the boxy tube TV to watch one of the dozens of VHS tapes stacked next to the plastic Santa behind the bar, where friendly indie-rocker bartenders keep the house drink – $1.75 cans of PBR – flowing freely.

Usually packed to the gills with rambunctious partiers pounding cheap suds, Johnsons attracts an outgoing crowd always ready to talk, mingle, and sing along to a little Journey – especially during those long afternoon Happy Hours when patrons can throw on Iron Man, challenge the bartender to a game of pool, and relax before the place gets really boisterous.