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No $2 PBRs At Bushwick's New Welcome To The Johnson's
By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Dec 19, 2013
Modified Dec 19, 2013
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Rebecca Fishbein
By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Dec 19, 2013
Modified Dec 19, 2013
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Welcome to the Johnson's on the L.E.S. is essentially just a well-worn room with a fridge full of $2-$3 PBR cans, some whiskey and a pool table, and you never know whether you're going to go home with a stubble-faced hipster or possibly a bedbug. It's stripped down, dingy and super-cheap; that's part of Welcome to the Johnson's' charm, and what makes it such a great place to stumble into for happy hour or when The Magician gets too packed.
Bushwick got its own Welcome to the Johnson's outpost, simply titled The Johnson's, on Friday, and while it is a perfectly "nice" bar—"nice" in the blandish, generic wood-paneled sense of the word—the only thing akin to its LES mothership other than its name is a pool table in the back ($1.50/game). Which is disappointing for a neighborhood that is now littered with "gastropubs," restaurants and drinking holes serving $10-$12 cocktails. Some local bars—Pearl's Social & Billy Club, for instance, and Happy Fun Hideaway—have the same character and offbeat neighborhood hangout atmosphere as the original Welcome to the Johnson's (though without the bikers, for the most part), but these fancier Bushwick newcomers are starting to swim together.
Not that there's anything particularly wrong with The Johnson's; it's a pretty space, boasting the aforementioned wood-paneling, scattered tribal art, cozy booths, couches and tables and an expansive front porch complete with benches and two dangling wicker egg chairs. Last night the electronic jukebox was heavy on Lou Reed and the Rolling Stones, which is always a good thing, and though there's no draft list, you can get bottles of Crispin cider ($6), Pacifo ($5), Crabbie's ginger beer ($6) and the like. There's also a specialty cocktail list, with full-price twists on Tom Collinses, Moscow Mules and Mai Tais ranging from $9-$10, but you can skip those outside of happy hour; from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. daily, drinks like margaritas and gin cocktails run only $5, cans of Bud Light are $3 and Lion's Head is $2.
Still, those torn couches and frosty PBR cans from the bar's Big Island counterpart were sorely missed. Ten points to Manhattan, y'all.
The Johnson's is located at 369 Troutman Street between Wyckoff and Irving Aves in Bushwick, Brooklyn (718-417-7100).
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