Johnny's Tavern

So I was rolling through Leawood the other day after skipping out on work at noon, running some of my personal errands. That's right I do my stuff in Leawood, what of it? I finished up my errands about 3:30 and immediately thought, where can I go to get a beer. I'm rarely south of 75th Street so I have a tough time visualizing where I can go. I remembered when I lived in Lenexa in 1995 my roommates and I used to go to Johnny's Tavern so I thought I would see if I could remember where it was.

Things have changed down there since I lived in the area, there's this series of institutional buildings that look like a prison (I suppose it is a prison to some) that houses some company called Sprint. I knew vaguely that Johnny's was around 119th and Lamar and I missed it when I drove by the driveway to the strip mall. Now there's a new building out in front but Johnny's was still there right where I remembered it.

Johnny's had a pretty good 4:00 on a Monday crowd, at least 8 people in there. I sat at the bar and saw the taps; 4 or 5 big beer beers, Fat Tire, some Boulevard and Guinness. When offered this particular set of choices I get a Guinness. I noticed the guy sitting 2 chairs down was playing one of those trivia games. I hadn't played one of those in a long time. It's been so long I used to use the name Kilborn because I enjoyed his work on SportsCenter. I used my blog name Bull this time. I joined the game after 4 questions were asked so the other dude had a pretty significant lead. I caught him on question 12 and finally beat him by about 2000 points. That's right, I am a trivia champ. Stella won't let me get Trivial Pursuit for the house because I would trounce her every time, even if it was the Chick Flick and Vagina edition.

While I was playing trivia I noticed another tier of draft beers, but it was kind of hidden behind a wall so I couldn't see what was on there. I asked the bartender and it turned out it was the mother lode, Boulevard Nutcracker, New Belgium 2 Below (Wes always asks 'I wonder if they drink 2 Below in Tupelo') and a couple of other decent beers. I decided to stay for another round of trivia and down some Nutcracker.

I DOMINATED in trivia the next round just missing out on the top 20 in the country (I was only 50 points off) and putting Johnny's Tavern in the top 1000 in the country with only 2 dudes playing. The other dude said that I should become a premium member (like he was), I didn't know what that meant and explained I usually drink downtown and they don't have trivia machines downtown, which is pretty much true.

Overall Johnny's was a like a preseason football game, mildly interesting but real vanilla. Back when I was a 22 year old punk, we usually had a real good time there after 10 PM, occasionally making a nice acquaintance with a female companion. I don't know if that's the way it is now. It seems like it might be more of a Sprint bar now, but it's alright if you're in south JoCo and not wanting to go to Old Chicago for a beer.

Special and other info from Johnny's Website.

• NEW - EXTREME TRIVIA - FRIDAY NIGHTS! $4.00 SCHOONERS
• FRIDAY AND SATURDAY: ALL YOU CAN EAT BOILED SHRIMP $14.95 - SERVED WITH BOILED NEW POTATO'S AND CORN ON THE COB. FEATURING WILD CAUGHT "TEXAS GOLD" SHRIMP
• SUNDAY SPECIAL!
  • PIZZA, WINGS, AND A PITCHER OF DOMESTIC BEER FOR ONLY $20.00!!!
• VIKINGS AND PACKERS WATCH PARTY HEADQUARTERS! (how is this possible?)
  
• TEXAS HOLD-EM WEDNESDAY AND SATURDAYS!
• 1/2 PRICE PIZZA'S ON MONDAYS
• DJ SUNDAY NIGHT
  • PLUS $5.00 PITCHERS AND $4.00 JAGER BOMBS
• NOW SERVING HOMEMADE STONE OVEN PIZZA!
• NEW! OUTDOOR PATIO - Come out and enjoy the weather!
• New! - High Definition TV's.
  • We have recently added 11 high definition TV's
  • Come down and watch all the games in HI-Def!
• Across the street from the Sprint campus
• Daily food and drink specials
• Kids menu
• Selected 1/2 price appetizers from 3-6 pm everyday
• 2 Golden Tee golf games, 2 pool tables
• NTN trivia network, 23 tv's and eight satellite dishes.
• NFL Sunday ticket, Mega March Madness package etc..
• Space available to book all of your parties
• Party and meeting rooms available