Johns Grocery

7/11/2008 1:11:25 PM, friday, july 11, 2008
If I ever travel through Iowa City I will stop at John’s to see their selection. The place is not well organized and somewhat dirty. When I could get someone to talk to about the beer, they talked down to me as if I did not know anything about beer and they were better than I was.

6/19/2008 9:12:27 AM, thursday, june 19, 2008
I will stop at John’s if I am traveling through the Iowa City area. Unfortunately some of the beer I have bought have been outdated. They have a good selection but it is unorganized.

6/6/2008 3:46:33 PM, friday, june 06, 2008
Mail order: I can’t tell you how terrific this store is at following up...I have had them do some investigating for me several times and they are world class for sure....great selection and service!

5/4/2008 8:23:23 AM, sunday, may 04, 2008
The place seemed very unorganized and dirty. I did not receive friendly service. The selection was nice but hard to find certain items as it was not arranged very well.

4/28/2008 9:42:18 PM, monday, april 28, 2008
The glass collection is in the house next door! I’m glad they told us! I walked away with about $ 170 in damage, mostly from the 10 glasses I bought (which included a 3.0 L Weihenstephaner) and I also bought a De Dolle Oerbier framed poster. Honestly, I was a little disappointed with the American craft beers of strength, but that isn’t something they can control, from what I hear. The beer selection overall was a little disappointing. I also wanted to go in the cave and they said no. All things considered, it was still worth the detour to attend Johns Grocery and it’s a great establishment.

4/28/2008 10:32:04 AM, monday, april 28, 2008
This store has a very nice selection of beers, and I could spend hours looking around. I think my favorite part of the store is the fact that it feels very homey...full of narrowish isles and alcoves containing beer. This hinders patrons’ abilities to maneuver around each other in some places, but it makes for a more intimate setting. It was very busy when I was there, with a line at least a dozen people deep that snaked back to the beer section, but the staff worked quickly. There wasn’t anyone available to help me find a particular beer though, which was disappointing because their website said they had it, but I could not locate it (even though the beers are nicely arranged by type/brewer). For the most part it is a good store though. I will be going back whenever I am in Iowa City.

3/21/2008 11:26:38 AM, friday, march 21, 2008
Funky little grocery/liquor store. Easy to find off of I80. They had a really nice selection of Belgian and British beer. Plenty of American micros, mostly from the Midwest. The micro selection was a bit lacking due to Iowa liquor laws according to the very helpful worker. Apparently beer above 6% is considered liquor. For some reason this didn’t affect the foreign beers as much. They did have some of the high ABV offerings from Goose Island and Flying Dog. Plenty of singles available. Prices seemed reasonable. If you are a glassware geek, you will love this place. They had a great selection of Belgian glassware. We had a great lunch a couple of blocks away at a place called Atlas. So it was a nice stop on our voyage.

1/8/2008 3:31:20 AM, tuesday, january 08, 2008
A lot of different beers, yes, but the amount of GOOD micros is lacking. Of course, it still does a kickass job for Iowa’s standards. Lots of Belgians, but again, too many of those were a bit boring. Overall though, can’t do much to beat it in IA.

1/7/2008 6:18:50 PM, monday, january 07, 2008 [ Updated saturday, march 29, 2008 ]
Spent my college years living on the same street as this place. Employees are passable at best, but the beer selection can’t be beat in iowa. Great import selection. As with most iowa stores the domestic big brews are lacking, but better than any other place in iowa. Parking can be a pain on busy days, but if you don’t mind walking a block or two it is never an issue. Edit to add I now work here, yet I have not messed with my ratings, hopefully employees stop being passable at best )

10/24/2007 9:05:08 PM, wednesday, october 24, 2007 [ Updated wednesday, october 24, 2007 ]
Noticed another’s rating on this website mentioning Dirty John’s and looked closer...lo and behold its right off of I-80 and I’m driving from Omaha to Chicago that week. Pretty easy to find (parking kinda sucks) if you’re taking the incredibly exciting drive on I-80 across IA and need a break. People were pleasant, and the corner grocery store ambiance is kinda nice. Talked with someone about getting the higher end Bell’s products, and apparently everything has to go through a clearinghouse in IA if its above 6% ABV (classified as hard liquor) and so they are somewhat hurting in the better domestic brews. Good selection of European brews...I’d make another stop here in the future, especially due to its location