Johns Grocery

September 15, 2008
Impressed but not overwhelmed. GREAT wine selection but that’s for another site. Beer selection was good but now that I’m a few months into the beer experience, I’m rarely surprised anymore. DO NOT TRUST THEIR WEBSITE. Told me they had 4 beers I was looking for and I only found 1 (St Bernardus Abt 12). Great selection anyway and was really impressed with the glassware. Worth a trip to the worst city in Iowa.

August 29, 2008
In a very old neighborhood of Iowa City, this clearly started out as a neighborhood grocery, the kind that used to be in all those empty buildings on Chicago neighborhood corners. Just two aisles, jammed to the ceiling with product, cooler and freezer added wherever they’d fit, owners lived upstairs. Sometime back they took over the neighboring space and stuck in a beer store way beyond the comprehension of most college students. Plenty of display space for imports, Belgians especially. But for me the find was the local brews: not just the Millstream, Schell’s and Boulevard you can find at Hy-Vee, but also Sutliff cider and Hub City. Also was pleased to find Samichlaus Helles and Bahnhof Berliner Weisse. Just remember, the 5-cent bottle deposit, and the liquor tax on anything over 6%. Plenty of single bottles. They also had a list of keg prices and I noticed the policy is now that kegs are not returnablea resource for homebrewers? If I had been the beer geek back at Iowa State in 1980 that I am now, I’d have finally found something to be jealous of the Hawkeyes over.

August 22, 2008
Not a bad little shop, selection is not to bad its the best i have found in iowa so far.

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.

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 Unfortunately some of the beer I have bought have been outdated.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.

June 6, 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!

May 4, 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.

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.

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.

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.