Rough around the edges would be an understatement, but definitely a neighborhood mainstay. Â Love the prices, love the people, and love its atmosphere. Â
Positive reinforcement dance-aroke is not your average karaoke. DJ Heatha Featha MCs the Saturday nights and makes sure everyone gets a turn on the microphone. Â Allan and Brad rock the Fridays. Â I'd say one of the better places with a quicker rotation. Â Guaranteed to get a good amount of songs to sing on any given Friday or Saturday night.
Love the bartenders. Â Ask Jessica for her Jessi-tini. Â Talk to Joe about sports; it will be educational. Â
Love the hours! Â Need a beer at 9am? Â Junkers has you covered.
And the prices...cant be beat.
I love this place. Â Have always gone for the friday or saturday night karaoke. Â Some of the best nights I've had in cincinnati have involved this place. Â The regulars are all characters, and generally very cool.
I have tried to sing karaoke in other bars since, but none have quite the charm, crowd or spirit of Junker's. Â Great way to spend Friday Night.
Cash only, still sometimes smokey, and definitely sweaty when it fills up around 11:30PM.
I used to live on Williamson Place in Northside, within walking distance of Junker's, but actually never went there until after I moved to a different part of Cincinnati. It looks pretty run-down and a bit scary from the outside... and, well, to be honest, still looks kind of run-down and scary when you first walk in. But the people are friendly, drinks are cheap, and (thanks to both of those things), weekend karaoke is a lot of fun.
Review Source:I'll admit it up front: I'm a Junker's homer. I've spent more Friday nights at this bar than any other place in Cincinnati and I rarely go there without seeing somebody I know. So my review comes with the bias that I know and like Junker's.
My short report looks like this:
Friendliness/Environment: 5
Drinks: 3
Value: 5
Atmosphere: 2
Karaoke: 5
Fun Factor: 5
A stalwart group of Junker's loyalists among my friend set urged me to come down to Junker's for some karaoke- they 'd been doing it for months and I finally acquiesced last fall around this time. I expected funny looks when I walked through the door of the tiny place, but was surprised to instead find... smiles. Handshakes. Hellos.
And, of course, my friends were there too.
Junker's is a really remarkably friendly environment. From the really capable and laid back vibe that the bartenders throw off, to the ever-supportive and chillaxed Brad running karaoke nights, to the multifaceted, multiinterested, multi-generational strangers you'll find yourself drinking, singing, and yes even dancing with, you feel like you're a part of a strange movie about fate and the meaning of life if you spend an evening there.
The drinks are nothing too special, but there's nothing particularly wrong about them, either. The buckets of minis go down easily, my friends occasionally enjoy ordering shots after a particularly jubilant karaoke triumph, and the bartenders are very willing to hook you up with just about anything you're looking for, as long as you're not looking for a fancy martini or something. The bar's cash only, which makes it easier to keep track of what you spend.
The best part about Junker's, which dovetails with my comment about the relaxed environment it puts off, is that there's a lot of karaoke there. What I love about karaoke at Junker's specifically, having tried a lot of the Northside venues, is that it's easy to get in to sing- but it's not just you alone up there, singing with varying levels of confidence into a microphone and wondering what you're doing while everyone else in the bar flips through their songbooks and tries to decide what to sing. Instead, everyone is paying attention to you. They're singing along. And yes- they're even *dancing* to your song. I've never felt like such a rockstar as when I'm standing at the mic at Junker's. It's pretty damn magical.
If you go there on Friday nights, I'm willing to bet you'll see me there sometime, and you should introduce yourself. I'll be nice, I promise- everyone else is, and it's just the Junker's way.
Junker's is shady. In a really good way. It's a tiny place with a bar on one side and booths on the other. The people are gruff but nice. They offer buckets of mini budweiser bottles for 5 bucks. It is rough around the edges but still remains better than most northside hubs. Oh, it closes at 1am though. A very nice choice over the other places around.
Review Source:
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