Judy & Punch

It’s a great neighborhood bar, it’s located on the bustling 30^th ave and it’s located on a good strip of the ave. There are a ton of good eateries and bars on this strip. I like this place because the staff is always friendly and the draught beer selection is pretty bad ass. It’s a lively, fun bar, it’s a cool casual place to have a drinks, but they don’t sell food, it’s strictly a drinking place only. They also have a respectable happy hour Mon-​Fri from 4pm-​8pm for $ 5 drafts and $ 4 well drinks.

Partying on a Monday Night (Part ²⁄₃)
After receiving word that some of the Elites have situated themselves at a bar down the street, a handful of us made our way to Judy & Punch. I was pretty impressed with the space. The bar area itself is a decent size, and the floor looks like it can hold a lot of people.
I was even more impressed with the craft beer selection. I guess I should’ve expected Astoria to have craft beer, and it wasn’t a huge selection, but it’s what I’ve come to expect from a craft beer bar — Allagash, Duvel, Founders, etc. They also rotate beer selections, so what’s there today might not be there tomorrow or the week after. Colin, our bartender for the night, was a great host. Not only did he give me a blind taste test of beers I’ve never had, but he was spot on with his recommendations. Also, his singing voice… Colin, I am coming back one day just so we can sing duets together! (And I will be sober next time, I promise.) O:)
Interestingly, after two beers here, bringing my total consumption for the night to 7 drinks, I was officially drunk. (Note to self: never drink anything else after wine.) The adventure continues with Part ³⁄₃ at Zabb Elee.

Great bar in astoria to grab drinks with friends. Excellent beer selection and they even have PBR cans if you’re looking to save money. Bartenders are friendly and helpful too. Highly recommend!

Go-​to-​spot to try some new stouts & porters. Last week, they had a chocolate churro stout! Judy & Punch change it up almost every week and they have HH, where some beers are only 5 bucks! They also have a cozy outdoor seating area, which is open when it’s warmer out.
I always come here first to grab a quick drink before dinner in a nearby restaurant.

I came here to have a drink before an event close by. This no frills, relaxed bar was great. Just a cool bar. The décor is rustic, bikerish. I sat at the bar. It was great for happy hour. It was empty with a few patrons but then again it was early. I tried 2 beers and they were nice and strong. Definitely a great starter to the evening. The bartender was super friendly and cool. I shall definitely come back.

I met with a friend here before heading to a nearby event and I really liked the rocker bar vibe. The place wasn’t crowded but it was perfect, we sat at the bar and enjoyed some of the happy hour specials.
I found it super cute and old fashion that the bartender would keep tabs in a small note pad.
Not sure what the normal prices are like but happy hour its pretty affordable.

With frequent live music, cheap happy hours, free popcorn, outdoor back patio, and friendly staff, what’s there not to love about Judy Punch?!
A fairly new bar to Astoria, JP has attracted an electric group of patrons. in a good way. The crowds I’ve experience have always been drama free and laid back. The atmosphere can be described as warm, homey, unpretentious, and most importantly… fun! The garage door at the entrance is a nice touch during the warmer days of the year. You can just grab a beer and watch the world go by on 30^th avenue. JP is also a great spot for craft beers at affordable prices.
Overall, JP, Dom’s, and Shady are my go to’s on 30^th Ave and would definitely recommend any of them to you.

Imagine a place with the relaxed attitude of your favorite local dive, but with very good tap selections, both low and high cocktail options, and popcorn. This place is becoming my new local. Friendly staff, reasonable pricing, fair happy hour deals, and generous pours! I never fail to have interesting conversations with other neighborhood folks when I’m there.

Great no frills, no drama neighborhood bar. Love that it’s around the corner from my place too!
FOOD: there ain’t any. ;) Actually, bring in whatever you’d like. They’re cool with that. I’ve brought in 3 pizzas from Milkflower on several occasions, and aside from having to protect them from fellow patrons (kidding), the staff couldn’t care less. Oh, but they do serve popcorn if you find yourself in the mood for that.
DRINKS: this is a craft beer bar through and through. Everything from Southern Tier to Ommegang to larger (and smaller) breweries. There’s a liquor shelf as well, but this strikes me as primarily a beer bar.
PRICES: decent happy hour prices and otherwise fairly reasonable for what you get.

Super cool bar. Glad I finally came to check it out since they opened a while back.
Great beer selection, cool cocktail menu (I’d recommend the Judy Rose)
They play cool music and if it’s not too crowded, there’s some room to dance.
The bartenders are super friendly!
Also there is this subtle circus theme, which is pretty cool. Looking forward to coming back soon.

My boyfriend and I wandered in here yesterday while walking around Astoria (neither of us are familiar with the neighborhood), and we were instantly greeted by an incredibly friendly, genuine bartender and a top-​notch selection of beers. The indoor and outdoor spaces were trendy without trying too hard, the clientele seemed fun and down-​to-​earth, and the popcorn added a nice touch.
Will definitely come here again when in the neighborhood and recommend it to others when they’re spending time in Astoria!

This bar is a solid option on 30^th avenue. Good space and also a decently sized beer garden. Prices are about what you’d expect for any bar that isn’t necessarily a dive which I wouldn’t consider this place. I don’t mind the place at all to be honest and consider this a 3.5 star rating — i’m taking a star off because of the jukebox situation I had thrice here.
They need to flip a switch to get the jukebox to take when the bartenders phone music is playing so you’ll need to remember that.
But depending on who is working, they might literally flip your jukebox music off if it is a heavier rock song — not sure why they do this except maybe they’re afraid that it would kill the non-​pretension vibe and/​or attract extra meatheads to the joint. Matter-​o-​fact, if you search for some of your favorite rock bands before the days when folk-​rock and country-​pop were a thing, you wont find them on the box (e.g., no Metallica).
Not a big deal until you pump in a few hard earned dollars only to find them shutting it off twice for some overwraught and androgynously-​voiced hipster tunes. Guys the bar is cool but this isnt planet fitness and you don’t need to try so hard with a lunk alarm on the jukebox.

The good: It was easy to find seats at the bar. Price is not particularly cheap but not insanely expensive compared to some of the highway robbery in the Euro trash spots on 30^th «D-​Bag» ave. Décor is pretty standard fare for 30^th ave hipster trendy dive. Place seemed pretty clean for a dive.
The bad: The (maybe) 19 year old bartender didn’t know what a gin and juice was, got a little snippy with me over it, and basically served me a glass of OJ. I was this close /​/​to asking for toast with my morning breakfast. I’d feel safe giving the drink I was served to my little sister who is allergic to alcohol but vitamin C deficient. Not like she’d go into anaphylactic shock or anything! My date’s drink seemed a little small and heavy on the ice. The music was a mixture of top 40 crap and contemporary gangster rap neither of which we wanted to hear. Within an hour of screaming «SO HOW IS _____…WHAT…COME AGAIN!!!» into each other’s faces both me and my date’s voices were shot. We literally walked out of there sounding hoarse as Marge Simpson’s sisters.
The ugly: The crowd was almost exclusively dancing thugs, balding Euro trash, bella girls, and a smorgasboard of the usual Queens degenerates. (I’m a native and if you are too you’ll know the type.) I know it’s 30^th «D-​Bag Ave» but the name and décor led me to think this was a hipster bar not a hip-​hop bar. As stated by another reviewer everyone shouts obnoxiously loud but to be fair that’s the only way to have oneself heard above the din.
In conclusion: Borderline 1 star but it gets 2 because it’s close to Dominie’s and I think Judy & Punch is worth another try on a different night. Our drinks probably sucked because the music was so loud the bartender heard «…OJ» and «…cola». My reviews/​grading are very strict but I am not completely without compassion. I’d give it another shot because my best mates all swear they’ve gone there and had a good time and they seemed surprised when I told them how unimpressed I was.

Honestly, if the bartender wasn’t a nice and friendly server, this would have gotten one star. He himself gets 4 stars. I met a friend here, and she was running late. It was a weeknight around 8pm. The place was so obnoxiously loud, and it wasn’t the customers, it was the music. I couldn’t think. I almost left and went across the street to wait for my friend at the much quieter Bourbon & Vine.
Anyway, the clientele are all (or were, at least that night) lower class dumpsteresque people, meaning they were talking loudly and talking about too personal of topics that loud. Perhaps they were only shouting because of the music’s volume. I shouldn’t be so quick to judge – maybe they entered like me and were driven mad by the booze and decibel level.
This place is a wannabe dive bar. It isn’t a real dive, but it wants to give that air off. If you’re looking for a cocktail, go to Bourbon & Vine; if you’re looking for a dive bar, use the money you’d spend on drinks here to take a cab over to the Continental before it closes.

Stopped by on a Sunday afternoon after brunch, and I was immediately charmed by how EMPTY it was! Got to love being able to find a seat inside or out on the weekend. The bartender was super friendly, and they have weekend happy hour specials ($ 5 for any beer on tap, can’t remember the hours, but I think I was there around 4 – 6). During the summer, the outdoor patio is really nice, and shaded enough to stay out there for a while. Beer selection is pretty solid, and overall, enjoyably chill experience. It’s definitely a little divey, but in an intentional, laid-​back way.

I’ve been meaning to try Judy & Punch for awhile now, I walk past it regularly. Came here after dinner on a Sunday, I was impressed with the amount of people in there on a Sunday night. The bartender was attentive and friendly though we were only in here about 30 minutes at most. There was live music happening which we really enjoyed. The décor is pretty cool in here, divey but cool, there was a bathtub behind the bar with beers in it (i think), it was just neat looking.
The Crowd? I mean it’s def a bit hipster… though I didn’t feel strongly one way or the other about this, I guess I was indifferent to it because well… that’s what you get at the newer bars in Astoria.

Came here on Saturday night with like 20 people in tow (which later dropped to a more manageable 10 – 15). It was super crowded, but I guess that’s to be expected on a Saturday night in a small, tight-​spaced bar.
This was the drinks portion of my boyfriend’s birthday dinner/​drinks gathering and we had been wanting to check this place out for awhile, so this night seemed perfect.
I do wish this was a larger bar, but it’s not the end of the world, I get that there’s nothing they could do about that unless they tore down the place next to them. They have a casual circus theme that is cute, but not too much in your face and they also have complimentary popcorn freshly popping at the bar. I didn’t sample it because we had just come from dinner and yours truly was stuffed.
Judy & Punch has a creative and uniquely curated list of draft beers and some fun cocktails for folks who don’t like beer. I love good beer so that part worked out great for me. I ordered a stout called «Void of Light» from Gun Hill Brewing Company — this is a brewery in the (boogie down) Bronx that has been on my list of breweries to check out for some time.
This stout was insanely delicious and definitely one of the better sweet, milky stouts that I’ve had to date. My friend, Ingrid S., had another type of stout (Route of all Evil by Two Roads Brewing Company) which I also had after they ran out of «Void of Light» that wasn’t as good and had some intense hops. Not my fave.
I’m really in between 3 and 4 stars because I reeeeeeally wanted to love this place. I had heard so many great things on Unilocal and through friends of mine who had been here previously. Eventually the crowd dissipated and I was able to secure the entire back seating area for our group to sit down and finally be able to enjoy a conversation, but not before the group that previously had a part of this area were absolute jerks to me.
I wanted to snap a picture of a framed mermaid poster on the wall and I kindly let them know that I wasn’t being a creeper or taking photos of them, but instead taking a photo of something behind them. Yeah, I suppose I could have kept shut, but I thought I was being nice by giving them a heads up. Of course that opened the door to 2 of the guys in their group harassing me and taking a photo of me on his cell phone since it would last longer.
I regret not taking his phone and smashing it against the wall… I also normally have no problem putting little punks like these in their place, but it was my boyfriend’s birthday and I didn’t want to A.) ruin it for him or B.) have him get involved because 2 guys are disrespecting his girlfriend — so I took the high road and did my best to not have it sour my night.
Gonna go with 3 Unilocal stars based on my experience here. I would return if friends planned something here, but it probably wouldn’t be because I made plans to.

This is a nice addition for the craft beer scene. They have a great selection of craft beers on tap, which is what I look for in a bar. They also have happy hour M-​F from 4 – 8 for $ 5 16oz beers. This is not a bad deal.
The biggest drawback here is the lack of food. They do offer free popcorn to hold you over, but if you are hungry then you’ll need to go somewhere else. I would have been content in staying for another drink, but when my stomach wants food I must oblige.

My new favorite bar in the hood. Their beer selection is great. The free popcorn is mighty nice. The juke box plays some randomly amazing tunes. Takes you on a trip down memory lane. The bartenders are all awesome (I’ve been there a few times). They have Jameson 18 which you don’t see very often.
Also great people watching if you sit overlooking 30^th Ave. Will definitely be a regular here.

Not from the area, we walked by en route to an event and told ourselves we should come back and check it out. Walking by again after the event, we went in for a drink. On this Tuesday night there was a comfortable crowd. There were definitely seat fillers, but not every seat was taken. We walked in towards the end of trivia and were a bit bummed about it (although we both suck horribly at trivia).
Cool bartender.
Average prices.
Decent pours.
We liked the spot, but in our brief visit we didn’t experience anything memorable… other than an odd food-​burning smell that kept wafting by us out of nowhere since no food was being served.
If I lived closer, I might become a regular, but coming from RidgeWick, I wouldn’t make the trek just to come back, not yet at least. Cool spot though.