Big Bad John’s

If you ever visit victoria. That’s the place to go. Where peanut shell goes on the floor, Bra’s hanging off the ceiling. Kenny Rogers records rocking the house.
You might want to get the best ever moonlight signature burger with salad and he’ll yeah Rabt blue ribbon bear. Damn good cowboy !

Nice try at a dive bar but the key word here is try… to much trying and country theme nonsense.

All the right fixin’s for a dive bar: Low key location, low maintenance, small, tacky, outdated.
Ventured in here for a beer and felt like I was in the right place. Nothing like a nice dive to toss pretension out the window and just have a good time.

Interesting bar! You pay the waitress right when u order so bring cash. Ordered two ciders for $ 14. Kinda expensive for what it is. Lots of locals there. Very cool atmosphere. You sit on burlap bags style booths and peanuts are free in kiddy sand buckets. They serve food but it is limited. Wings, dry ribs, basic burger. Menu is built in on the table so you don’t need to ask for a menu. Its a bit dark but adds to the atmosphere. Bras everywhere and the walls are interesting to look at! Stop in for a drink and some peanuts. The dry ribs are small and not meaty as per the waitress but I didn’t order them so can’t speak for myself. I stopped by on a Friday around 9pm. Might be hard to find a seat as we grabbed the last table.

Perfect hole in the wall to slug back some beers and have a carefree good time! Lots of friendly travelers. Don’t come here expecting anything fancy.

Such a great dive bar! Spent a few hours visiting and meeting regulars and tourists alike and the atmosphere is just so fun. You get peanuts with your drinks and you can shuck the shells anywhere and the walls are covered in memorabilia, also they play lots of Johnny Cash.

You never to disappoint. I used to go to Big Bad Johns 20 years ago and even left a bra there once.
No more bras but still a fun time. We went on a Friday night and it was packed.

Smaller venue yet way large on charector an good spirits. enjoying conversation from locals.
«why didn’t the ghost go to the dance… had no body to go with!» .
Haaaaa

We were staying in the Strathcona Hotel connected to this bar and were excited to try it out. It didn’t disappoint. This place was full of unpretentious people of all ages having a hugely fun Saturday night.
The drinks were cheap/​reasonably priced. $ 4.50 for lager sleeves or rum and cokes on a Saturday night. You are greeted by an overall-​clad ‘hillbilly’ on your arrival, who slaps down a sizeable bucket of peanuts on your table and asks what he can get you. He was a nice guy and was quick and friendly serving us every time. If you’re sitting at a table, you’ll need to pay with cash, or go up to the bar to order if you want to pay with card.
The décor of this place is fascinating — kind of like a Disneyland western set gone dirty. It’s pretty cosy and good fun to look at all the junk left on the walls by those who have passed through over the 50 years its been in business.
The music is country, the people are fun, the drinks are cheap. Perfect.

I have a hard time being objective when discussing BBJ because every time I go there, they kick me out!
That said, never, even once, has it been my idea to patronize this Disney-​fied bullshit palace.
A wise man once said; «Create the simulacra and it will replace the actual»
Big Bad John’s is not actually a real dive bar, they just dressed up a corporate hotel amenity to approximate that designation, and amateur drinkers swallow it, hook line and sinker. It is the terrestrial television version of a dive bar, burning man for alcoholics, not actually skid, but «safe-​skid» meaning they provide the surface tension of actual risk and grottiness whilst actively discouraging any sort of visceral chaos.
I will commend them for having a 100% GLBT hiring policy, that is very welcome in this backwater burg known as Victoria city, BUT they might try and suggest to the «Bear» bartender that this is NOT a Dinge-​Queen Toilet and he should put a shirt on under the stupid overalls he wears every shift since he started there without laundering once, and that the archaic highly codified signifier s and behavioral mores do not apply anywhere outside of the lowest 25cent movie glory hole parlors he is used to policing.
If you want a wax museum you should go to Niagara Falls, as Victoria has sold the building to Robt. Bateman and poorly done false fronts are no longer in fashion here, no matter what the «word of mouth» on the street here tells you about what «swell times» and «larks» await you at Big Bad John, it is too baloney to even be honored with the appointment of «FAKE»

I love beer.
I love peanuts.
I love Bras.
Fun people in a crappy dive.
If you are a sucker for a dive bar, stop in at Big Bad Johns!

I went to Big Bad John’s awhile back while traveling since it had good reviews online. The food was pretty good and the atmosphere was interesting, to say the least. However, the service was pretty lousy. They took our order and we never saw another waiter again until maybe 40 minutes later when our food was served by a different server; no one ever checked up on us. We were only in town for a few hours and this long wait really cut our vacation time.

Pretty sure I have never been covered in so many peanut shells in my life! People are pretty amazing around there! Had such a blast!

Great fun, great music! Great vibe! This is a bar I could frequent — if I didn’t enjoy beer. Other than the beer selection, it’s as good as a place gets! The food was fantastic, and the night was amazing! Lots of local folks, all with big smiles! Loved it!

We went by this afternoon. The posted pictures depict the inside accurately (US dollar bills posted everywhere and dust too). Seating is limited but the bartender was friendly. The salty peanuts do make you crave your next drink.

This is a gem in Victoria. They serve free peanuts to get you more thirsty so that u can drink more beer, nothing wrong with that ;)

Here’s why I love Big Bad John’s and you should too:
1. Peanuts
2. Random bras hanging from the ceiling
3. The guys that work there
4. The overalls (see 3)
5. The spider (if you go, you’ll know what I mean).
6. The bat (see 5)
7. The business cards.
8. The location.
9. The random selection of beer
10. The whole damn place.
Seriously, you wont be disappointed.

Bring your lady friends… not your mom!
My good friend told me to, «go to big bad johns — it’s real memorable» … and then I bumped into an 75 year old man in Victoria that told my mom and I, «if you want to misbehave, go to big bad johns»
So there we went, Mom and I, wandering down the street, mid-​day to kick-​back with a casual beer and put our feet up to relax.
Well some important things to note:
1) Don’t go here during the day… the sunlight makes it totally noticeable that the place has not been cleaned since it opened 51 years ago [True Stat: it opened 51 years ago]
2) Drinks are cheap beers (and they have some tasty classics on tap) — so use your extra bills to staple to the walls instead. The more you drink, the more clever the message you write on your dollars will be… I think that last they they need in there is another «Call _​_​_​_​at 555−555−555 for a good time».
3) If you don’t have a dollar bill to leave on the wall, this is the type of part that gladly accepts you to leave your bra instead… Add it to the collection of boulder-​holders that dangle above the bar!
— Go there at night, when it’s busy and it distracts your eyes, go for the cheap drinks, overly salty peanuts in shells, and for the drunken memories you’ll never remember.

They’re a little bit cramped and cozy, their bartender seems like he’d always be ornery, and it does feel like the basement of a five star hotel, but Big Bad Johns has it’s charms. Namely those left behind by patrons over many years of service. The music is country, the menu is peanuts, the beer is cheaper than Victoria standards, and they don’t clean too often which, in this case, is a good thing.
I could write several more paragraphs simply describing sitting around and drinking beer at Big Bad John’s and still have difficulty conveying the details. The tabletops are stuffed with ID’s, business cards, flyers, and anything else typically found in a wallet — a deactivated bank card with my name is in a table in the back corner right now. I stole someone’s student go card to fit it in. There were plenty of student ID’s on display, it’s likely they make up much of the regular patronage.
The walls are covered in bras, panties, pictures, engraved hearts with initials and a + sign. If you’re short on a souvenir to bring home, try a white laced double D bra autographed with a sharpie. Other posters of note include touching epitaphs to former customers and staff.
The floors are a bit sticky and covered in peanut shells, which were as likely to come from your table’s bucket as the one you’re sitting next to. Old country music plays quietly from the speakers, but nobody gives a damn whether you know the songs or not. I’ve heard the bartender, who’s not named John, likes to sleep in the cellar when it’s quiet. He doesn’t talk when he can rasp loudly, in a amusing «wise» prose.
This place came highly recommended, and I don’t feel it fell short of my expectations. If you feel like Victoria is too clean, too polite, or just boring, try coming here instead of the sports bar.

I’m not sure if this place is authentic or a well disguised tourist haunt. No matter, Big Bad John’s (BBJ) is a dirty, tacky little place in the tourist area of Victoria. I was there in mid afternoon and the three other customers were locals. BBJ’s is the definition of «dive», but the bartender was nice, the rockabilly music was refreshing, and the beer prices were cheap.
Near the end of my stay a drunk female local came in and provided me with some entertainment (not gratis, as I bought her a cheap beer). Eventually she dumped all of the nearby containers of free peanuts in her bag and was told to leave and not come back. Her visit was more entertaining than the weird-​ass fishing line tricks the bartender pulls. (If you want to know more about them, you’ll need to visit BBJ’s)