Liquor stores where you get GOOD service

[nd2005]

The result is that everything that they buy for the shelf is tasted before they are purchased so there are much fewer overpriced "craft" or mystery labels.

Now that is a valuable aspect of a store!

The stores near me are mostly flooded with craft junk...

[Hop]

I'll recommend One Stop Wines and Spirits in Johnson City TN. Douglas the manager there is very knowledgeable and nice to boot. They do some great store selections as well as offer tastings.

[fishnbowljoe]

Like someone else said, I really don't like to give away special places (it's getting harder every year just to come up with a couple of special bottles). However, since obviously since he is well known here I not giving away any secrets here, but I don't know of anyone that provides better customer service both to individuals and the Straightbourbon.com community than our own Lost Polito...Joe Maloney. Tell me another store that would accomodate our get togethers the way that Binny's has....and they only do that because of Joe's efforts. Despite how busy he may be he gives personal attention and never tries to push you into items just to move the merchandise.

[TomH]

I'll second this one.:bowdown:If only the South Loop store was just a little closer……..:crazy:

Joe

[theglobalguy]

In the Nashville area, Red Dog in Franklin has the best customer service hands down. Small store with a huge selection at good prices. You can try almost any spirit in the store at their bar before you buy. They also have LOTS of great store selected whiskeys. Well worth the visit if you are in middle TN.

Have to second Red Dog. I swing down to the Nashville area a few times a year and have continually been impressed. They may stock a good deal of craft products, but they let you sample for free and will openly direct you to interesting and less costly choices.

TPS and Cork N Bottle in Cincy/Covington, KY (I tend to hit the location away from downtown) both have knowledgable staff and wide variety of offerings.

Back home in Louisville I tend to enjoy Westport Whiskey. Tasting bar setup is a bit odd, in that you might not realize they have one without walking in the tasting/event room. Staff always willing to let me wander or interact.

[garbanzobean]

I really like Westport Whiskey. I almost always try to stop by there when I come through Louisville. They have an interesting scotch whisky selection, and had some great store selects the last two times I rolled through town. Their prices can be slightly on the high side for scotch whisky, but the very reasonable tasting room and extremely friendly staff make me not mind paying a little bit extra.

[Vosgar]

Like someone else said, I really don't like to give away special places (it's getting harder every year just to come up with a couple of special bottles). However, since obviously since he is well known here I not giving away any secrets here, but I don't know of anyone that provides better customer service both to individuals and the Straightbourbon.com community than our own Lost Polito...Joe Maloney. Tell me another store that would accomodate our get togethers the way that Binny's has....and they only do that because of Joe's efforts. Despite how busy he may be he gives personal attention and never tries to push you into items just to move the merchandise.

You're absolutely right Tom, Joe is simply......THE BEST! Since the S. Loop store is about an hour and a half drive for me, I don't get there very often but Joe always treats me like we're best friends and have been buddies for life. He knows what I like and has steered me to some wonderful bottles (from the darkside mainly) that I wouldn't have otherwise known about. A wealth of knowledge and always some great stories make every trip informative and entertaining.

[ThirstyinOhio]

I live in Ohio who is a control state who gets almost no LE stuff as has been mentioned, but the two places I shop at the most is Lake Beverage and Silver Spirits in Akron. The owner at Lake Beverage is a great guy but they don't have the same selection as Silver Spirits, but I try to buy most of my local stuff from there. To get some hard to find stuff or simply items that Ohio refuses to carry, I use a contact on here who requested I not share his info so I won't, but to you good sir, THANK YOU!

[mhatzung]

Super Fine Wine and Liquor in Canton, MI is about the only store I enjoy going to in my area. I can't speak to special editions, etc. because of my self imposed $40 limit, but they have an excellent shelf of bourbons and are priced at state minimum pricing. I believe if it is available in Michigan, you will find it on their shelf. Very friendly staff and mostly bourbon knowledgeable.

[t44tq]

Astor is great in my view: they are very helpful, they have fair prices for the area and they have a nice space that allows you comfortably browse their selection. They do some private barrels, also.

I have to recommend against Park Avenue Liquor. Their prices are regularly the worst I am aware of outside of the tourist trap in Grand Central and they are one of two places I have dealt with who tried to sell me a Stagg Jr., repeatedly, as a G.T. Stagg substitute, for $150. Their store layout is incredibly cramped, you really can't browse what they have so you have to rely on whoever is behind the counter to let you know what they may actually have and how much it costs, and their hours are really short. Check them out online - I have yet to see them have a competitive price on anything. It's like they have a worst price guarantee. Their bourbon selection did not impress me at all and I am not in the market for $500+ bottles of scotch (their alleged claim to fame), so their selection in general is just not that interesting to me. But maybe if you are a journalist who is willing to give them a favorable mention, they would cut you a deal.

Their prices are not the best, that wasn't the point of the thread. It's about service. Their whisky buyer is very knowledgeable and once you get to know him, he will turn you on to a lot of good whisky. They almost always have stuff that you can't find nearly anywhere else. Their private SMWS bottling of Highland Park is very, very good. They have single grain whisky, which is nearly impossible to find in the US. I just picked up a bottle of Springbank CS single sherry cask 16 yr., which I have been looking for and haven't found anywhere else.

I have not tried to buy much bourbon there, and Stagg Jr. at $150 sounds ridiculous- I don't know if I can even believe that, as that is triple retail. They don't sell at that much of a markup.

[ethangsmith]

I'll also give a big thumbs up to Midway. Stan IS the man.

+1 on Midway Liquors...Stan the owner is a great guy, and all of his barrel selections I've tried have been phenomenal!

[dcbt]

For good service, I gotta throw out Bambooze Fine Wine & Liquor in Pensacola, FL. I live in Texas but was vacationing there this summer and called them ahead of time to see about setting aside some SAOS10 for me (since we can't get it in Texas). I started with a google search for liquor stores in the area and happened across their website that showed they carried SAOS. I then called them, and Stephen Loveless was more than accommodating.

As an aside, when I got there and spoke with him, I told him our whiskey selection in Texas is pretty lacking, and he said he had a group of customers from Houston who regularly flew in to buy beer from him. That seemed insane to me, but it must mean he has a decent beer selection (though I never really looked).

[danz]

Their prices are not the best, that wasn't the point of the thread. It's about service. Their whisky buyer is very knowledgeable and once you get to know him, he will turn you on to a lot of good whisky. They almost always have stuff that you can't find nearly anywhere else. Their private SMWS bottling of Highland Park is very, very good. They have single grain whisky, which is nearly impossible to find in the US. I just picked up a bottle of Springbank CS single sherry cask 16 yr., which I have been looking for and haven't found anywhere else.

I have not tried to buy much bourbon there, and Stagg Jr. at $150 sounds ridiculous- I don't know if I can even believe that, as that is triple retail. They don't sell at that much of a markup.

It sounds like you like Park Avenue and their whisky buyer, so you won't be persuaded by or believe anything I say about them.

However, for others who stumble across this thread (it is public) or the massive hype Park Avenue has generated for themselves: $150 for Stagg Jr. is very real. That is what Park Avenue tried to get me to pay on 3 separate occasions last year, after I called them on it being three times suggested retail, each of those three times. And, I told them I could buy it closer to my home for retail. I also followed up with them by email about the issue to give them a chance to explain themselves and they ignored it. I was a regular customer, despite their bad prices and hours, because I believed their hype at the time. However, that conduct is representative of a fundamental lack of honesty and a very particular type of contemptuous view that they should try to rip off their customers at every chance they can. Their attitude also comes across in interviews I have seen with the owners about a year ago in Whisky Advocate. As another example, they surely know full well that Ardgeg Uigeadail is now far closer to a 12 year Ardgeg Lasanta than to the old stock it used to be just a couple of years ago, yet they insist on pricing it at $85, when the K&L and control jurisdiction pricing of about $56 is the "right" price for what it is now. (A small part of the Uigeadail NY pricing is due to NY's goofy legal system, which limits the ability for stores to get volume discounts, but nowhere near this much.)

In sum, Park Avenue has demonstrated themselves to me to be rude, dishonest and contemptuous of their customers, and their bad pricing is a manifestation of those attitudes. In other words, they provide bad service. They do provide a certain sort of cliched "New York jerk" entertainment value, but once is enough to get that out of your system. It doesn't matter to me what they may have that you can't find elsewhere, it is not worth supporting this type of conduct. This is not the sort of place a reasonable person would shop. This is the sort of place a person would send their assistant to fetch them multiple bottles of $60,000 Macallan because they get a lot of satisfaction from sending people on errands like that and so the store owners can brag about it to Whisky Advocate.

[t44tq]

Danz, from your post, you sound like you will never buy from Park Ave and will not be swayed to the contrary, either.

Did you deal with them in person or remotely? I find them to be impossible on the phone, BTW. I only deal with them in person. Their website is horrible as well.

[garbanzobean]

From an outsider's perspective, Park Ave. liquors is one that I look for for "foreign" (mostly scotch) whisky items that are either exclusive (their relationship with Compass Box in particular results in some amazing stuff) or hard to find elsewhere. Most of that stuff is really very reasonably priced compared to the market. That said, they do tend to use the more heavily hyped up products to subsidize their more obscure items*. It's NYC, which is arguably where this whole PVW hype train originated from, so you're going to pay for the trendy stuff. Just a fact of life there. There's tons of money in the city, so merchants are going to charge prices they think the suits will pay. Right now, that means Ardbeg, Macallan, and a lot of various bourbons. If you're into trying lots of store exclusive scotch whiskies and IBs, I think they are great. If you want to buy bourbon or more popular scotch OBs, you will do better elsewhere. Again, just my opinion. At least the Park Ave folks are friendly, even though I'm upfront about the fact that I go where the selection is for IBs, but go where the prices are best for most everything else.

*Though Oogie costs just as much in MD as it does at Park Ave. Good thing I don't care for it . . .

[danz]

Danz, from your post, you sound like you will never buy from Park Ave and will not be swayed to the contrary, either.

Did you deal with them in person or remotely? I find them to be impossible on the phone, BTW. I only deal with them in person. Their website is horrible as well.

I dealt with them in person, and the third confirmation of the Stagg Jr. $150 price by phone. They recently redesigned their website. The nature of my work makes it difficult to get to their store before their daily closing at 700 pm, and the idea of sending an assistant to fetch me whisky during business hours just rubs me the wrong way and smacks of everything I think is wrong with their mindset.

At this point you are right, there is pretty much nothing that would get me to do business with Park Ave. However, to hold them up as the premier example of liquor merchants in NY, I believe, perpetuates a negative stereotype of New Yorkers as rude, arrogant and fundamentally dishonest. I have found those traits, if anything, to be slightly less prevalent here than in other places I have lived and done business.

Eric, check locations in the DC area for Oogie prices. I predict they will end up around the K&L prices over the next few years. The current product is good at under $60. At $60 or more, I no longer feel it is worth it and I question the motives of selling it for higher prices.

-Dan

[garbanzobean]

Oh I can find it for a cheaper price elsewhere (Monty County, some other places), but I don't want it for any price. I don't think it is very good. I was just pointing out that is a common MD price.

[t44tq]

I dealt with them in person, and the third confirmation of the Stagg Jr. $150 price by phone. They recently redesigned their website. The nature of my work makes it difficult to get to their store before their daily closing at 700 pm, and the idea of sending an assistant to fetch me whisky during business hours just rubs me the wrong way and smacks of everything I think is wrong with their mindset.

At this point you are right, there is pretty much nothing that would get me to do business with Park Ave. However, to hold them up as the premier example of liquor merchants in NY, I believe, perpetuates a negative stereotype of New Yorkers as rude, arrogant and fundamentally dishonest. I have found those traits, if anything, to be slightly less prevalent here than in other places I have lived and done business.

Eric, check locations in the DC area for Oogie prices. I predict they will end up around the K&L prices over the next few years. The current product is good at under $60. At $60 or more, I no longer feel it is worth it and I question the motives of selling it for higher prices.

-Dan

Dan,

I understand what you mean- I just never had that experience myself. Just to look into what you were saying, I checked their price on a weird OB Springbank and they were $10 more than Schneider's in DC, but less than a bunch of other places.

I have been there a bunch of times and have never been treated badly. They also know I won't pay an exorbitant price for things- they had Pappy 15 for $850.

I don't really ever buy bourbon from them, so maybe they're crazy with bourbon prices.

[PaulO]

I find that I get good service at Meijer and CVS. Everything is well displayed and prices are easy to read. You don't have to look or point through bullet proof glass. I don't think they hide anything in the back. It's also nice that I can browse a couple minutes without being bothered. None of their employees has ever tried to tell me Willett Pot Still is good, or any such nonsense. Their prices are competitive. The only down side is; they don't seem to stock anything that there's a chance they'd run out of. If you want: MM, WT, KC, or most of the Beam products, here you go.

[393foureyedfox]

I find that I get good service at Meijer and CVS. Everything is well displayed and prices are easy to read. You don't have to look or point through bullet proof glass. I don't think they hide anything in the back. It's also nice that I can browse a couple minutes without being bothered. None of their employees has ever tried to tell me Willett Pot Still is good, or any such nonsense. Their prices are competitive. The only down side is; they don't seem to stock anything that there's a chance they'd run out of. If you want: MM, WT, KC, or most of the Beam products, here you go.

exactly the same thing here with Rite-Aid pharmacies. decent selection, but nothing rare/limited.....and prices that often beat the big stores on a regular basis. Nothing over $50 generally, but a good spread of bottom and mid-shelfers.

I dont shop at stores enough to establish relationships with them, nor do I care to. Its kinda like car shopping to me....I hate getting harassed and offers of help shopping, I just like to look mostly, and leave empty handed probably more often than I do with a purchase.

[bjhowell]

Joe Maloney at Binnys is absolutely the best. A wealth of knowledge and a good guy. Always enjoy chatting with him when I call for an order. He's a guy that truly enjoys his craft and it shows.

[fishnbowljoe]

I find that I get good service at Meijer and CVS.

We have two Meijer stores opening up in my area in the very near future. I'm looking forward to seeing how they compare. Might prove interesting. A few stores around here tend to gouge quite a bit. If they start losing business because of Meijer, who knows what'll happen.

[P&MLiquorsEric]

I find that I get good service at Meijer and CVS. Everything is well displayed and prices are easy to read. You don't have to look or point through bullet proof glass. I don't think they hide anything in the back. It's also nice that I can browse a couple minutes without being bothered. None of their employees has ever tried to tell me Willett Pot Still is good, or any such nonsense. Their prices are competitive. The only down side is; they don't seem to stock anything that there's a chance they'd run out of. If you want: MM, WT, KC, or most of the Beam products, here you go.

So no service is good service? We have been doing it all wrong! A simple "no thank you" when help is offered should get you plenty of alone time.

Have to love those anti theft bottle toppers on 750s of Jim beam 4 year though.

[PaulO]

Eric, I was being a little sarcastic after some of the previous posts. I have found that the smaller chain liquor stores around Indy: stock a good selection, pick nice barrels, charge fair prices, have friendly staff etc. Grocery and drug store for the common stuff. Good liquor store for harder to find items.