Ivy C.
Yelp
MY FAVORITE STORE! It's like Toys R Us for booze-lovin adults.
I'm sure it's great for 21-year olds that love E&J and Corona, but it's even better when you appreciate a huge selection of top-rated beer, wine, and spirits.
Here's the thing. As you get older, your palate gets more refined, your tolerance goes up, you're borderline alcoholic (those government standards are ridiculous!), AND you have more money to spend. Not that you WANT to spend more than you need.
Either way, you need to find all your options, compare ratings, and get better prices to afford your large collection of vices.
Let me tell you why this store is amazing.
I went to a job interview around Mountain View. Hour long presentation in front of 3 executives. Didn't think I did that well, so I was forced to come here to buy booze and relieve stress.
Strolled in and found a coupon for Racer 5 IPA. $11.99 for a 12-pack! It's $16.99 at BevMo. Saw tons of beers rated 90+. Some hard-to-find reserve collections of Belgium beers.
Stumbled upon a free wine tasting event. Well, $0.01 for legal reasons. The friendly employees gave awesome recommendations on wine and beer as we tasted some sparkling, reds and white wines.
Staff is super friendly, knowledgeable, and helpful. They recommended a $30 bottle of Beaucanon Cabernet Franc 2014. It's hard to find a 100% Cabernet Franc this good for under $100. They were spot on! Ever since, the price has risen. Even at $35 or $45, it's worth it. I say buy a whole case now.
They have my favorite single malt whiskey, Aberlour 16! I'd been paying about $20 more for it at BevMo.
They have about the same selection of beer that BevMo has. Refuge, Sculpin, Erdinger, Chimay, Firestone, Stone, etc.
They have some pretty cool events like wine and cheese pairings, beer and cider tasting classes, etc.
On top of the huge selection of wine, beer, and liquor, many of their wines and spirits are directly from the producer so no middleman. The workers told me they actually don't make a profit on some of these because they need to maintain an edge over Costco and BevMo.
If you buy 6 bottles of wine or more, it's 10-15% off. I believe you can mix and match. I've seen a lot of other weekly deals, too. Frankly, a 10% off coupon means you spend the same but get 10% more booze, right?
Best of all, I ended up getting that job in Mountain View, so looks like I'll be here every week!!