March 31, 2011
A couple blocks away from my house, I had to tick this place. Very skeptical of its high score and terrible looking sign. Glad I went because this is a solid place. Its located at a bad intersection of Elston and Fullerton, not far from the cluster fu#* that is Damen, Fullerton, and Elston. Anyway, take the back way by coming up Elston and avoid the mess. The store is part of a strip mall, from the outside doesn’t look like much but on older run down liquor store. As I walk in, pretty shocked as its new looking, nice, and very spacious. The beer is located to the right in 6 coolers. The middle of the store has 3 rows of hard liquor, good selection... Immediately I’m happy with the beer selection as its a tickers dream as this is one of the only Chicago stores that sales beers normally only available in 6packs as singles. The beers are almost exclusively midwestern stuff, but high quality. They had sixers of Alpha King, Gumballhead, and Pride & Joy, along with Drie Oude Gueze, and lots of Grand Teton. There is definitely space for this place to grow and add a ton more beer. I can’t imagine that it gets the foot traffic to do that though. Despite liking this place I can’t really imagine going back there as there are so many other stores just as close with much bigger selections. I would maybe come back if I just had to get some Alpha King or I just happened to be right there and wanted a quick tick. A good place, just hampered by location and selection right now.

February 16, 2010 [ Updated November 14, 2011 ]
2011: Expanded shelves, 2 full cooler doors of singles and bombers. Patronizing small, independent businesses keeps money in the neighborhood and sustains the local economy. Support your local neighborhood bottle shop. If you don’t get that, you’re a special kind of idiot. Edit March 2010: Added a full door of singles to the cooler, some of the best prices on the north side.... They are just getting started, but already stock a nice selection of craft staples, with a focus on local/regional brewers. The guy working there was really friendly and mentioned they will order beers for you. I asked for Hopslam, and it was there a couple days later. Awesome! Sample list of the beers they carry: Three Floyds (Black Sun, Dreadnaught, + sixers), Abita, Allagash, Arcadia, Avery, Bells (Hopslam, Expy), Breckenridge, Coniston, Dark Horse, Delirium, Dogfish, Flying Dog, Founders, Goose Island, Great Divide, Great Lakes, Green Flash (West Coast IPA sixers + bombers), Lagunitas, Left Hand, Lost Abbey, Magic Hat, Metropolitan, Moylans, New Belgium, New Holland, Port Brew, Rogue, Ska, St Louis, Two Brothers, Victory, Wells, Koningshoeven, Kulmbacher, Leffe, Pauwel Kwak, Saison Dupont, Tripel Karmeleit. New this week: Half Acre lineup, Daisy Cutter & Big Hugs plus the 2 standard sixers. They have plenty of room to expand, and are off to a good start with the beer selection. It’s a little hard to find, it’s behind the subway/dunkin donuts, actually facing Elston Ave. There’s a small parking lot in front. Look for the neons in the window, they don’t have anything on the shopping center sign yet.