May 24, 2012
I actually didnt buy anything here because an emergency came up but I did spend about 20 minutes walking around. The beer room can be a bit difficult to find if you enter through the produce department, but just ask. Excellent selection, friendly staff, and nice ambiance. It’s not just an area of Whole Foods, it’s essentially an attached beer store.

April 24, 2012
Checked this place out early on in my visit, but never made it back to pick up some bottles. Unlike other WFM, they have a separate store just for the beer complete with a 6 tap growler station. Lots of bottles available from all over, many of which I don’t see in NC. Prices were pretty reasonable for the city.

February 28, 2012
The best bottle selection I’ve seen in New York yet. Great span of imports, regional, and national micros. Some very limited stuff on the new arrival shelf and a treasure trove for someone with limited distribution in Rhode Island (though not Boston quality, IMO). Prices were good. Note that near the registers there’s a cooler with a fantastic range of cans that’s not available in the little beer section.

January 29, 2012
Pretty amazing selection of imports here. I didn’t really like being in there that much and the employees were only marginally helpful with my rather large haul. Also, the prices were killing me. Still, kind of a must stop if you’re already in the area visiting New Beer or whatever.

January 9, 2012
Amazing beer selection at this whole foods. 6 or so growler stations to go. Small beer selection inside the main part of the store, but a whole alcove passed the express registers. Amazing selection, well laid out. You can spend quite a bit of money here. An essential stop as far as bottle shops are concerned. Plenty of homebrewing supplies and equipment as well. A very good selection of homebrewing books. Beers seemed a bit on the pricier side of things. A decent amount of cider too. I knocked off quite a few wants list items here.

December 2, 2011
Thought I had rated this place before, but apparently not. Very nice selection of bottles and a few growlers. Staff here are happy and helpful, which seems to be a running theme with Whole Foods, but on top of that, the beer staff actually does seem to be fairly knowledgeable. However, the best two things about this Whole Foods don’t have to do with the great amount of beer here. Great thing number one: Only a couple of blocks from New Beer Distributors. Great thing number two: Really nice space upstairs that you can hang out and just be a bum, which is often being done by a large amount of people, but it’s still nice and fairly tranquil. Though last time there was definitely a homeless guy sitting at the table behind us eating 6 whole lemons.

November 20, 2011
I only visited the beer store here so I can’t speak for the food. Beer selection was awesome. 5 or 6 rotating taps that they do 32 and 64 oz grolwers from. I mainly went for stuff I can’t get or find in PA and grabbed about 6 different cap lawrence bottles and some 3 fonteinen and other randoms. Impressive amount of bottles. Prices were slightly high but mostly fair. Staff was friendly and helpful.

November 8, 2011
I was pretty disappointed when I started walking through the store and saw a small area that had some beer. Thankfully, that wasn’t the beer room. The beer room was pretty huge with all sorts of stuff. They had lots of locals, plenty of imports, homebrewing supplies, and a nice growler filling station area. As rudolf noted, the massive windows on two sides are a concern especially with a good portion of the beers being right next to them. Prices weren’t bad at all. They also had a beer tasting (Innis & Gunn) goign on while I was there. Solid store.

October 20, 2011
A nice store with a wide selection. Service was helpful enough. I was a bit concerned about the lighting - they’ve got floor to ceiling windows along 2 walls - yes, they are partially blocked, but there is still a LOT of light getting in there. Selection was nice but prices were significantly (a few bucks/bottle in some cases) higher than New Beer right down the street. I’ll come back next time I’m in NYC, but more because its just a few blocks from New Beer than as a destination of it’s own.

July 20, 2011 [ Updated January 5, 2012 ]
This beer room absolutely rules. so much choices and plenty of home brew supplies. they have growler fills and lots and lots of beer. prices are high but its NYC don’t have real rarities but for my purposes its perfect