Village Beer Merchant

8/1/2008 4:18:38 PM, friday, august 01, 2008
A very classy shop, near Cole’s bar and therefore right off the Peace Bridge. This allows a new option for Canadians to shop for bottles if they can’t get far enough to Premiere. The comparisons start. Premiere has more selection, particularly with their very liberal singles policy, much spottier service,more food and soda with your beers, more parking, and closer to the main though more expensive Buffalo shopping haunts. Village is more navigatable aisles, slightly better pricing, and of course a different part of town.

4/24/2008 5:07:36 PM, thursday, april 24, 2008
Smaller place located right in the Elmwood Village. Really nice/knowledgeable guys working there. Selection is very solid with some good changing taps(Chimay). Prices are relatively good. If your into gourmet cheese, olives, salsa, etc. this place is great. Good sandwiches, really big. Take a stroll down Elmwood on a nice day and check it out. BTW theres a chance they might buy Jimmy Mac’s next door for the right price and make it an English style pub. Cool place.

4/21/2008 10:44:05 PM, monday, april 21, 2008
Excellent little beer store that fits nicely into the Elmwood Village neighborhood. Nice interior that shows the effort they put into decorating. Full deli with sandwiches, cheese, etc. Beer selection isn’t quite to the level of Premeir, but is very solid and seems to be improving with each visit. In addition to bottles they have several taps for growler fills and the owners acquire some of the more rare tap only beers like Sixpoint. The staff is friendly and helpful. Price wise they are about average, some bottles on the high side and some a little cheaper. They sell singles, but not of every beer in the store. Definitely worth a visit if you are in the area.

2/14/2008 2:09:06 PM, thursday, february 14, 2008
Stopped in for a bite, and a look around. My sandwich was very very good, but unfortunately, there was not a place to sit and eat it. That may change. Some prices seemed high (jolly pumpkin), but most were very comparable to Premier. I really liked the look and feel of the place. I would like to see the place really differentiate itself from Premier and Consumers in terms of selection. The shelves where the beers are seem a bit flimsy though, so careful when you pull a beer out. Hope this place stays around for a while.

2/11/2008 11:40:42 AM, monday, february 11, 2008
Nice interior and they make the most out of the space with lots of beer and plenty of gourmet/deli foods. Friendly and helpful staff. Solid selection with plenty of micros and a fair representation of Belgian beers. The ability to buy singles of most is very nice. The growler fills are also very nice, looked like there were some pretty decent beers on tap. Plenty of glassware for sale, too. For a place to start out at this level is very encouraging, and hopefully they’ll only get better. This area of town definitely needed something like this store.

2/10/2008 11:55:45 AM, sunday, february 10, 2008 [ Updated sunday, february 10, 2008 ]
Cool shop. I’m not sure if they have anything unique between Consumer’s and Premier but it’s definitely a convenient location if you’re hitting up Cole’s. Prices can be prohibitive for some beers but you can also find some savings - though it’s not always obvious. In general Consumer’s quite cheaper but they don’t have some of the things that this place has in terms of imports. The singles are plentiful as is the regional representation. Growler fills are a big plus too, though I didn’t indulge this time around. They appeared to have a pretty nice selection of quality food but that’s also something I didn’t really experiment with this time. Really there is no reason to not stop by here and they will likely only get better.

2/10/2008 9:26:57 AM, sunday, february 10, 2008
Finally a good beer store in the Elmwood Village area. They’ve only been open a few weeks but I’ve been quite happy the 3 times I’ve stopped in. A great selection, not as deep as Premier but they’re limited by space. Prices for most bottles are on-par with Premier or consumers, some cheaper (north bridge extreme) and some more expensive (Jolly Pumpkin & Cantillon.) They do sandwiches to go which look good but I haven’t had one yet. Very helpful and excited staff. This is a great addition to the neighborhood.