January 17, 2010
Huge messy ugly store with about 1/5th of the place dedicated to beer. Poorly organized. Staff is the supermarket type and know nothing about beer. The American selection is nothing to write home about. Basic USA beer available in Massachusetts, no special find (Moylan’s, Southern Tier, Allagash, Victory, Bruery, Jolly Pumpkin, etc.). Just the standard lineup, no special find. Import selection was surprising and I though it matched Julio’s. A lot of unusual Italians, Japanese with some stuff I didn’t know existed. Plus the Nogne, BFM, Panil and friends. Prices are good, probably the best prices in Boston. Multiple old vintages of Gales Prize Old Ale. And so on. All in all this store has a very large selection (probably the largest selection in Boston) but it doesn’t have “the right” stuff. You can tell that no effort is made to get the less regular interesting releases and I also doubt the freshness of some of their items.

January 14, 2010
My first time to Blanchard’s since Marty’s closed down last year. I was very impressed by the selection: both international and domestic. Basically a big warehouse with most of the hard to find beer sold warm - but the selection can’t be beat. I visited Charles St. and left empty handed. I continued to Blanchard’s and selected 12 bombers that I have not seen in any other Boston stores - and I left another 10 or so on the shelves. No help offered whatsoever - but I wasn’t looking for any. Prices seemed a bit steep, but it is Boston.

June 28, 2009
Since Marty’s Allston closed this has become my go-to on the way to the highway. No one offers help here. These folks seem to pay the bills off of 30 racks and kegs, but they do stock a great selection of American micro, odd Italian craft, strange meads, and a good selection of Belgians - nothing crazy exotic, but if you know it’s in Boston and can’t find it, chances are it’s still on their shelves. Not a lot of good tasties kept cold, but lots of standards in the cooler (BMC plus Sierra, Magic Hat, etc). Picked up 6 Green Flash Imp. IPA’s and two GF Stouts bombers (~$60). Was looking for Avery and didn’t see any. Not a bad stop. Will probably stop in again next time.

January 2, 2008
$40 kegs of Bud, how can you go wrong?! That’s basically all I expected until I took a look inside. Their business plan seems to be to carry a lot of stuff at decent prices, which includes a good beer selection. Not a FUN place to shop like City Beer in SF or Chevy Chase in DC, but they will sell you good beer if that’s all you care about. No singles is always a little drawback, but there are plenty of bombers of good stuf to keep you happy. I still like Charles St better, but for pure practicality/economy you can’t go wrong here.

January 1, 2008
Charles Street has been lagging behind on new stuff, and this place seems to have rushed in to fill the void - probably the most extensive selection I’ve seen in the Metro area (ie. accessible from the T), tied with Downtown Liquors in Sommerville - not as much as Julios, but damn close - however, their prices on some stuff were a bit high (for example, 19.95 for Allagash Black, when the average in other local stores is between 12.99 and 14.95) - so unless you can’t find it in other stores, you might want to shop around for prices - otherwise, a nice store.

September 25, 2007
Came here, after an awesome trip to Sunset Grill. Previously in the day I was at Julio’s liquors, and grabbed all the Alesmith i could, unfortunately they were just wiped out. I was a little bummed out, we went to Sunset to cheer up (beer does this in the wierdest ways) and while we were on our way to grab a cab we decided to check out Blanchards. Not the best looking store from the outside, but we went in, I wasnt expecting much, But i found all the Alesmith that Julio’s was out of stock on (Horny Devil, Wee Heavy & Decadence 2006) as well as some other brews that interested us. Good selection of belgians, the store was well laid out. Not the best store, however it took care of my needs.

February 23, 2007 [ Updated September 14, 2007 ]
Moderate selection of bottles, decent belgians, lots of local micros (allagash especially). Not a huge selection overall, no singles. Prices are very good though, lower than many of the big bottle shops in the area. Only real reason to come, however, is the low turnover. I found some 5 or 6 year old Belgians and local stuff that was very cool. Batch 1 Allagash Grand Cru anyone? Big update: Well, after being increasingly annoyed by Downtown Liquors’ increasing prices and decreasing selection, along with Martys always high prices and less-than-spectacular selection (and I live too far from the mecca, Julios), I tried out Blanchards again. Shit! This is by far the best beer place in Boston, hands down. Only Charles St puts up some competition, but I think these guys have almost as much as Charles St at much, much better prices. They are the only ones out of Martys and Downtown and Blanchards to have AleSmith Decadence 2006. All the new Italian stuff, Cantillon, BFM stuff. Just missing the more rare Shelton Imports (Olfabrikken, Mikkeller, Struise, etc...). Great prices, wow.

January 14, 2007 [ Updated August 2, 2007 ]
Ambience is collegey and skewed towards American Anhueser Busch garbage beers. They do have a lot of Belgian, German, English, and Scottish beers along with a big variety of local micros and cases of imported beers. Compared with Marty’s just a little bit down Harvard St. Blanchard’s prices are a little higher overall but are lower on some things. They have a small shelf of glasses with lots of different logos and good sale prices if you buy lots of that kind of beer. There are some singles available on the English/Belgian/German shelves and in the beer fridge on the wall closest to the parking lot. They recently renovated the big fridge to accomodate their large 30 rack, "ya dude" crowd

March 16, 2006 [ Updated November 30, 2007 ]
Wow.. this place has improved, big time. Mostly liquor and wine, with an increasing beer selection. Lots of locals, lots of Allagash, Smuttynose, Rogue, Stone.. loads of belgians, some Cantillon. Nice parking lot, although driving around Allston can be a pain. This place has a prime selection and very fair prices.

August 17, 2005
Nice beer selection. Most Belgians, quite a few smaller microbrews. Pricing is reasonable to expensive. Nothing was really cheap unless you are getting a 30 rack of garbage. The two rarer finds I got there were Stoudt’s IPA and older version of their Imperial Stout.