AJs Fine Foods - Central Phoenix

Skip and go to the Arcadia location - more and better beer selection

AJ’s is a local chain of boutique grocery stores with fairly solid beer selections. Most of the bottles are available as singles which is good to see. Lots of local and regional craft with a few Belgians and other Europeans thrown. It’s a decent selection by bottle shop standards but a very good one for a grocery store.

Well after going to the Arcadia location, and being totally impressed, I thought I better check out a few other ones. This one seems very much like a scaled down version of the Arcadia one with regard to food and beer. I suggest skipping this one and driving a little bit east down Camelback Road to the Arcadia location. The service is great at these places though. Well done in that regard.

Nice place to grab a single bottle of beer and a huge variety.

I rated the wrong AJs, I’ve never been to this one. But I can’t figure out how to delete a Place rating. Yes, I’m an idiot. So I guess I’ll have to stop here sometime to see if my rating is correct!

Small for an AJ’s. Selection is very AZ - lots of CO, enough CA, then S-tons of German, English, mid-shelf Euro stuff that just sits there. Had Olfab Winter Porter when I was there last, which surprised me.

Smallish beer selection in the back of a grocery store. Good amount of single 12oz bottles, more limited bombers/750s. Prices reasonable. Right across the intersection from the light rail.

not a bad aj’s overall. you’re better off at jonpol’s in glendale but... i guess if you are in the neighborhood. they do have some good sales on seasonal (read out of season and we need to get rid of them) beer and they are only a block from sonora/brewer’s den.

Well, this was a good stop, perhaps the best I’ve seen in Arizona so far. However, relative to what I can find at home at statelineliquors.com, I was a bit disappointed. Sure, they have a good import selection and relative to what you can get in the area, this is great. But, I wanted a larger selection. Oh, and where in the world were the AleSmiths? Gone? C’mon, now. Very helpful service, good quality of selection.

I visited this store based on the feedback I read on this site. It was partly because I was traveling from a different part of the country I think (it doesn’t look like a beer shelf in Milwaukee), but also because there is a plentiful single-serve selection with some rather attentive help. When I first walked into the store (having never been to an AJ’s before), I thought I’d walked into an over-sized Hallmark store. Once I got into the beer & wine aisle, I realized my initial assessment was off. There was a long aisle of singles, focusing on CA and CO beers. The wine steward stopped by to speak with me, which I appreciated. Pricing was reasonable. I’d recommend this place as a beer store to visit when in Phoenix.