Sam’s Wine & Spirits (Highland Park)

No Longer In Business

Warehouse feel. Seems to cater to the Northshore wine crowd (not that I blame them). Found a few that were not available at the Marcey location (Lost Abbey and Port). Otherwise the selection is rather pedestrian.

Huge store. Beer selection is more centered around German’s and English beers. Staff seems to know more than Binny’s and they host tastings and have their own tasting room with food inside the store. I was appalled to walk in as they were moving their beer shelves around to find that the threw all the beers in 10 shopping carts in every-which direction. I didn’t buy any beer that day and any beer I bought recently after I let rest for a good amount of time.

Nice big bottle shop with some hard to finds as well as decent prices.

This is a nice, big, new Sam’s that is convenient for me when I’m heading to Chicago because I drive right past it. It still has the warehouse feel to it, but it’s new, clean, and very aesthetically-appealing. They also have a great cheese selection and tasting area. The beer selection is good, but not as comprehensive as the downtown location. Service is very friendly and knowledgable.

A very clean and inviting store. Beer selections not huge, but not bad. Plenty of singles to be had. Prices seemed to be pretty good.

Looks much like the other two Sam’s, a large warehouse filled with alcohol(!), only it has a north suburban cleanliness to it. The selection’s smaller than the other two, even smaller than the Chicago shop, but it’s mainly quality stuff. Attentive service. No earth shaking finds here, but certainly worth the stop when in the area.

Ah... another Sam’s... another big warehouse full of liquor that has a sadly lacking selection of beer! This locale has even less floorspace dedicated to beer than the Sam’s downtown, which I found to be a bit spare. The quality of beers is exemplary and they seem well-kept, I simply wish there were more of them. On the positive side, the Sam’s franchise seems to put an emphasis on service, which I’d like to mention is very much appreciated. We attended a beer tasting here and everything was friendly, smooth and well-arranged. Even upon checkout afterwards, our clerk was humorous and interested in our purchases.

A big store with a lot of open, wasted space. It is brand new, a wine bar and lounge, plus special events are a plus. The negatives would be the beer area comprises about 3 % of the store and about 25% of the beer compared to the downtown location. There are 3 eight foot long aisles with 4 shelves each filled with old world and U.S. beers, plus a same length aisle of macro cases and about 8 coolers. While nothing special it is very easy to get to just off US 41. With the big decline of selection at the Armanetti’s in Mundelein this offers a decent substitute for Lake county people.