Gendler’s Wine and Spirits

No Longer In Business

Decent little place with a small, but interesting selection of singles. Several avery products, and a few 3 floyds. Service is fairly nice. However, this place will be closed by the end of January, according to its owner.

Basically a wine shop with some liquor and a small but quality selection of beer. If I lived in the area I’d probably shop here. Did pick up a couple of meads that I haven’t had.

Update: Unfortunately this place is closing its doors. They have a few decent beers left for sale. Thanks to those before me who posted about this place. Excellent selection with plenty of quality beers you can’t get your hands on in the relative beer purgatory that is Iowa. I picked up a few Avery, Great Lakes, Celis, and Lagunitas selections. The guys who work there are really friendly and said they are willing to take requests.

I stopped in here about a year ago and was not impressed. But after stopping in today and talking to Steve, the new manager since January, the beer selection has improved dramatically! As jpm30 mentioned, they now carry Founders, 3F, Great Lakes, etc. It used to be if you wanted any of these beers, a person had to drive an hour to Iowa City and go to John’s Grocery, and if you wanted anything above 8% abv, Peoria. Finally, a quality beer store in my hometown. Best of all was the great prices. The manager told me, "this is not a museum, I price everything to sell" music to my ears!

Update Sept. 2006 I’ve stopped in here several times over the past 3 months. As a result of the beer section being small, they have chosen to rotate the beer selection. One time you may find 3F Alpha King or Founders Devil Dancer and next time it has been replaced by something from Great Lakes. The good news is they will special order anything that is available to them and call you when it comes in, but if you’re traveling thru the QC, the selection will be hit or miss.

Gendler’s is mainly a wine store, but they do have two coolers in the back of the store with some interesting beers. They have a small Belgian select, Delirium and Goulden Carolus and a few others. They also have a few selections from Germany and the U.K. that are all quality beers. In American micros, they have one or more selections, in four or six packs or bombers, from Allagash, Avery, Boulder,Breckenridge, Butte Creek, Dogfish Head, Flying Dog, Founders, Gray’s, Great Divide, Great Lakes, Heavy Sea’s, New Holland, Pyramid, Schell, Sierra Nevada,Tabernash, Three Floyds, Victory and Widmer. No Millstream. The store is clean and dust free, but Gendler’s does have one major problem, they have a portion of their beer selection stacked up against the front windows, so sunlight and summer heat are a freshness problem. No singles or mix-a-six. Located along the riverfront in the John Deere Commons. Parking in lot behind building, plentiful.

I couldn’t believe some of the beers that they had at this place! Oak Aged Yeti, Hercules IIPA, Avery Mephistophales, and DFH 90 just to name a few. All of them are at prices lower than I’ve ever seen them in other places. The beer section isn’t huge, but what they do have is pretty impressive.

Huge selection of wines, but a nice small section with some pretty good beers. Bombers of 10 different Averys, Baltika, Great Divide, Allagash, Tabernash, Dogfish Head just to name a few. Real friendly staff. Just off the bridge from the Rock Island Arsenal, 1 block away from the Bier Stube and Bent River Brewpub.