Whole Foods Market - Old Town

Tiny bar so small that I almost missed it. 6 taps of high quality stuff but stupid high prices. Why would I pay a buck an ounce for watermelon dorado that’s around the corner for 16 cents an ounce in the bottle?! Anyway, had one beer. They don’t take cash. Bottle selection was good, but very limited singles and 10-30% markup.

Typical WF location; good selection of beer and great food. Expensive, but given the location that’s not surprising. Parking underneath which is nice.

Small bar in the back of the store near the cheese section, half a dozen taps. Beer selection was fairly small, with basically one shelf of bombers and the rest sixers. Pricey.

A great place to go for some good beer. On a side note, the food selection is incredible. Whenever I have chatted with their beer rep, he was very friendly and willing to help. I think it’s important to note that it’s a grocery store, so there’s not necessarily a beer representative always hanging out. There is always a great variety of styles from which to choose, including saisons, gueuzes & lambics, imperial stouts, DIPA, Belgian ales, rauchbier, and many more. They carry virtually the whole lineup of Bell’s and Dogfish Head. In the shelf (not cold) section, you can find World Wide Stout, various trappist ales, special editions, rarities, etc. This is a great store to get your seasonal releases (Nugget Nectar, Hopslam, etc.), as they often get many cases and impose no limits. Highly recommended.

Stopped here to get some beers for my hotel room. For a whole foods, this had a pretty disappointing selection. No singles either. Parking is free though. I would not go out of your way for this location.

Overall, one of the larger Whole Foods in the metro DC area. This one boasts at least 5 beers on draught and ready to go in growlers. The singles selection is thoughtful yet pricier than other places nearby. The staff is eager to help, just as with almost any Whole Foods.

This store was considerably smaller than the Fair Lakes Whole Foods, and is more comparable to the Milwaukee Whole Foods, which is also in an urban setting...so perhaps there is a smaller store format for built-up areas and a larger one for suburban areas. Anyhow, the smaller store size didn’t do anything to enhance the store’s beer selection, and also this store lacked the hot/cold lunch options of the Fair Lakes store. I was not really impressed. This store did not seem to offer a tremendous number of brands that were not also readily available elsewhere.

I was in Alexandria for a conference and my hotel was two blocks away, so I skipped lunch and decided to check it out. I’m a big fan of this type of grocery store and deplore their scarcity in my neck of the woods. I still remember my first visit to WFM in Vienna a couple of years ago and how I was flabbergasted by the selection. This store didn’t come close to that experience, in fact, nothing really popped out and made me go ‘wow’, but there were plenty of old favorites I was more than happy to get to know again, like Stone, Bear Republic and Ommegang. I was disappointed that there was no Cantillon to be found, but not as much as my work colleague that joined me, who recently had his first taste of lambic and was dying for more. Some interesting imports were a tad pricey. Six dollar Orval is double what I pay back home. But the US micros were in the usual price range. For what it’s worth, there were a few interesting wines in that isle too, but I decided to stick to Beer. While this location doesn’t merit to make a 20-mile detour to visit, its’ central location is great if you’re ever in this picturesque town.

Beer selection was pretty good although, as mentioned below, many were six packs only. The two Ommegang beers and St Georgen Kellerbier I bought were enjoyable.