West Lakeview Liquors

hooliganlife

Missouri

4.86/5  rDev +5.2%
vibe: 5 | quality: 5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 5 | $$

Stopped by for zwanze day. Beautiful shop in a nice quiet area. Inside has lots of old world charm. Tons of wood through out. Looks like a small shop in europe. Everything was well kept and clean. Great bottle presentation. Very friendly service. Selection was amazing, found lots of wants. Tons of local, american, and euro offerings. From lambic to ipa, a solid represetation. Small deli selection and speciality cheeses. Some healthy frozen goods. Very small market looking. I will be back here for sure, love this place.

09-18-2011 02:29:07 | More by hooliganlife

rorj

Virginia

5/5  rDev +8.2%
vibe: 5 | quality: 5 | service: 5 | selection: 5 | $$

Fantastic Service. The young guy who was working was super nice, super helpful and knowledgeable. Told me all about pipeworks and some beers in the back.

The Selection was great, tons of pipeworks, Half Acre Daisey Cutter, not too much 3Floyds but going to the pub so didn't matter to me.

someone on here said they had to pay cash for glassware, but I used a card.

great store

04-01-2013 00:56:53 | More by rorj

ssimpson89

Illinois

5/5  rDev +8.2%
vibe: 5 | quality: 5 | service: 5 | selection: 5 | $$

I was in the city and wanted to see what I could get that's not available in the 'burbs. It's a small store, but has an awesome selection. It was early on Saturday, March 9 and me and my wife were the only 2 in the store.

I didn't get the name of the guy working, but he mentioned he was a Cleveland native and was rocking a Great Lakes hoodie. He knew I wanted local and pointed me to Pipeworks, Spiteful, Begyle, etc. I also grabbed some Daisy Cutter, which is limited in the 'burbs and he asked if I wanted some Double Daisy Cutter as he thought there may be few bottles in the back. It was my first time there and he made me feel like a regular. I've been buying at least 12 beers a week from my local Binny's for the last 5 years and have never received such great service and selection of hard to get beers. They tend to hold limited releases in the back for friends of the beer guy...bad policy.

West Lakeview had most of the recent limited releases on the shelf with a 1 per customer limit, which I love. It gives everyone a chance to get their hands on rarer beers.

What a great store. Everyone in craft beer retailing should make a visit to see how it should be done. Well educated and friendly employees do make a difference. I'll definitely be going back.

03-10-2013 04:18:48 | More by ssimpson89

cnbrown313

Illinois

5/5  rDev +8.2%
vibe: 5 | quality: 5 | service: 5 | selection: 5 | $$$

Whenever my beer advocate friends come into Chicago from out of the area and ask, "Where should I go to find good beer in Chicago?" West Lakeview Liquors is my immediate response. And nobody has ever been disappointed.

A - The shop has a "boutique" feel to it (although not in a bad way). There are only about 2-3 bottles of each beer on the shelves (usually more are available in the back stock), so the store feels like a museum that is being constantly kept up by a very knowledgeable curator. Amongst the endless bottles of beers they also offer t-shirts, glasses, lambic baskets, etc. (many of which you aren't likely to find anywhere else except here and Belgium)

Q - The selection of quality beers here is the best I've ever seen. I have to imagine that it has to be up there with the best in the world. Very rare beers from breweries like Mikkeller, De Dolle, Evil Twin, Fantome, De Molen, etc. sit alongside local breweries like Pipeworks (they got their start working at this store by the way), Revolution, Three Floyds... and it goes on...and on...

Service - I've heard some people say that they haven't had the best service here, but personally, I've had nothing but good experiences. Last time I was in there buying a bottle of Bon Chein, the employee working the counter said, "If you like that, I've got a 2006 bottle in the basement you might really like? Another time I was buying about $200 worth of bottles and they threw in a free t-shirt for me too. I dropped a bottle on the floor once and thought I was about to get scolded, but the employee that saw just said, "Ah, don't worry man... that's why we've got rubber floors here!" So my service experiences here have been nothing but great.

Selection - If you are looking for the best and rarest beer you can find in Chicago. This is it...

V - Every once in a while you might be able to get a bottle $1 cheaper at Binny's, but in general, they are on par with everyone else. Also... Pipeworks bombers are $1 cheaper here than anywhere else.

O - If you haven't been here and have the means to do so. Do yourself a favor and go. And only bring what you're willing to spend... because I've gone in there for "a bottle for the night" and came out with $200-$300 in beer. It will happen...

03-07-2013 19:58:34 | More by cnbrown313

freeride

Illinois

4.64/5  rDev +0.4%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 5 | selection: 4.5 | $$

Definitely one of the better spots in Chicago. Walked away with one of my best haul's here in Chicago. Great staff that knows a lot about the beers and latches on quickly to beers you'd dig. Went in there just to cruise the selections and walked out with WAY more than I had expected. Oddly they did not get any Westy's in (was not looking for them, but thought I'd ask). Only place in Chicago that I know of with the Eclipse in stock. I would definitely recommend this spot to anyone visiting or living in the Chicago area (Chicago proper)

12-22-2012 01:51:07 | More by freeride

gtermi

Texas

4.94/5  rDev +6.9%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 5 | service: 5 | selection: 5 | $$

When I walked into this place, I had to pinch myself because I thought I had died and went into beer heaven. Now this place isn't like Binny's where it is huge and spread out, no, this place is very tiny and stacked to the ceiling with amazing beer.. literally. They had rare beer after rare beer as I scrolled through the selection. They have the biggest selection of Mikkeller I have ever seen and a crap load of imports that I have never seen. They had hard to find Bell's, 3 Floyd's and The Bruery. The people that worked there were super nice and they enjoyed talking beer. They had a doorway you can go through and they have t-shirts and beer glasses for sale from different breweries. There is also a little bit of wine and liquor too, but you can tell their main focus is the beer. When I come back to Chicago, this is for sure the first place I will hit up.

10-31-2012 05:15:52 | More by gtermi

GJ40

North Carolina

4.5/5  rDev -2.6%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.5 | $$$

West Lakeview Liquors is a dedicated shop that focuses on presentation, selection, quality and service. I stopped in looking for something I couldn't find back in NC. The guy behind the counter suggested a beer by Mikkeller brewed only for their shop. Hopefully it'll be a good one.

They have lots of everything but seem to be particularly deep on Belgians. They have the usual six packs displayed in the coolers with the more serious beers nicely displayed on wooden shelves that cover the back of the store. They unfortunately didn't have much from FFF but it seems like everyone in the area was out or running low.

I definitely recommend this place to anyone traveling to Chicago.

07-04-2012 11:39:33 | More by GJ40

northyorksammy

Ontario (Canada)

4/5  rDev -13.4%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 3.5 | selection: 4.5 | food: 4 | $$$

Ranked the best store in Chicago, it likely is. Very good Shelton brothers selection, as well as twelve Percent (Evil Twin). Several US microbrews not available or sent here by distributors that were available at other small stores I visited. Looked like 700 different selections. Some overflow bottles were in the front window which was not a good idea. No breaking up of 4 or 6 packs. Service was a bit spoty but also only one server this night and I was keeping him hopping.Attached to a small deli-like store with some good snacks that go with beer.

05-09-2012 20:05:06 | More by northyorksammy

Bobbydigi

Kansas

4.58/5  rDev -0.9%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4.5 | service: 5 | selection: 4.5 | $$$

I went here twice on my short trip to Chicago. The first time was to pick up a sixer for the hotel and figure out what bars we needed to hit up for the night. The staff was more than helpful, almost giving us too may good suggestions. The second stop was for beer to take home. They have a lot of hard to find stuff here. Really great import selection. The only reason I didn’t give them a 15 on selection is because their 6 pack selection was limited. But considering how small the store is they pack it full of top notch beer. I’ll definitely be back next time I head to Chicago.

03-11-2012 00:00:13 | More by Bobbydigi

AleWatcher

Illinois

3.95/5  rDev -14.5%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 2.5 | selection: 4.5 | $$$

I stopped in here while cruising around the Chicago area looking for some beer to add to the cellar.

I was truly surprised by how small this place is-- but even more surprised by how many beers they managed to fit in here!
The overall vibe in the look of the place makes me think of an old wild west saloon and general store-- and I actually like it. I do the shelves are pretty over-crowded, but they seem to be doing the best they can with the space available.

I bought a few bottles of 3F Oude Kriek (as it is implement unavailable in the SW suburbs). As of mid-February, the shop still has some bottles of mikeller Sour Bitch available -- 2 bottle limit, $30 per bottle. I was also surprised to find several cases of Jester King Black Metal... I was told that the owners of the store are friends with the brewery.

I was mainly excited to see they still had several of the Cantillon stemware glasses remaining, and happily grabbed 2 of them. The glasses were "cash only," and $10 each, but I was excited none the less.
The store also had a bunch of other glasses available, including some of the Duvel artist series.

My only complaint about the store-- The 2 employees I dealt with seemed to act like my presence was an inconvenience up with which they begrudgingly put.
The tall guy with longer dark hair in his late 30s that appeared to be the manager and the hipster in his young 20s that rang me up both gave the impression that what they needed to make their store a better place was having fewer customers looking around.

Now to be fair, I'm sure that both of these guys are friendly and courteous and all that, and perhaps I caught them during an inventory or while they were trying to organize new shipments... But, as stated, it remains my only complaint.

02-27-2012 14:38:27 | More by AleWatcher