Whole Foods Market

TrappistJohnMD

Mississippi

4.1/5  rDev 0%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 3.5 | selection: 4.5 | $$

Stopped in Whole Foods while waiting on friends for dinner at a local restaurant.

Nice, clean store. I live in the beer and retail wasteland of America, so Whole Foods always impress me. Was initially dissappointed with selection as I ran across two small beer areas in the main store. However, there is a much larger beer room just behind the express checkout area.

Beer room is very organized and clean. Arranged according to country. Mostly warm bottles but there is a smaller cooler area. Couple of taps for growler fills available. Also noticed some homebrew supplies. Selection seemed better than what I saw in WF on Greenwich St.

Service was average.

12-07-2012 20:52:38 | More by TrappistJohnMD

RblWthACoz

Pennsylvania

3.94/5  rDev -3.9%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 4 | service: 3.5 | selection: 4.5 | $$$

I would rather take New Beer over Whole Foods any day, to be honest. I guess I'd rather support people trying to support their families than a corporate giant. And that's what Whole Foods is people. A corporate giant. Anyways. Tons of beer to be had here. If you go to New Beer and this place, you are most likely to find whatever you are looking for. Growler system is nice, but I have found the variety lacking at times and have not purchased that many from them. The service has been lacking at times here and good at others. But when it's been lame, it's really been lame.

08-30-2012 17:34:30 | More by RblWthACoz

knightlypint

3.84/5  rDev -6.3%
vibe: 4 | quality: 3.5 | service: 4 | selection: 4 | $$$

Nice place to buy beer, spacious. Neighborhood isn't the best, and this WF is a bit off the beaten track. Right across Houston St from DBGB.

I've found the quality of the bottled beers to be as good as it can be; however, I've run across a few bottles of Brits which were beyond their BB4 date. They have coolers but most beers are stored at room temperature. Windows are shaded.

Service is friendly and helpful, although a few of the guys haven't been sufficiently enlightened about beer.

I'd say the best beer selection I've come across in Manhattan, south of 86th St. Selection not quite as extensive as some beer shops in northern NJ but it will more than do. Not as good as Happy Deli either, although HD is OOB. The stock is broken out by nation...US, Belgian, German, UK, Ireland, Scotland, Italy, etc....this helps. My only real criticism is they heavily favor recognizable brand names, with only a small dose of novel stuff. About as good as it gets in Manhattan.

No food.

$5 for a bottle of standard Sam Smith, I consider that a bit pricey. Orkneys are running $6 or $7 a bottle, but Dark Island is available for $5...which is nice. Old Peculiar and Riggwelter for $5 a pint. This is the kind of place you go to for stocking up on solid beers, but figure $6/pint and $12 or $13 for a six. Can't wait for inflation to hit.

04-19-2012 18:01:59 | More by knightlypint

dbrauneis

New Jersey

4.24/5  rDev +3.4%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4 | selection: 4.5 | $$

This is a Whole Foods so the staff was what I would expect - hipsters - but helpful though not the quickest moving folks when you needed something. Staff seems knowledgeable about the beers.

They have a very good selection of bottles, many available as singles in addition to having a growler filling bar (though no drinking is allowed on premises).

It can be quite busy and hectic depending on the time of day that you go there - I prefer to visit on a weekday evening instead of on a weekend afternoon.

Prices seem to be average.

02-24-2012 19:13:13 | More by dbrauneis

rodney45

New York

4/5  rDev -2.4%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 4 | selection: 4 | $$$

Good access, directly across the street from the F train, which works well for me living in queens.

Regular wholefoods type beer department, except expanded. about four, large racks filled with all types of local, domestic, and international beers, mostly singles and 24 oz bottles.

They also have a large, produce style open refridgerator filled with 6 packs and 750 ml's. Homebrew section is by the register, and has a lot of specialty grains. More than i would have expected. They carry a very large selection of yeast, hops. Their dme and lme is a little lacking, but besides that, its all there.

The selection is pretty good, very expansive, but not a lot of rarities. I did find DFH world wide, and some pretty hard to find trappist's.

Service was great, not really anyone rushing you with anything. Mostly chill hipsters. You cant really beat it.

Prices are a little on the high side, but thats what you get when you go to a whole foods. Some things were well priced, but their singles can get a little out of hand, esspecially when theyre charging 4 bucks for a single founders rye ipa, when i can buy a 6 pack for 12 bucks.

Pro's- ease of access, selection, depth, and you really never know what you'll come across if you dig behind some of the older bottles.

Cons- Major amounts of sunlight hitting the bottles, and prices for singles.

Definitely recommend.

02-21-2012 07:10:28 | More by rodney45

peensteen

Ontario (Canada)

4.03/5  rDev -1.7%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4.5 | service: 3.5 | selection: 4 | $$$

Nice looking place, like most whole foods its bright and organized. Large selection of refrigerated beers with both domestic and imports. Lots of Belgian bottles as well as a bunch of Mikkeller and Evil Twin. A bunch of domestic 6 and 4 packs as well as bombers but nothing that isn't available at New Beer Distributors for a couple bucks less. You can't get singles from 6 packs unless its from their rack of singles, I did find a few choice singles there. The staff seemed too busy when I was here the second time to answer questions and most answers were short an not much help. I would recomend coming here after New Beer Distributors and checking for anything you missed.

02-15-2012 21:37:09 | More by peensteen

smakawhat

Maryland

4.16/5  rDev +1.5%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4 | selection: 4 | $$$

This is one of the largest Whole Foods stores I have ever been in. Great looking too, conveyor sushi, chocate counter, gelato, the Whole Foods where I live doesn't even have this stuff.

Still the beer selection is interesting. Peppered through the store are a few small displays. Some even have the six packs of cans and bottles split up for individual sale. However, if you don't go and head to the back of the store behind he express cash registers, you'll miss the big selection.

Selection here is pretty good, but a little pricey. Fairly organized well too. Another surprise was to see brewing equipment and ingredients you could actually purchase.

Foreign selection isn't too shabby either, there's a small few obscure beers on that spectrum also. Prices seem to be in line with the rest of everything else in the neighborhood, nearly of the carbon copy prices you find in DC.

02-13-2012 23:12:31 | More by smakawhat

superspak

Michigan

4.3/5  rDev +4.9%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4 | selection: 4.5 | $$

When I was down in NYC visiting for a couple weeks, I definitely had quite a few whole foods to choose from to check out for brews. I chose this one because of the location to a couple other places I wanted to check out.

At first I was kind of skeptical after walking into the normal store and finding hardly any beer inside. After walking down Houston, I discovered that there was a whole other part of the building dedicated to just beer and wine! Jackpot

I walked in and they had a nice semicircle of taps lined up. Apparently it was Oskar Blues day or something because half of the taps were from them. Also had a rep there from the company giving out samples. Good first impressions right there.

They had some very large shelve on the left side of the store dedicated to bombers of a large selection of breweries stacked up at least 5 rows high. On the back wall there are open cooler with a ton of six packs, and further down they have shilled bombers sitting in the coolers.

There are a large amount of breweries represented on all of the shelves including locals like captain Lawrence and a few Southampton. Cigar city 750s were also quite numerous.

A lot of selection of imports as well, like Nogne O and tons of Belgians are very well represented. Basically, if it is distributes to NYC, then you will likely find a few or many offering from the brewery available at this location. Very nice and diverse selection of beer at this location.

I wish I would have rated this back when I visited, but overall this is definitely the type of place anyone would want to check out. A big diverse selection of offerings from many breweries; at a good price for being the fact that it is in the middle of Manhattan haha.

02-11-2012 06:09:17 | More by superspak

negroobserver

New York

3.93/5  rDev -4.1%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4 | service: 3.5 | selection: 4 | $$

This is an excellent place to shop for brews. The location is easily accessible. The room is large and spacious. In addition to beer they also sells home brewing supplies through Brooklyn Brewshop.

The staff is mostly nice and accommodating. They don't smile much, but they're helpful.

The selection is one of the best in NYC. Hey have a diverse range of beer including Trappists, crafts and generic brand name brews. The prices are reasonable for new york city, but would probably be considered a bit pricy elsewhere.

01-16-2012 02:24:59 | More by negroobserver

tobelerone

New Jersey

3.94/5  rDev -3.9%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 4 | service: 3.5 | selection: 4.5 | $$$

This Whole Foods location has the best selection of any of their stores in the city, edging out the Columbus Circle and Greenwich St. locations, the latter being my "home" store as it's right next to my job. As with most locations the service is fine but a little disinterested. They get the job done though.

They have a ton of domestic craft, imports, singles, sixers, etc., and do growler fills, often with very interesting things on offer. They also have glassware, although the selection is not extensive, nor would you expect it to be. Prices range from good to fairly high, it really depends on what you're looking for. There are plenty of oddball European bottles here as well.

The downside here is 1. It's Whole Foods and I find them to be a bit obnoxious to begin with and the clientele somewhat irritating. 2. They don't want you breaking up sixers if they're not already laid out in individual bottles, and 3. the best beer store in the city is practically around the corner (New Beer) and while they don't always have everything WF does at the same time (for instance WF just got Founders Imperial Stout a week or so before NB is getting it), NB has generally much better prices, you can build your own sixers, and the guy who runs it is much more personable.

When I'm in this neighborhood I always make a point of checking out both stores before buying anything. Yesterday I bought stuff in each place; between the two you will certainly find something to love and walk away happy.

01-06-2012 13:00:49 | More by tobelerone