Argonaut Wine & Liquor

woodychandler

Pennsylvania

4/5  rDev +9.6%
quality: 4 | service: 4 | selection: 4 | $$

Transcribed from original notes taken Sa, 01 Aug 2009.

The original building at 700 East Colfax is now for sale since the new residence is 760 East Colfax. The difference is night and day! The new place is like a BevMo! in terms of both its layout and its cleanliness. The main attraction here, for me, was the bank of coolers along the far right wall. I found a couple of new CANs on my visit and I CANnot imagine a better place to go on a beer run while in Denver. I did not take note of wine or liquor although both were in abundance.

06-25-2010 05:30:00 | More by woodychandler

MilwaukeeCrusher

Wisconsin

3.5/5  rDev -4.1%
quality: 3.5 | service: 3 | selection: 4 | $$

Stopped here in hopes of picking up some things I couldn't find in the suburbs. Prices were slightly higher, but not much. It has a broad selection and is a good starting point if you're in Denver. Had some hard to find beers... I was happy to find some Pliny here. The facility is nice and as others have stated pretty new. No notes about service, but then again I didn't ask for any. They also have some coolers to keep some of their beer cold. If I'm downtown and want something, this is a place I would definitely check out.

01-08-2011 22:22:55 | More by MilwaukeeCrusher

corby112

Pennsylvania

3.26/5  rDev -10.7%
vibe: 4 | quality: 3 | service: 3.5 | selection: 3 | $$

Stopped by this place during a recent visit to Denver. This was basically a nice liquor store that has a surprisingly small selection of beer considering the size of the place. On the far right wall there are a bunch of coolers with standard six packs and a few singles of beers that you can find anywhere. In the very far back corner there is one cooler with a decent select of bombers but nothing too out of the ordinary. In addition there is a small aisle of room temp bottles. This is where the best beers are to be found. A decent number of European beers and they actually had a good amount of Odell 750s. Only two kinds(Friek and Woodcut #4) but they had plenty of bottles.

This place was decent but the selection was a bit of a disappointment. The place is huge and there is basically a few coolers and half an aisle of craft beer.

06-13-2011 03:41:35 | More by corby112

Floydster

California

3.55/5  rDev -2.7%
quality: 4 | service: 3 | selection: 3.5 | $$

Visited 4/29/09 right before going back to the airport to see if they had anything else worth bringing back with us, this place was pretty close to the state capitol, this place reminded me of a BevMo back home just with heightened security, literally guards all over the place, next to an older version of itself which is the other one shown in the picture, place seems very new and clean, big long aisles, beer is on the right side of the store in various fridges, lots of Colorado stuff available like Oskar Blues, New Belgium, Ska, Left Hand, Boulder, etc., beer was certainly not the focus here, did grab some Barrel Licked Bock from Fort Collins before getting on my way, prices were average, lots of people working there so I sure any questions you might have will be answered by somebody, not as good as some other selections in town but decent, from a beer geek standpoint, they need to concentrate more on specialty bombers rather than the run of the mill six packs, might go back in the future, still worth checking out

05-09-2009 18:48:05 | More by Floydster

Beerandraiderfan

Nevada

4.28/5  rDev +17.3%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 4 | selection: 5 | $

Another Colfax Avenue location, other than it being hipster and porn central, this is actually a good neck of the woods for people interested in beer. Cheeky Monk, 2UP & Argonaut.

A big huge store. Beer everywhere, tons of it in coolers. This place might have more cooler space than any other place I've ever seen. Really good pricing, lots of stuff you won't see anywhere else. And they tell you right up front on the sticker price if there is a bottle limit, not as much wondering if the limit placed upon you at the counter is because you aren't some ass kiss to the guy working in retail.

Service is good, guy went and looked if they got Tart of Darkness for me, told me when it would be in, price etc. . .

Kind of surprised at the relatively ho hum ratings for this place, I was nothing but impressed, spent way too much money, and just really thought this is the top notch Colorado beer destination. Must visit says I if yalls in the area.

08-28-2012 21:47:26 | More by Beerandraiderfan

rhoadsrage

Illinois

3.2/5  rDev -12.3%
quality: 3.5 | service: 3 | selection: 3 | $$

This was the closest liquor store with the best west coast selection to my hotel so I made the trip. It was Cinco De Mayo weekend so it was pretty busy and there was Corona crap everywhere in the store. The store is a good size space but it is packed with isles of wine and hard alcohol with a few stacks of warm beer. Lots of the beer is in the wall of coolers in the back. They have a average selection of local beers with nothing to rare or odd. I did pick up several bottles of La Folie and a sixer of obsidian stout. If I was going to a party in this area it would be a great place to get cold beer but I was looking for the local gems to haul back to the Midwest.

I walked from the capital to Argonauts in the evening and I never felt like it was a bad part of town or anything but I do live in Chicago and do quite a bit of walking in the city.

05-14-2007 21:42:55 | More by rhoadsrage

ThreeWiseMen

California

4.05/5  rDev +11%
quality: 4.5 | service: 3.5 | selection: 4 | $

Stopped in here on Sunday afternoon, following GABF and its associated festivities.

As woodychandler pointed out, Argonaut Liquors has moved from its original location (currently pictured) into a bright, new, brick building next door. It feels a lot like a BevMo! inside, with row upon row of beer, wine, and spirits (not in balance; most of the space is occupied by wine). The vast majority of the beer is stocked along the right (south) wall of the building, in coolers and on adjacent shelves. A smattering of limited release bottles can also be found upstairs.

JustinA1 and I were initially blown away by Argonaut's selection. Not only did we spot a ton of Colorado craft beer, but we also found Russian River sours, a few offerings from The Bruery, a good selection from Mikkeller, and a fair amount of tasty Belgian ales. The beer selection really wasn't that deep, but it certainly kept our attention for a good 15-20 minutes.

Argonaut was very good about listing the prices or their beer, and a lot of those prices had been considerably marked down (e.g. 375mL of Supplication for $10.99). Many of the beers at Argonaut were also tagged with their score on RateBeer, which sort of eased the decision-making process.

We hardly talked to the staff while we were there, but we weren't in need of any help either. I assume the staff at Argonaut is much like the staff at most BevMo!s: nice enough, but not too knowledgeable about craft beer. The young lady working the register was quick and friendly.

This was a nice way to finish our trip to Denver. Don't go out of your way to visit this store, but check it out if you've got some time to kill.

09-21-2010 17:27:37 | More by ThreeWiseMen

UCLABrewN84

California

3.6/5  rDev -1.4%
vibe: 3 | quality: 4 | service: 3 | selection: 4 | $$

I stopped in here while on my trip to Denver trying to locate some beers that I can't get in CA to FedEx to myself.

This place has a lot of liquor, wine, and beer.

The atmosphere is very business like and professional. The service was average. I asked one question and the worker was very curt about it.

The selection and quality of beers was good with a good stock of a wide variety of styles and breweries. I picked up a few bombers due to their no mixed 6 policy which was pretty disappointing as there were tons and tons of beers I wanted. There is no way I would buy an entire 6 pack of something just to try it out.

The prices were reasonable for what they offered. I walked out with 2 bombers of beer I can't get in CA for $10.

Overall, a pretty good place to stop in at but the no mixed 6 policy is disappointing.

06-15-2011 06:00:55 | More by UCLABrewN84

benito

Oregon

2.3/5  rDev -37%
quality: 2 | service: 2 | selection: 3 | $$

Right near the capitol in downtown Denver, Argonaut proudly displays its banner as the Reader's Choice winner for who knows how many years running as the best liquor store in Denver. Given the quality of their competition, I'm not sure how they pulled this off.

The entire store feels cluttered and a little dusty. There are a good number of beer fridges in the back, with a decent though not exceptional selection of craft brews (I should mention that I was excited to find an early sixer of the '06 Avery Karma here, when several other stores I tried didn't yet have it). Outside of the fridges, the few other beers that they stocked seemed to be placed willy-nilly throughout the store.

When I asked if they had any remaining bottles of Avery Mephistopheles, they checked their computers, said they had two bottles left, but then the stock guys couldn't find them anywhere...again, disorganization seems to be the touchstone of this place.

Take a pass on this place.

03-30-2006 18:38:05 | More by benito

Mebuzzard

Colorado

2.31/5  rDev -36.7%
vibe: 2.5 | quality: 1.5 | service: 1.5 | selection: 4 | $$

This is a good store: it's in the heart of downtown Denver (which makes it a bit hard to find), large store with plenty of choices, and it's reasonably priced. The service is lacking, and it is in a bit of a shady part of town.
This is an update (3-12-2011). Construction is going on in the space where the old building was...a bit tight to navigate.
Beer selection is on the south side of the store, an L-shape cooler with some warm shelving opposite them. Lots of six packs and twelve packs.
The cold bomber selection is a bloody mess. The doors dedicated to them are few and the bottles are scattered, some slots empty. It was really depressing seeing none of the stock faced. Horrible. The warm selection is a bit better, the import selection isn't all that great.
Service? Most were outside smoking I think. Seeing that the shelves were ugly, not much service in the beer portion.
I suspect this place concentrates on wine and drink mixers, perhaps single cans, too.
Good place if you're in the neighborhood, but not great a destination.

09-16-2006 03:55:46 | More by Mebuzzard