Corridor Wine & Spirits

briscott99

Maryland

3.2/5  rDev -17.3%
quality: 3.5 | service: 2 | selection: 4 | $$$

Corridor is a large wine and spirits depot. They also have a decent selection of beer, although you won't find any mention of the beers they have available on their website.

I find the service to be a little more than lacking. Asking any questions usually brings on blank stares, especially in reference to beer. In all fairness, some staff do seem to know their stuff, but mostly in the area of wine. Cashiers range from near-vegetative to simply disinterested. Another frustrating aspect of the store is I often have trouble finding prices for the product... in my latest trip at least 4 prices for beers I wanted to buy were missing.

Beer selection is pretty good. They have a large variety of singles available and one full aisle of microbrew sixers, 12's, and cases. Tall boy selection is just okay IMO, some standards like Rogue and a few others. You won't find anything extremely rare here, but it does have a decent range of stuff, and good representation of beers from all across the U.S. and Europe.

I find this place to be more pricey than a lot of other places in the area. I was here in December 2006, and I found the 6-pack prices for holiday and seasonal brews to be a bit high. Many were $10.99 for a sixer. I can usually find a lot of the "standard" micros cheaper at my local liquor store. I like Corridor mainly because of the selection of singles... I like to try new and different and not have to buy a six pack of each one. That said, singles tend to run about $1.99 each which is a bit high IMO.

Overall, a fairly average establishment for beer. I'll stop in and check it out when I'm in the area, but I never expect to find any truly good deals or hard-to-find micros.

12-10-2006 23:08:42 | More by briscott99

smakawhat

Maryland

3.23/5  rDev -16.5%
vibe: 3 | quality: 3.5 | service: 2.5 | selection: 3.75 | $$

This is basically a Total Wine store, and with that comes the usual Total Wine selection. Here though, it's just inside Anne Arundel outside of Montgomery county thus the prices are a heck of a lot more reasonable. However, the selection here is a little bit less with a few exceptions on the shelves than other Total Wines in the DC beltway area.

It doesn't strike me as a place that is frequented often by big beer fans, so once in awhile you can find some straggling interesting bottles. However, the general selection and imports is also not as big as your typical Total Wines.

The biggest problem is the staff. While you can approach them and ask them for things, the vast majority of them know nothing about the beers or product at all, or what is coming in, or what might be coming. In fact I ran into more distributors here who were just dropping stuff off and looked more like people who ran the store, and their answers were ironically more useful then the staff. An employee couldn't even produce me a simple 6 pack holder, claiming nah we got cleared out after Super Bowl, and then just walked off. You're telling me 2 weeks later you can't even give me a simple piece of cardboard? Not even grab an emptied one of say Bud Light? Seriously you can't even think?

If you want to maybe grab some mixed 6 regular brews to try, and also just pass by to take a look it doesn't hurt. But only go to this place if you know what you want, or you just happen to be in the area. I wouldn't go out of my way to go to this place on a regular basis, only if it's close to you then dropping in once in awhile wont hurt, just dont waste your time asking questions here you'll get nowhere.

02-09-2013 15:00:59 | More by smakawhat

thekanna

Maryland

3.25/5  rDev -16%
quality: 4 | service: 1.5 | selection: 4 | $$

This place is like the Target or Costco of alcohol: very spacious, corporate-like, and pretty much a one-stop-shop for drunkenness. This, however, doesn't imply that they slack on the quality of their stuff: the beer selection, in fact, is excellent. Tons of microbrews and imports in singles, sixers, and bombers. They pretty much have cordoned off an entire section of the store just for beer, with shelves of six-packs piled so high that they need a lift platform just to get them. Quite an impressive sight.

The only beef I had with this place was their service: most of the people working there didn't know much about beer. The checkout counter guys were downright rude: if you're between 21 to 25, you have to fill out a ridiculous form with your signature, address, DOB, etc. everytime you purchase alcohol. The first checkout guy I ran into tried to impart his opinion on how I'm too young to drink alcohol (even though I'm in my mid-20's already); look, buddy, I don't need a lecture. If I'm responsible enough to purchase good alcohol and drink it in moderate amounts, then I don't need to take crap from you about it. The second guy sighed loudly and was dragging his feet in handing out the form as if it was a chore for him to let me buy from his store. Seriously? What happened to customer service? Ok, we've already proven that I'm significantly over the drinking age... why is it still so damn difficult to purchase from here?

02-03-2009 05:28:04 | More by thekanna

yourefragile

District of Columbia

3.25/5  rDev -16%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 4 | service: 2 | selection: 3.5 | $$

Don't be fooled by the name. This a Total Wine. And at that, it's a Total Wine with a crappier and more limited beer selection than you're probably used to (but that's also a constraint of it being located in Maryland and the limited selection of breweries distributed here).

Service is particularly brutal here. Very hard to find anyone that ever knows anything about beer and I've seen new beers arrive and be stacked in their cases on top of the shelves and not be unboxed for months at a time.

Selection is what you expect for a Total Wine. If it's distributed in MD and not rare, it's probably here. "Rare" things of interest that have passed through here are black ops, life and limb, marron acidife, fantome noel, cantillon geuze. Like I said, "rare". Also good luck getting them to hold anything for you.

Easy to access off of 295, but not worth making a special trip for.

07-25-2011 00:49:46 | More by yourefragile

claytri

Maryland

3.3/5  rDev -14.7%
quality: 3 | service: 3 | selection: 4 | $$

Corridor has one of the larger beer selections I have found in Maryland. Unfortunately the local laws cause some issues for stores so I won't hold that against any in the state. They do sell quite a few in singles which is nice for sampling. There service on the wine side seems to be topnotch, but beer smmes to get the weak sistere treatment. Out of the last 6 I bought 2 were skunked so I can't give them too many points for quality. Definately worth stopping by if I'm in the area, but I don't see it as worth the trip by itself.

01-29-2008 21:45:06 | More by claytri

sideshowrob

Maryland

3.35/5  rDev -13.4%
quality: 3.5 | service: 3 | selection: 3.5 | $$$

Update January 2008
Corridor has really let the interesting beer selection slip. They still do alright on the Belgians, but if you want any kind of selection on the local microbrew seasonals, you may well be out of luck. They have probably cut back on total shelf space by about 1/3 over the past year. Dissapointing.

Original Review 9-18-2004
Big supermarket for all things alcoholic. Most of the space is given over to wine, but beer is well represented. Place is very clean and well lit. Layout and selection seem eeriley reminiscent of the "Total Wine" chain in Virginia, which isn't a bad thing. Beer selection is good, but tends to focus on the larger craft brews and the macro-micros (and the macro-macros...). A good place to pick up the not-quite-so unusual stuff. They do not seem, or claim, to carry all beer availiable in Maryland, as a few other stores in the region endeavor to do. Worth a visit if you're in the area, but not a place to go out of your way for.

09-18-2004 12:17:07 | More by sideshowrob

3.5/5  rDev -9.6%
quality: 3.5 | service: 3 | selection: 4 | $$

When you walk in, take a left to hit the beer singles selection. I did this first, then walked down the aisles to check out the six-pack options. After doing so, I decided to stick to the singles. Nice selection, and as others have noted, maybe not the most impressive, but you can certainly find some interesting stuff. I would watch for dating, as some of the bottles on the lower shelves had a serious layer of dust on them. Service was not apparent, and don't count on any help at the check out line. Value seemed reasonable, but not cheap. Overall, a good stop for beer, probably better if you are looking for quantity or want to pick up some wine/liquor as that selection was huge.

08-11-2006 13:44:59 | More by

ScarletLady

Maryland

3.65/5  rDev -5.7%
quality: 3.5 | service: 4 | selection: 3.5 | $$$

I can tell you that the address is wrong in mapquest. Again a small grocery store size booze mart. The best selections seem to be on the wines. Liquor selection was ok, tequila selection was disappointing. But on to the beer...

Relatively good selection although I didn't see any thing that I hadn't encountered before. I did find the large bottle of Maudite which seems to be impossible to find around Baltimore these days. i was the most impressed with the selection of singles that they had. Basically anything that sells in a 6 pack you can buy as a single and then some. I did have a nice conversation with a fellow beer lover as we browsed for a while on this aisle.

I hit this place specifically looking for winter seasonal beers and was disappointed to find just a few. My local liquor store carries a wider variety. I was also hoping for better prices since they do a higher volume.

It is worth the trip if you are looking for singles, otherwise I am planning to say at my home store. The prices are the same and they will order anything i want. Wasn't worth the drive for me, but try it - you might like it.

12-15-2005 15:36:45 | More by ScarletLady

pentathlete

Virginia

3.7/5  rDev -4.4%
quality: 4 | service: 3 | selection: 4 | $$

Stopped in to pick up some MD brews because I was in the area. Very much like the Total Wine stores in the Richmond area. Plenty of wine, a nice aisle of singles, plenty of cases, and a large cooler area. Good choices for local MD and other mid-Atlantic brews. They didn't have the sixer holders in stock, so I had to fill a basket. At the register I met with disinterest from the staff. When my turn came, a couple of the singles rang up with the six-pack price and the clerk had a tough time undoing the error and correcting it. Prices were reasonable. Parking was not a problem. Large store with nice stock. Recommended.

10-26-2005 22:52:55 | More by pentathlete

franksnbeans

Ohio

3.7/5  rDev -4.4%
quality: 4 | service: 3 | selection: 4 | $$

Went here on a treasure hunt as its close enough to me for a trip. It is predominantly a wine store as the majority of aisles are dedicated to such but to the right of when you walk in is a singles shelf where you can "build your own sixpack". No discount for doing so but the option is there. A great selection of six packs as well and (shame shame on me) I pulled a few from the six packs because they were behind on restocking the singles shelves. Everything sold in sixers has a spot on the singles shelf so back off antonio, this is my .... There is no service at all so bring your own knowledge if you want to find a good brew. That being said, you will find the majority of regional craft brews, good selection of belgians and such. You cant go wrong with this place, especially for Laurel Maryland but if you are treasure hunting you are still better off going to Frederick or Chevy Chase.

09-05-2007 08:28:58 | More by franksnbeans