Frugal MacDoogal Wine & Liquor Warehouse

NODAK

Tennessee

3/5  rDev -12.8%
quality: 3 | service: 3 | selection: 3 | $$

In Nashville, there are two stores which pretty much fight for the crown of selling the best selection of liquor and beer...Frugal MacDoogal and Midtown. When it comes to beer, Midtown wins in a landslide, at least for me.

The under 6 percent side of the store seems pretty woeful to me. It's probably only half the size of Midtown's and certainly isn't better than J Barleycorn's. Not only that but their selection of singles for sampling is pretty poor and you can't break the 6 packs to do so.

On the other side, for higher ABV brews, the selection is fair and at least I can say that the prices for a few brews did beat Midtown by a little bit.

Overall, I just don't think it's near the best place in town and it certainly isn't flexible about singles.

06-14-2009 03:03:57 | More by NODAK

richj1970

Alabama

3.82/5  rDev +11%
vibe: 3.75 | quality: 3.75 | service: 4 | selection: 3.75 | $$

I live about an hour and a half drive from this store, but make an occasional trip up this way since they have access to some things I can't get locally especially Stone, Brooklyn Brewery, and Lagunitas.

Selection is decent although stock is spotty at times. I was after some Lagunitas Capachino Stout today, but they were out. Also out of Sucks, and Stone Imperial Stout. I did manage to leave with a big box of good stuff and $100 lighter.

Staff was friendly and helpful, and store is well organized. I wish they offered more singles. Most of the 12 oz bottles are 4 and 6 pack only.

01-22-2013 03:17:34 | More by richj1970

John1985

Tennessee

4.1/5  rDev +19.2%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 3.5 | selection: 4.5 | $

Frugal has made some real efforts in the last several years. As everywhere else in TN, they have a separate low alcohol beer store and the higher (over 6.2%) beers are in the liquor store. They have expanded their high ABV beers to include pretty much everything available in Nashville. Recently they added Green Flash, Laughing Dog, SN (Hoptimum!, Torpedo in Cans!) and also have the high end brews for Victory and Stoudts. Also they have some relatively rare Avery Old Jubilation, which I enjoyed last winter.

The low ABV has singles and growlers. The selection of growler brews are very solid and change often. Their website is not always updated timely, but they update their twitter as to the growler selection and new brews.

Pricing is very good (for Tennessee) and the staff is reasonably helpful but could stand for improvement. Keep an eye out for outdated beers, but I haven't had any problems with that lately.

05-19-2012 15:45:39 | More by John1985

cmorph42

Tennessee

4.08/5  rDev +18.6%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 4 | service: 4 | selection: 4.5 | $$

I've been along time shopper at Frugal's and have noticed their staff is more knowledgable than in the past few years. They have had growler fills for a few months and are up to six handles. They also just started a "buy 10 fills, get 1 fill free" program. You just have to provide your email address, they send you updates about new arrivals and rotating tap handles. The high alcohol section seems to have expanded, but still tucked away in the back corner with the box wine and no cold beers.

Great prices and, if you catch the right person, very knowledgable staff.

06-13-2011 17:06:52 | More by cmorph42

generalnotsew

Tennessee

3.28/5  rDev -4.7%
vibe: 3 | quality: 3 | service: 3 | selection: 4 | $$

Been awhile since I have been here. This is the second best place to buy beer in Nashville but it is far behind Midtown. The selection is okay. The atmosphere is kind of run down and you feel like you are on the wrong side of town if you know what I mean. The bottles seem to gather a lot of dust. Low abv does not let you mix six packs as far as I remember. No growler fills that I know of. The location is pretty easy to find. Prices are great and selection is pretty good but like I said. It is number 2.

05-09-2011 03:39:20 | More by generalnotsew

FrankWBurnsIII

Illinois

4/5  rDev +16.3%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 3 | selection: 5 | $$

When I lived in Nashville I loved shopping at this store. It was the best selection of beer in Nashville that I knew of. There was never anything I wanted that I couldn't get here.

I remember there being ample parking and it wasn't too hard to get to. I lived about three miles west of Vanderbilt.

When I lived in Clarksivlle I would stop at Frugal most of the time when I was down in Nashville for the weekend so I could stock up on great stuff less available in the smaller towns/cities.

It was a busy store but I never had to wait in line too long and everything was nicely bagged and boxes as appropriate.

The liquor selection was very good too. I wasn't into wine at the time so I can't comment on how well they do in that department.

04-16-2011 18:46:39 | More by FrankWBurnsIII

Urbancaver

Ohio

3.5/5  rDev +1.7%
quality: 3.5 | service: 3.5 | selection: 3.5 | $$

I stopped in 6 places in Nashville to shop for beer and this place was the best of them. The selection was still bad compared to any other state but that is the problem with Tennessee I guess! The service was good and the folks there were very friendly. I lucked out and managed to find a few gems but the way their selection is set up was confusing and disappointing. If you're in Nashville this is a great place to hit as it had basically everything you can get in the state. I would recommend it.

02-06-2011 19:27:20 | More by Urbancaver

ztaylor1

Alabama

3.85/5  rDev +11.9%
quality: 4 | service: 4 | selection: 3.5 | $$$

Went here new years eve... mistake! It was packed! But despite the rush, the young lady that rang me up talked to me politely about certain recalls and local brews. And she actually went and grabbed a beer that I said I couldn't find... very impressed with her knowledgability.
They have a decent selection, and glassware! Not bad, nice selection of abita, stone, rogue. All the bigger breweries.

Overall, good stop. I expected a better selection. The prices were also just a bit steep, being about a dollar over the normal stores price...

01-01-2011 03:43:47 | More by ztaylor1

sommersb

Tennessee

3.73/5  rDev +8.4%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 3 | selection: 4 | $$

I go to Frugal's quite a bit since they are very close to my work and it's on the way home. I'd say they have a pretty good selection, comparable to other large beer stores in the Nashville area such as Barleycorn's, with both a high-alcohol store and a low-alcohol store on the same premises.

The service is pretty thin on the beer side. I've not had anyone really offer much help or seem very interested in what they were selling. In my opinion, the beer is kind of an afterthought as compared to their wine and liquor sales. One time I bought some Duvel and the guy checking me out was amazed, basically saying "Whoa! You're spending that much on a beer, dude?" Amazing

They have an e-mail newsletter that only discusses wine, no beer. That being said, they do have a nice website that discusses some of the beers they carry, although it is not kept up to date with their current stock.

Prices seem in line with the rest of the mid-Tenn area.

11-26-2010 21:17:17 | More by sommersb

JohnQVegas

Tennessee

3.35/5  rDev -2.6%
quality: 3.5 | service: 3 | selection: 3.5 | $$

Midtown's major competition in Nashville.

They don't have the same issues with sunlight that Midtown does on the high abv side, but they do have similar issues with dating, as I found a number of Oktoberfest and even a couple of summer beers there in February in the singles section. Most beers I've gotten there have been in decent shape, but I tend to check dates pretty studiously.

Service is iffy. Never been approached for help really, and they tend to know nothing about upcoming releases, even for our local Yazoo.

Selection is inferior to places like Midtown and Grace's, and really not much better than Woodland in terms of high abv stuff. They probably have the buying power to get limited releases, but don't know enough to order them. Not bad really, but not good enough for the size of the business. Prices are in line with almost everywhere in Nashville.

04-19-2010 19:17:20 | More by JohnQVegas