State Line Liquors

dmarch

Pennsylvania

4.7/5  rDev +2.4%
quality: 5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.5

ATTENTION ALL PHILLY BA'S, IT'S WORTH THE TRIP. Easy access, right off 95. Wide selection of Belgian and English beers as well as many other nations. Many micros as well. I've seen every trappist here with the exception of Westvleteran and Westmalle, but maybe I just didn't see them. They focus on wine as well, so think of it as a one-stop store. Friendly staff although I didn't talk to them too much. I knew what I was looking for when I went in. Reasonable prices and wide selection is what I look for and they definately have both.

11-15-2003 22:15:05 | More by dmarch

nomad

Kansas

4.55/5  rDev -0.9%
quality: 5 | service: 4 | selection: 4.5

This place is the real deal.

Like their directions say on their website, the very first thing once you roll into MD, driving on 95 South from PA and DE. Off to the side, it looks like another tin-roofed tackle-n-bait shack, with its neighbors being cornfields and trailer homes – be careful or you might miss it. Talk about not reading a book by its cover!

Its an all-out liquor store, but its strengths are wine and Belgian beer, with a smattering of run-of-the-mill hard-liquor. Shaped like an L, the beer cases are in the middle section. Beyond the cases of macros, selection of American beers is good, pulling from a wide range of well-known micros from both coasts. Belgian selection is fabulous, with a very long and tall rack filled with a stellar array of classics (all the trappists, famous abbeys, and others like Duvel), a mind-blowing choice of new-generation (De Dolle, Caracole, Chouffe), and a gang of other Belgians, so many I couldn’t begin to remember. They get a five for quality on their Belgians alone. Has a nice choice of vintage English and Continental Ales (e.g. George Gale, J.W. Lees, Sinebrychoff, Samichlaus), but a very tiny and uneven selection of German beers that you won’t find unless you wander because they’re hidden, alongside the Rogues and 3 Floyds, behind the Miller Lite cases.

For service, don’t look to the staff – they will either be 15 years old and clueless or local-yokels and Bud-drinking – but instead ask the wine managers in the back of the store. They can help with the beer though its obvious that great wines are this stores forté. They also leave lots of beer dinner and event flyers out on the walls, ASN and MABN publications in stacks, and have been known for their monthly beer tastings. Some glasses for sale in the way back, too.

A thirty-minute drive from Center City Philly, so even less for those in the ‘burbs. A god-send to save us all from the nightmarish PA laws. For the Southeast PA resident, this is much better than any place in South Jersey for singles at normal prices and six-packs (for once, not cases!). This is where I go to get my bi-monthly stock up of beer when I don’t feel like getting a case but instead four six-packs and a single or two (as if i had such self-control) of something rare that catches my eye.

10-14-2003 15:33:50 | More by nomad