Liquor Barn

Wish I could give 5 stars. The place is so full of choices you have to watch where you walk. You can find things here you might not find in «biggy’s». The people working are knowledgeable if not particularly outgoing, but that’s just style.
I’m taking off a star for one thing only. Why put a «No Concealed Carry guns» sign on the door? Think criminals coming in to do wrong will think of that as anything but a notice no one will be able to stop them? Not too bright IMO.

Nothing much to say about this place except great selection of wines from all over the world. Price is reasonable and service is good.

The people running this place appear to be racist against Serbs, for 2 years they mislabeled their only Serbian beer as made in Montenegro even though its brewed in Serbia and the managers arguement was that his «montenegrin» friend told him it was made in montenegro. So evidently after more complaints they decided to change the brewed in montenegro to brewed by Apatinska pivaria (which if you google is in Serbia) so basically anything to not say that a beer which is clearly brewed in Serbia since 1731. Will never buy anything from them again.

What a great place to find pretty much whatever you’re looking for. It seems a little run down and the prices aren’t really great, but the selection is where they get kudos and extra points.
If I’m looking for something harder to find, this will be my first destination. For something easier to find, I’d probably go somewhere else out of convenience or better pricing.

I am a wine enthusiast. I like to drink and collect wine. I recently ordered 2 — bottles of Joseph Phelps Insignia on line from Liquor Barn and was very disappointed. I pulled the bottles from their box and immediately noticed the «Liquor Barn» labels the store (chose to) put over the winery’s label. This is something that is simply not done in the collectable wine world. It devalues the wines resale. I buy wines from all over and have for almost 20 years. I have never seen this done by anyone, until now. While I understand the store’s need to mark their bottles for security and inventory control purposes I do not understand why they need to place their label over the wineries label. This was not a pop-​n-​pour bottle, this was Napa Valley blue chip with a 98 point Parker score. At nearly $ 200 per bottle I feel I should be able to expect better. I called the store that had shipped the wine and spoke with a sales girl. I did not get her name but wish that I had. When I told her that I had a problem with the bottles they had shipped to me she said that I should «Just enjoy the wine». She also made some ludicrous suggestions about how I might steam the label off (which would remove the winery’s label as well) and then responded «My manager says your bottle is worth more now that it has a Liquor Barn label on it» (exact quote). I was offended by her insolent remarks and asked her for her mangers e-​mail. Her response was «Do you have to contact him? He’s really busy and he will just have me respond to you anyway» (exact quote). Making fun of someone when they are contacting you to complain is unprofessional and completely unacceptable. A manager who doesn’t have time to deal with customer complaints shouldn’t be a manager. By the way no one ever responded to my e-​mail or attempted to contact me. I have never been treated with such total disregard by a wine store in all my years of collecting and will never do business with Liquor Barn again. The people at «Liquor Barn» should read some of these reviews. It’s easy to see that customer service is not something they are known for. People who treat their customers as poorly as Liquor Barn should have no customers at all. Go elsewhere.
P. S. This has nothing to do with coupons.

Beware of their beer specials. The last time I visited Liquor Barn they had a 12 pack of Anchor Steam on sale for $ 9. The beer tasted flat and skunky, and upon looking up the code on the bottle I found out that the beer they had sold me was 15 months old. Today, I bought a couple of their 4 packs of 500ml Pilsner Urquell cans for $ 4. I checked the expiration date and although it wasn’t too old, the beer is still totally skunked. If the price is too good to be true at Liquor Barn, you’re probably buying nasty, undrinkable beer.

There’s a huge selection of liquors and beers, mostly from Eastern Europe, where most of their clientele and some of their staff is from. The sword shaped bottles of cognac were interesting but aside from that their whiskey, particularly their bourbon selection was just okay. Beerwise they do have a lot of Heineken and other standards stocked up and a decent amount of smaller craft beers with a large part of their floor devoted to a lot of Polish and Czech beers.
Service wise, I don’t think I was noticed at all. I walked in, made my way around, took a pictures, doubled back, took more pictures and then I ended up in the back near, what I think was the storeroom. I guess they’re pretty secure in the video camera system to keep me in check but helpwise, no dukes.

I have shopped here a enough times given that my parents are about 1.5 miles away. And this review is only regarding my most recent experience, near the end of September 2012.
So I like my beers and whiskeys, which means that I really like Goose Island’s Bourbon county stout. So I called up all the Binny’s and they were sold out. Then I called Liquor Barn. The lady on the phone states that they have some and are limiting it to a 4-​pack per customer. I said that is fine and asked her to put some aside for me as I will be there in 15 minutes.
Once I get there, some surly man (possibly the manager) told me that I must spend a minimum of $ 30 on other products in the store for the ‘right’ to buy this other beer from him. I look around, they don’t have a good selection of some of my other Goose Island favorites. I figured if I am forced to buy something, it should be from the people who are making the beer I want. After that failed, I looked through the whiskey selection and was feeling like some rye.
The rye selection was sad, only two bottles and neither good. I asked if they have any Sazerac in stock to which they said nope you need to go to Wisconsin for (which is false). I ended up going for a burbon by Buffalo Trace distillery (the makers of Sazerac). Then the lady at the counter asks the guy if this is enough or do I need to buy more to be able to buy my beer.
Thankfully it was enough and I got my beer.
NEVER AGAIN

Great selection of international alcohols. I would suggest on pursuing German beers even further and finally putting more Spaten Franziskaner into the fridge! Prices are not low, but not too expensive either. On top of that you get «moody» russian customer service which only adds a positive character to this place. Im a fan — 4 stars.

Great Liquor Store! Don’t go to Binny’s down the street and get ripped off. This place has the best prices and selection of any liquor store. People give this place a bad review because of an expired groupon. Sorry you idiots cant use your groupon before it expires. I don’t see any other liquor stores even offering coupons or groupon. Shame on the people who give this place 1 star. I would highly recommend this place to my family and friends and to anyone looking for a great deal. Amazing customer service and knowledgeable staff!

Great selection of liquor, the staff is friendly and knowledgable and the store is HUUUGE.
The only problem? Their store hours, rushed over here to buy a bottle of Ciroc only to be told to hurry and find everything I needed because they’re closing in 10 minutes (it was only 9:50pm!)
Tip:
Come early so you have a couple of bottles to pre-​game before a night out ;).

Liquor Barn runs an ad every Wednesday in the Chicago Tribune Food Guide. In small print at the bottom of the ad it states that ALL ITEMS ARE CASH AND CARRY. So, if you go in there with cash and expect to get the sale price, they will not give it to you unless you SPECIFICALLY TELL THEM YOU WANT THE CASH PRICE. I’ve been going in there regularly for the last 15+ years and always buy the same item and I have to tell them EACH AND EVERY TIME that I want the cash price. They have to know I’m going to call them on it!!! Update October 2013, saw a red wine I like advertised in their weekly ad, on sale for $ 10.99. Went into the store and the price listed was $ 16.99 which is what it rang up for at the register. I had to tell the girl that it was on sale so she pulled out the ad to verify and adjusted the price accordingly. You have to watch them like a hawk, because if you go in there thinking you’re going to save a bunch of money, you’d better be paying close attention!

Called them to check on a delicious beer variety and if they’d be kind enough to accept a groupon that expired just a couple days ago. Help had no idea what beer I was talking about (turns out they had it) and sounded annoyed. Owner said absolutely no use of groupon anymore.
I will never shop there and will not encourage my friends to either.

I had a problem with the cashier lady the last time I went and have never gone back since then. I’ve spent quite a bit of money there and thought it was ridiculous to be treated so rudely by them. Binny’s is closer to me and I have never had a problem with them, so I am now a Binny’s convert. Thanks for nothing Liquor Barn.

Wow I am shocked by other reviews of this place. Just returned from my first visit and will never return. The selection is not impressive and the prices are about the same or even a little higher than Binny’s or Wine Discount Center. Definitely seem to target a lower end crowd and inexperienced shopper. Staff is very unfriendly and unaccommodating.

Overall: selection is VERY good and one of the few suburb liquor stores with such great variety. While Liquor Barn advertises affordable prices, I find that there are not that many great deals. Surely, you save «some» money than your average corner liquor shop (plus, the lower taxes versus Chicago), but I am surely NOT impressed enough to ever make a second-​visit.
The service seems friendly enough, though the cashier tried to hurry me up as if I was doing her a disservice by buying their products. Luckily this does not change the flavor of the beer. :-)
If you live by Liqour Barn, then it is the place the go. Otherwise, try Binny’s or stick to your favorite place to buy.

Watch this out guys, the quantity is limited, do not miss it! I have just bought one and wanted to chare with you

What a nice place in an out-​of-​the-​way location, right next to the Glenview/​Niles high tension wires and power station! It kinda sits alone all by itself, so you could miss it.
We got a real great price for a birthday gift for a friend of ours, and their selection is incredible, and the owner is extremely friendly with a vast knowledge of liquor and what’s currently the «in» drink.

So I think I’ve found my new hangout…
One of my students told me they had Vranac wine here, so I took a little trip over to see what I could find. This might be the second biggest liquor store I’ve ever been to. I know it’s not the largest, but it’s rather massive and they carry some pretty obscure stuff. Prices are the best I’ve found so far, as well. I think the wines I looked at were a few dollars less than other places.
My only complaint is that I seemed to know more about pretty familiar brands of alcohol (shut up…) than the floor guy. Even the man who seemed like he was the owner, or at least higher up on the staff ladder had no idea what Rumple Mintze was and it took us both 5 minutes to find it among the rows and rows of schnapps and vodka.
I still can’t get over the fact that I can buy alcohol on Sundays. I love you, Illinois.

I wouldn’t go so far as to say, «If you dreamt it, they have it,» but this is pretty much as good as it gets. Binny’s, please sit down. Unfortunately, you have to drive all the way to Golf and Milwaukee to reach this alcohol haven, but inside you will find the cheapest of the cheap to $ 1000 bottles of liquor locked up in the cabinet. I remember seeing special flasks of Richard Hennessey Cognac engraved and glass longswords of some dark liquor.
Yep, I’ve gone far and wide in my search for Porteris, a Latvian beer and they had that in high supply. They have hundreds if not thousands of selections of beer and most can be bought by the bottle if you so choose. Nothing more fun than picking five chocolate beers and taking a day to sample them all.
Need liquor in quantity? Oh why not?! You can’t go wrong buying a handle of Skyy Vodka for $ 20. This place will knock your socks off and send you to the Nth degree of drinking Nirvana.