Ace Beverage

Mary Bruce did a fantastic job helping us figure out how much beer, wine, and liquor we needed for our October wedding. She was very accommodating when we wanted to add the fixings for a signature cocktail, and her team was incredibly professional about delivery and pick-​up at the end of the night.

One of the best decisions we made was to use Ace for alcohol delivery for our wedding. We originally were going to try and do it ourselves, but decided to go with Ace and it was a great decision. They are great and what they do and provided an accurate estimate for the amount of alcohol needed for our wedding. Mary Bruce Leigh was great to work with and provided excellent wine recommendations. Delivery and pick-​up of excess alcohol was timely and with no issues. We would definitely recommend them if you have the option.

A liquor store that closes at 7 pm! Every night — even fri and sat.
I live nearby (part-​time) and it’s a decent store, but it’s customer-​unfriendly hours render it largely useless.

OK… Nice wine selection. I wish they were more friendly to the people that work in the building. It appears that we’re their most routine customers. Every single occasion that I’ve walked in after 4:30 I have been ignored. I’ve only been asked if I needed help my first visit after wandering through each aisle for about 10 minutes.
I wouldn’t come back if were not conveniently located in the building. Everyone deserves great customer service. *shrug* I guess they’re best known for their catering service, which I wouldn’t be too inclined to consider given in-​store service.

ACE Beverage came highly recommended through our caterer and wedding planner– namely because they would purchase back any unused alcohol and drop everything off/​pick it up. I e-​mailed them and they were incredibly responsive at first. Multiple staff members got back to me within a few days, even after I received the initial out of office response from someone else. We received the proposal, it was very thorough, but it was also very expensive. Our venue has a strict rule that everything must be out by that evening. I think it’s silly, I’ve inquired about it many times and they will not make exceptions (early morning pick up, etc). They unfortunately said that they would not be able to pick up the alcohol that night– which was the main reason we were looking into their company. So it just didn’t work out from our end… and I was fine, didn’t have a bad taste until I received a number of e-​mails from Steve. Granted these are e-​mails, but his curt tone was more than enough to leave a poor taste in my mouth about ACE beverage. His questions were belittling, asking «there is no other way you can bring the alcohol home”(it’s kind-​of our wedding day, and no I don’t want to be worried about this at the end of our night), and «you mean you expect us to pick it up at midnight on Halloween?» (Yes, actually! We understand the silly rule– but it’s not ours, we don’t like it, but we’re stuck with it). «if you can provide alcohol at a much lower price, I suggest you do that. Also, we can not pick it up at midnight on Oct 31 (Halloween)». (yes, thank you– that was our plan, and I do realize that our wedding is in fact on Oct 31, also known as Halloween). I hope whoever uses ACE in the future has a better experience than ours– it was just one employee and perhaps it was on a bad day, but Steve is definitely not the type of person I want involved in my wedding day!

This is a review for the Single Malt Scotch Section only. Ok Malt Maniacs, you might think that this is the place right? Wrong. A selection of easy to find malts, but at more than MSRP prices. No specials to speak of. the harder to find malts they have are near ridiculous in price compared to what you can find online (at even an average place). McArthur’s (Bassins) had a section double this size with prices on par with or $ 8 – 12 cheaper per bottle. This was like going to an over-​priced Vinyl or Comic Book store that is in love with itself. Service was fine. I did notice the old ladies coming in and buying 10 bottles of wine were well-​treated, so if you are into that then go for it. I wont be going back for the Single Malts.

Based on recommendation from our Caterer, we used ACE to supply the beer, wine and liquor for my daughter’s wedding at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. The recommendations they gave were great. The pricing was spot on target and enabled us to have the flexibility we wanted.
The venue is a great place, but can be challenging from a logistics point of view, especially considering the Sunday night time slot. ACE was very flexible and easy to work with when coordinating delivery and pickup.

ACE Beverage was recommended to us by our caterer for our wedding which was held Saturday, May 24, 2014 at the Carnegie Institute in Washington, D.C. Working with Mary Bruce Leigh from ACE was a pleasure as she was very responsive, accommodating, and friendly. Overall ACE Beverage was one of the easiest vendors to work with and I would highly recommend them to any bride who is able to «bring their own alcohol» as it was a HUGE cost saver.
Pros
* Unopened/​Items not placed on ice can be returned
* Prices are very competitive with local rates especially when considering that the products are delivered
* Large selection of beer, wine, and liquor to choose from
* Ice, beer, wine, champagne, liquor, and mixers all delivered on time and leftovers picked up the next day
* Work with you to choose items based on your budget, event, etc.
Cons
* ACE was able to provide me a beer list with prices via e-​mail however, did not have a list of wines and prices

We used ACE for alcohol our wedding last month and were extremely happy with how well things worked out – they were probably the easiest vendor that I worked with. Mary sets up the beverage orders and is friendly and super responsive. They deliver and pick up the alcohol. No muss, no fuss.
I have to also mention that we had Mary put together a selection of wines for us to try. We invited a bunch of friends over for a blind taste test to pick our wedding wines. A ton of fun.
If you are so lucky as to get to buy your own alcohol for your event, just use ACE.

So first, a disclaimer: Mary Leigh is a super-​good friend of mine. She’s also one of the phenomenal consultants here. And since my experience with Ace involves Mary’s recommendation in wines, I’m reviewing a friend. Still, I think if you look down the other five-​star reviews here on Unilocal,you’ll notice that I’m hardly out-​of-​line in my recommendation.
So other than the fact that Mary’s knowledge of wines is encyclopedic and her love of wine is palpable and infectious, what I love and appreciate most about her is that she’s not a snob. In the slightest.
Now, you may think she’s a snob, because she knows how to pronounce «Châteauneuf-​du-​Pape» or «Gewürztraminer» and refuses to pretend that she doesn’t. Or because she’s not shy about sharing her opinions, both good and bad, about wine. You may think she’s a snob because the way she can talk about a good wine can border on the breathless. And in each case, you’d be wrong. No, she’s not a snob because she’s more than willing to explore the low-​priced end of the inventory, and search out those fantastic bottles that taste WAY more expensive than they cost. As a matter of fact, she’s phenomenally good at this.
And that’s why, for our recent wedding, Ace was able to supply and deliver champagne — not sparkling wine, mind you, but Champagne — for 200 guests for $ 7 a bottle. And that champagne was so good that my uncle the HUGE wine snob e-​mailed me the next day asking if I’d send him a photo of the label.
So my only complaint about Ace? They’re in DC. And I’m in Baltimore. Boo.
PS — Still don’t believe me? Read Hannah C.‘s review from 2009. That’s Mary to a T.

By far the best place to buy liquor in the DC area. Joe has excellent recommendations. Beer selection is small, but you come here for the spirits. Parking garage in the back allows you to avoid street parking.

Was interested in an Aviation drink and the recipe called for crème de Violette and Marchino. The Virginia ABC stores didn’t even know what the liquors were. They kept saying «You mean crème de Cocoa». Called Ace and they had both in stock. ABC said they could order the Marchino but didn’t’ know WHEN it might come in and ABC said they didn’t know if they could order the crème de Violette at all. Ace says they keep both in stock.

Good selection but the service is awful. I guess the staff knew we were not regulars and basically ignored us. We ventured to Ace for a nice bottle of Mezcal…$ 120 so it wasn’t like we were buying cheap liquor. So I guess I am rating this liquor pretty strongly based on their service when their selection is truly good. If I have to go back, I will, but I will surely look for other liquor stores, like Schneider’s, to get my good libations.

I just turned 21 and wanted to buy my first bottle of wine in the States. This place is close to my apartment, so I decided to check it out. Really great selection, and the clerk was able to give me lots of advice and guidance. After an incident with my ID (who knew you couldn’t use an expired license as ID, thank goodness I had my passport!) he was able to check me out and send me on my way. Great service, great selection, and good prices. This will definitely be my default wine/​liquor store while I’m in the AU area.

Hands down, the best liquor store in DC. Bad side? You need a car, or a whole lotta patience on buses, to get to it.
For wine and liquor, the selection is impeccable, and the staff knows its stuff. I have never failed to find an exotic liquor that I have wanted there (including things such as Allspice Dram, french-​made Crème de Banane, Framboise, and Mure, and a wide range of hard to find Mezcals and specialty bitters). It is my one stop shop for any and every cocktail party I have. Their wine selection is also large and has lots of high end vintages – but I would emphasize their strength is as a liquor store, as there are plenty of other good wine merchants in DC that are easier to get to. The staff is also knowledgeable and generally friendly and willing to help, and have never failed to provide me with good recommendations.
Prices? Comparable to other places, though my bill often ends up being very expensive due to all the hard-​to-​find and specialty purchases.

We used Ace Beverages for our wedding this past November. Our caterer suggested them because we wanted an extensive variety of beer, wine and alcohol and we wanted the option to return unopened bottles after the event. My primary point of contact at Ace was Alma Gensler and she was a pleasure to work with throughout the process. She was very responsive to all of my questions. She assisted with determining the quantity of alcohol needed based on our numbers and she suggested four excellent wines for our big day, all at a very competitive price! Ace was able to deliver all of our alcohol right to our door and they were able to pickup our leftovers on the date, location and time of our choosing. I would highly recommend Ace!

Extremely solid and worthy selection of all types of liquor, which was my main focus on why I searched out Ace Beverage. I’ve been to Schneider’s, Pearson’s, and Harry’s, but Ace has a better ‘hard-​to-​find’ selection. While Schneider’s has breadth, Ace has quality. The other two are mediocre at best.
As a Scotch and Bourbon guy, this place has some choice selections that I haven’t seen anywhere else. Angels Share bourbon was right on the shelf when I walked in and most other places claimed they couldn’t get any. After purchasing my bottle, staff member Joe and I discussed all kinds of selections at length. He used to work at Jack Rose saloon, so the man knows his liquor selection. He was baffling knowledgeable about everything, had superb tips, and upon delving further, he told me he had some Jefferson’s Presidential Select 18yr bourbon in the back and gladly went back and sold it to me. I could tell he appreciated someone with a good knowledge of the fine stuff. Naturally, I bought that bottle too. I also saw some Springbank 18yr old single malt scotch on the shelf, which is practically nowhere to be found elsewhere.
The whole complex where Ace is located has parking and they can validate for up to 1-​hour and on Saturday’s it’s free all day. With their spectacular selection, ultra helpful staff, and ample parking… this has to be Top 3 liquor stores in D.C. easily.

My only complaint is that so many of the bottles are behind the counter, making browsing a bit difficult. That being said, this place has a really amazing selection of booze, in particular, rums, bourbons, and odd liqueurs. I was looking for Laird’s Bottled-​In-​Bond Apple Brandy, and Senior Curaçao of Curaçao, both of which they had. I also asked about the possibility of ordering Marie Brizzard products and they said it would be no problem. Wray and Nephew and Banks 5 rums were on the shelf, both of which are impossible to find in MD and nearly as hard in most places in DC. I also saw a bottle of Creole Shrub, another hard one to find in DC. Finally, the prices, while not as cheap as MoCo, were some of the best I’ve seen in DC. Just comparing, at quick glance, several bottles of single malts (Lagavulin, Laphroaig, and Highland Park 12) the prices were only slightly higher than in MoCo, and better than just about anywhere else I’ve seen in DC.

As everyone else has said, the selection here is excellent. The staff was helpful, but not intrusive.
If you’re wondering who in DC carries whatever it is you’re looking for, it’s probably Ace. It may not be your first stop, but it will be your last.

I went to Ace Beverage on the recommendation of a bartender at the Columbia Room. I live on Capitol Hill, so Ace was quite a hike for me, but I had the day off and was hosting folks for Manhattan’s so why not.
Well, lesson learned, definitely not worth it. Sure, I found everything that I needed there, but man, would it kill the staff to be a little friendly or crack a smile?
Let me be clear, they were helpful, but I felt very much that it was bare minimum of helpfulness and they ultimately didn’t care if I dropped dead right on the spot.
For example, «Hi there, the lady mentioned you would be the best person for me to speak with about recommendations for making a perfect Manhattan,» I say. Male clerks response, «All you need is bourbon or rye, sweet vermouth, dry vermouth and bitters,» followed by silence and a blank stare.
Well, thank you, sir. I know what the ingredients are for a perfect Manhattan but if you heard the words that were coming out of my mouth, well, I asked for recommendations not a list of ingredients. As I said, bare minimum of helpfulness, and there were only 4 other customers there as it was a Monday at about 2 p.m.: one was my friend who was looking for a particular chardonnay and experienced even less assistance than me, and two customers who were simply paying or picking up phone or special orders.
Ultimately, I got the guy to speak after asking more and more questions like, «What kind of sweet vermouth do you recommend?» It was literally like pulling teeth.
I shouldn’t have ventured away from Schneider’s of Capitol Hill. Even when they’re at the height of busyness, they’re friendly, offer tastes if appropriate, etc.
Stay away from Ace Beverage if possible until they understand the relationship between service and revenue. However, like so many other establishments in DC that have poor customer service, they know that they will always have customers so why bother going the extra mile?