Describe LCBO stores near you

Belgian · Post by **Belgian** » Mon Sep 20, 2010 8:57 pm

Queen and Lee (Beaches) - Small store, some good Vintages stuff, pointless for anything but wine. 3/10

Queen and Coxwell (East of Beaches) - a full "A" store with most products and seasonals, great Vintages and beer product support. 9/10

Danforth and Vic Park (N of Beaches) - weird store with harsh urban vibe & yet pretty good Vintages stock, beer very hit-and-miss. 4/10

Coxwell and O'Connor (N of Danforth) - next best store to Queen and Cox in the area, sometimes great for beer, sometimes nothing. Always good vintages stuff and decent product support to find stuff. Ugliest store. 6.5/10

Hawks28 · Post by **Hawks28** » Mon Sep 20, 2010 9:51 pm

Brock & Kingston Road, Pickering: The best in the area, gets all seasonal releases, got 3 of 4 DDC beers so far, carried Ola Dubh last winter (not for very long though). Aside from Queens Quay and Summerhill, I havent been to many that I would say are better. 8.5/10

Whites Road, Pickering: The worst LCBO I have ever been to for beer. absolutely nothing except 500 ml euro cans. unfortunatley this is the closest LCBO to my house, however the one mentioned above is close enough that I dont have to bother with this shithole store. (1/10)

Kingston Road/Morningside: A newer lcbo with a walk-in beer area. They tend to have all seasonals and a decent selection of 6 packs. One of the best in Scarborough easily. Technically the one in Ajax may be closer to me, but I stop at this one on my way home from work sometimes. (7.5/10)

sprague11 · Post by **sprague11** » Tue Sep 21, 2010 9:33 am

Newmarket at Davis and Yonge - Medium sized store, but very little in good beer. The occasional seasonal release and Beau's at least seems to be a regular offering. The manager at least seems to be more receptive to bringing in new beer. 3/10

Aurora at Bayview and St. Johns - Larger LCBO, At times a decent selection but the new manager has no interest in beer whatsoever. Will have about 1/2 the seasonal releases. Anchor Liberty at least seems to be a regular here, but the beer section has already shrunk by about 20% to make way for more wine. 6/10

icemachine · Post by **icemachine** » Tue Sep 21, 2010 10:09 am

Richmond Hill
Yonge & Crosby - slowly getting better for wines but pretty much a waste 2/10

Yonge & 7 - probably the best store in York Region west of the 404. The staff just lost a couple of the better people to the new store at Bathurst & Carville and its starting to show.Still they get the better part of the seasonal releases and have the better part of the full beer list, a good wine and spirits selection, and Vintages is fairly extensive. 8/10

Major Mackenzie & Bayview - occasional seasonal releases show up here that don't make Yonge & 7, and they generally have a decent OCB selection and a few quality imports. Wines & Spirits are ok, but not great 5/10

Vaughan
Bathurst & Carville - Some good wines but nothing else, even the spirits selection is bad, waste of a brand new location 1/10

Dufferin & Major Mackenzie - Decent Wines & Spirits, some OCB stuff, but generally a waste 2/10

Jane & Major Mackenzie - Good Wine selection for a mid sized store, decent Spirits selection, some OCB stuff and the odd seasonal release 5/10

elproducto · Post by **elproducto** » Tue Sep 21, 2010 11:39 am

Parry Sound- Abysmal selection. Tons of domestic and import crap, very few Ontario craft beers. The one time I special ordered something, they didn't even order it. Despite requesting something different than Old Milwauke, they refuse to provide any customer service.

For some reason they have a ton of New Grist (worst "beer" ever), yet they can't stock any Flying Monkey.

I've decided to never spend a penny in that store again.

1/10 (only because once they had a ton of Souther Tier IPA).

phirleh · Post by **phirleh** » Tue Sep 21, 2010 12:34 pm

Near Home -
Waterdown LCBO #326 - 5/10
-brand new, built last November, probably a 5/10, slightly better that the 3/10 that was there before, has the usual suspects (euro lager, macros) but the occasional surprise (Sgt. Major, Grand River)
Dundurn LCBO #143 - 8/10
-small in size, but best selection nearby, beer area is pretty packed and varried (managed to get Ola Dub last year there), what LCBOs should be like (I want piles of beer!)

Near Work -
Liberty Village - #18 6.5/10
-right behind my work, mid sized beer section, but seems to cater to higher end imports and OCB offerings

Rosko · Post by **Rosko** » Tue Sep 21, 2010 1:02 pm

Wilson and Dufferin - Largest selection of Eastern European lagers outside of Bratislava. Also has a good selection of other beers in a huge beer cooler. Good selection of local brewers, and often one of the first to get new releases. Small Vintages area and lots of cheaper wines. Liquor selection is disappointing.

Avenue and Melrose - Huge wine selection and staff that know their wine. Inconsistent beer choices - sometimes amazing, sometimes average. Has a young staff guy who I've spoken with a couple of times in the beer area. He is enthusiastic but completely unknowledgeable about beer. Still, friendliness is a change of pace.

Bayview Village - Massive vintages section. Including rare liquors as well. Beer selection is mediocre, but it has everything else you can imagine.

scagooch · Post by **scagooch** » Tue Sep 21, 2010 6:40 pm

Mavis and Dundas- Mississauga. Probably the Best in Mississauga. Seems to be a lot of people buzzing around the beer section. Even heard a heated argument about what was the best Pilsner in the store. Get my seasonals here.

Winston Churchill and Derry. Has a cold room where Unibroue is in the imported section. A sleeper of a store. Has lots of Blanche du Paradis and even a tiny DDC feature sign. Pretty good if your out that way. Tried to get the last DOGfish head 60min pale ale in the city but somebody beat me to it.

THE LCBO on South Service road (near QEW and Dixie) The singles bushel is awesome. People at this store don't seem to want to buy the whole pack. I got Flying Monkeys APA. Rogue Dead guy ale, St.Ambroise pale ale and Apricot whea just to mention a few. All out of the singles bin. For the budget conscience like me(cheap bastard) I like not having to commit to a six pack.

Grey · Post by **Grey** » Wed Sep 22, 2010 4:00 pm

King and Spadina - LCBO store #511
I am spoiled living near this store. The beer selection is amazing, comparable to Summerhill if not better. I was easily able to get five of the DDC releases so far (I think the others have yet to be released) and every seasonal I have wanted to try. I can't comment on the wine selection (I don't drink wine much), but the store is a very nice size.

phirleh · Post by **phirleh** » Wed Sep 22, 2010 8:49 pm

scagooch wrote:I got Flying Monkeys APA. Rogue Dead guy ale, St.Ambroise pale ale and Apricot whea just to mention a few. All out of the singles bin. For the budget conscience like me(cheap bastard) I like not having to commit to a six pack.

If it's an open top pack, singles are fair game. I never used to do it but I'm doing it more and more to try new beers that come in 6's.

Bytowner · Post by **Bytowner** » Thu Sep 23, 2010 11:58 am

Ottawa

Richmond Road - Small, but usually carries beer releases. Don't usually last long due to high yuppie population. Shoppers are almost unbearably snobby, especially in the Vintages section. Beer guy seems knowledgeable.

Rideau King Edward - Best LCBO in the city. Normal LCBO upstairs with just about every beer you should be able to get in Eastern Ontario and they usually hang around for awhile since the regulars are more interested in Old English. Great vintages downstairs.

Orleans on Innes - A good medium sized store. Slightly clueless about beer and rarely have it out on the floor quickly. Flavour-of-the-month beers (wheat beers, "summer" beers", fruit beers, flavoured beers) go shockingly fast, gems usually last longer.

lister · Post by **lister** » Thu Sep 23, 2010 12:00 pm

Grey wrote:King and Spadina - LCBO store #511
I am spoiled living near this store. The beer selection is amazing, comparable to Summerhill if not better. I was easily able to get five of the DDC releases so far (I think the others have yet to be released) and every seasonal I have wanted to try. I can't comment on the wine selection (I don't drink wine much), but the store is a very nice size.

I agree pretty much with that. I'm fairly sure I haven't seen every seasonal release there but the store gets just about all of them. The store does seem a little slow in getting releases out though compared to other LCBOs.

The Vintages section is pretty decent. I don't buy as many Vintages releases anymore but they've had most of what I've been recently looking for.

Having it right next door spoils me. In seven years or so when the building gets demolished for a condo and an LCBO is put back in (hopefully that stays in the plans!), it'll be a tough couple of years having to go back out to the other locations. I'm really hoping that the new one is several floors (ideally I'd love five floors.) I really want to have excellent beer and Vintages sections.

Belgian · Post by **Belgian** » Thu Sep 23, 2010 12:13 pm

lister wrote: Having it right next door spoils me. In seven years or so when the building gets demolished for a condo and an LCBO is put back in (hopefully that stays in the plans!), it'll be a tough couple of years having to go back out to the other locations. I'm really hoping that the new one is several floors (ideally I'd love five floors.)

Wow. You really ARE living in condo-land. Would you like one of those glass pedestrian overpasses as well, so you never have to go outside?

TheSevenDuffs · Post by **TheSevenDuffs** » Thu Sep 23, 2010 12:17 pm

Out in Mississauga, so here are the stores I frequent:

Dundas & Mavis - A very good craft beer section. They generally get most or all of the seasonals. They also do a great job at regularly stocking most of the decent Ontario offerings (Flying Monkeys, Beau's, Mill Street, Black Oak, etc.). Over the past year they done a great job keeping regular stock of the US craft beer that is harder to find at other stores in the area (DFH 60, Brooklyn Lager, Southern Tier IPA, etc.). This is definitely my go-to LCBO store.

Square One - This is a new store that has not been up and running for very long (maybe 9 months or so?). They have an absolutely embarassing craft beer section that usually contains an assortment of 7 or 8 of the beers that can be found anywhere. It is very conveniently located for me (both home & work), which makes their selection all the more disappionting.

Hurontario & Eglinton - This one is not very good. The occassionaly have some of the seasonals but nothing that ever warrants a trip there unless I happen to be passing by. Generally if there are 3 or 4 beers I want to pick up, they will have 1 or 2 but Dundas & Mavis will have all 4 so I just go there.

Derry & Winston Churchill - This one a GREAT. Even better selection of craft beer than Dundas & Mavis. The problem for me with this one is location. Not only is at the far noth-west corner of the city, but the best way to get there is all on regular streets (as opposed to highways). There are LCBO stores in Etobocoke that I can get to faster. If the location was better, this would be my go-to store and it will likely become that once I move in March.

Erin Mills & Eglinton - a new store that has been open for maybe 2 months. It is HUGE and always has a decent craft beer variety but not what I would expect from a store of its size. Also a bit of a drive for me and not worth going out of my way for. When I move in March this store will be about 3 blocks from me so I will likely be visting it regularly come March.

Kel Varnsen · Post by **Kel Varnsen** » Thu Sep 23, 2010 12:21 pm

Bytowner wrote:Ottawa

Richmond Road - Small, but usually carries beer releases. Don't usually last long due to high yuppie population. Shoppers are almost unbearably snobby, especially in the Vintages section. Beer guy seems knowledgeable.

I assume you mean the Richmond Road store in Westboro which I usually find pretty convienent since I usually get groceries at the superstore next store. There is another one on Richmond in Bells Corners, which is also fairly decent. The one closest to me is Carling and Woodroffe, which has a pretty big beer selection for a small store. Rideau and King Edward is nice, and probably the only place downtown you can shop and get free parking. The only other one I find really excellent is the one in Barrhaven, but unfortunatly I am almost never out there.