Monarch Beverages

Store

505 Long Beach Road
Long Beach, New York, 11561
United States

(516) 432-6767 | map
PLACE STATS
Average:
4.11
Reviews:
5
Ratings:
8
pDev:
8.03%
View: Place Reviews
Recent ratings and reviews.
Ratings by Mancer:
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Reviewed by Mancer from New York

4.15/5  rDev +1%
So, I was searching the net high and low for my beer haul. Coming up to Thanksgiving weekend, I wanted to find a decent place locally viable on Long Island. I came across my usual 2 stops (which I loathe.) What caught my eye about this one was that they had a website showing off their shelves packed with craft selections. So, I made the 15 minute trip to Long Beach.

Granted my initial greeting was a bit awkward, there were a few homeless people bringing their shopping carts with cans for deposits and the usual people not coming to grasp with the price they paid for their Budweiser.

Putting this to the side, I ventured deeper into the store and was greeted with two aisles of double sided, 6ft high shelves. My initial impression of the aisles was confusion. It seemed as though someone drunk categorized the beers. A gentleman walked next to me saying "God there has to be Dogfish Head in here somewhere." For you, what you need to know is that this place is not categorized by state or country and then alphabetically. Instead, the shelves are stocked by beer style and then everything is just thrown on the shelves. I found several beers in multiple beer style categories.

After figuring out what I'm dealing with, I tried to figure out why there were bottles missing from six packs. After speaking with an employee, he informed me that you can mix your own six pack. However, you will be charged a slight premium for each single bottle, unless you are buying a mixed 6er from the same brewery. This logic doesn't really work for me, and it seems like a suicide run for your wallet, not having the details as to the individual prices of each beer and their markup.

Nonetheless, I was pretty happy with the offerings at this store. You had beer from breweries all over. Lots of NY based breweries were represented there. This was also the first time I have come across Stone Levitation Ale in NY, granted I haven't driven far for my usual beer purchases. Another catch that I was excited about was finally figuring out where to buy Pretty Things beers. From a location standpoint, this is the best beer store near me, so long as I remain conscious of what the going rates are for the beers I'm buying.

For the most part, the prices are reasonable. However, there were still overpriced brands that I would never buy from these guys.

Something to additionally make note of is that these guys offer beer tastings every once in a while. For instance, there is a beer tasting coming up this weekend, which I hope to attend.

Overall, this is a good beer store. There are some pricing issues, but for the most part we're looking at about $1 higher than I'm used to in Buffalo. I'll definitely found myself back there again.
Nov 24, 2010
More User Ratings:
 
Rated: 4.04 by PVMT from New York

May 24, 2016
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Reviewed by SteveB24 from New York

4.11/5  rDev 0%
vibe: 3.75 | quality: 4 | service: 4 | selection: 4.5
Vibe is decent, the place being in a beach town it has a pretty laid back feel to it, while avoiding a convenience shop atmosphere, quality is good. The store is kept clean and well lit with nice displays. Service is good, the staff is friendly but not overbearing. Selection is excellent. Lots of locals as well as some things that are very hard to find in most beer shops, especially in long island.
Nov 23, 2015
 
Rated: 3.96 by Gkruszewski from New York

Nov 14, 2014
 
Rated: 4.25 by JKV96 from Massachusetts

Jun 16, 2014
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Reviewed by deleted_user_574223 from New York

3.78/5  rDev -8%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 3.5 | service: 4 | selection: 4
I work close to this place and I was interested in seeing what they had to offer. It's always nice to have a place you can pick something up on the way home, especially at the end of a long work week. I found that Monarch had a pretty decent selection of beers and they divide it up by style. Place was pretty busy the several times that i have been in there between regular customers and lottery customers, however the staff always seemed helpful. Prices were moderate to high but that's expected in a small beach community where your next best choice is a bit of a hike away. Overall not a bad place to go when your in the area. I'll be back looking for anything new. Enjoy!!!
May 09, 2011
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Reviewed by dragonbrew from New York

4.85/5  rDev +18%
Since I take my summer breaks on the island it is imperative to know where to purchase quality beer. I've searched heavily in the South shore area for years with a limited amount of luck, until I read Slander's review on this place.

With my wife's family living in nearby Oceanside, I've taken countless trips to Longbeach to go to the bars, the beach, to eat, to ride my bike on the boardwalk, etc. In all of those years I've probably passed Monarch hundreds of times, yet I never knew what was inside. As soon as I read it, I knew exactly where it was and realized the next time I was in town I had to find the Burried Treasure by the beach!

I decided over Memorial Day weekend to make a trip over the bridge into Longbeach. I was pleasantly surprised to find what seemed like a limitless supply of craft beers. I would estimate that about a quarter to a third of the store was generously stocked with crafts from all over the U.S. and solid representation from the rest of the globe.

As previously mentioned by others, there were several well know breweries represented, I was especially taken by the tremendous amount of Rogue offerings I found. I also found the amount of seasonal packages being offered to be way above the usual standard. Since I was headed to a family cookout this was to be my quarry.

During my walk though, two different shelf stockers asked if I needed any help finding anything. I just wanted to look so my answer was no, but I found it cool that they asked. Most places seem rather indifferent to you being in their store, but this establishment was an exception.

After looking over several offerings I settled on a Sam Adam's summer case since I wasn't going to be drinking with an exclusive craft beer crowd. Four mixed sixs for just under thirty dollars was a very resonable price in my mind.

As I arrived at the counter the owner was busy, but made mention about the Brooklyn brewery shirt that I had on and was sure to ask if I had found the Brooklyn offerings he had. I didn't have time to stop and chat, nor did he, but given this experience I will definitely return soon.
Jun 03, 2006
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Reviewed by slander from New York

3.7/5  rDev -10%
Two Summers ago, I braved a fog and a half to visit a south shore bar on the (dirty) Island one night. Talking over beers to the owner there, the subject of "the beer store just over the bridge there" came up, but they were long closed at this time of night. A recent barbecue on the South shore finally afforded me an opportunity to go have a look, although I had to sit on this review for a little while, as there were potential "poaching" issues...
Monarch Beverages really is just over the (Long Beach) bridge there. Ice, snacks, sodas, a few aisle of high stacks and stacks and stacks of cases and the beer to the rear, singles and six packs near the wall of coolers. They've got a decent section of micros, local (Southampton, Blue Point, Brooklyn), regional (Saranac, Sam Adams, Magic Hat, Victory, Harpoon, Otter Creek, River Horse, Weyerbacher, Stoudts, Atlantic Brewing, Brewery Hill, Stegmaier, Endurance) and beyond (Rogue, Acme, Flying Dog, Sierra Nevada, Anchor, Rockies, North Coast, Anderson Valley, Mendecino, Spanish Peaks). Nicely supporting their locals with all 3 Southampton XXII beers (IPA, Double White, Porter) being present and they have Blue Point growlers in the cooler and 750's of the Old Howling Dog).
English over here, more than the usual Germans over there, and Belgians (Maredsous, Duvel, Affligem, Leffe, La Binchoise, Delirium, Tripel Karmelit, Orval, Chimay, Kwak, Corsendonk). I grab a Southampton Saison and a few bags of ice for the cooler, and head for the counter, when I spot a...
"What's that one there?", he asks, pointing to the boxes on the shelf above.
"That's Liefman's"
"Yeah, which one?" he queries, thinking he already knows the answer to the question.
"That's the, uh, regular Liefman's".
"All right, pull it down here, bring it!!", he snaps, with tone, at the suggestion that there could be a regular Liefman's.
Our hero studies the large dusty box with it's narrow window showing a bottle wrapped in paper. The box says "Liefmans Goudenband 1.5 liter magnum" on the top. By the time the other guy behind the counter can say, "You don't want that, it's real old", the neck of the bottle is out of the box and the paper is unwrapped aside to display a caged cork with no visible date. Uggggh, cursed seepage!! Some brown crystalline syrupy something between the cork and bottle. Damn!! But there's another one up there (just got it pulled down) and this one (box open, got the bottle by the neck) appears to be (paper unwrapped) clean. Yes!!
"All right, what do you want for her?" (the box is marked for $29.99)
"Ten".
"Sold!!!"
Cracked it at the Heavyweight open house on the ping pong table. She was okay, not stellar, but not awful. Randy thinks it was oxidized. There's still a pair of them at the store. One is the wrapped one in the box with seepage and the other one has no seepage but also no paper wrapper or box so sunlight and store lights may have...
Otherwise, nothing too crazy or unusual but it's solid shopping on the south shore.
Oct 24, 2005
Monarch Beverages in Long Beach, NY
Place rating: 4.11 out of 5 with 8 ratings