Marcellar's Vintage Wines & Brews

Bar, Beer-to-go

431 Park Ave
Idaho Falls, Idaho, 83402-3608
United States

(208) 523-0503 | map
marcellars.com
PLACE STATS
Average:
4.1
Reviews:
13
Ratings:
15
pDev:
8.29%
View: Place Reviews
Recent ratings and reviews. | Log in to view more ratings + sorting options.
Photo of stevoj
Reviewed by stevoj from Idaho

3.6/5  rDev -12.2%
vibe: 3.75 | quality: 3.5 | service: 3.75 | selection: 3.5
Small wine and beer shop, similar distribution to Boise, with a few Montana beers available. Small tap list too. PIcked up a few, but selection was not too extensive.
Nov 16, 2023
Photo of Beersnake
Reviewed by Beersnake from California

3.81/5  rDev -7.1%
vibe: 4.25 | quality: 3.75 | service: 4 | selection: 3.5
Stopped in during a visit to Idaho Falls. Pretty small place with tables for drinking. The bottle shop aspect appears secondary, and they sell a lot of wine. This reminds of a little shop in Portland. They had some good stuff, but some was WAY overpriced. For example, the Samichlaus (small bottle) was $14. This is normally $7-8 back in CA. They had CBS, KBS, Abyss, and some other special releases, but mostly normal stuff. Definitely worth a stop, and the service was good.
Mar 23, 2019
Photo of sunsjammer
Reviewed by sunsjammer from Arizona

4.04/5  rDev -1.5%
vibe: 3.75 | quality: 4 | service: 4.5 | selection: 3.75
Cozy bar and bottle shop with a friendly staff. Prices aren't out of the norm and the selection is decent. Was looking for Melvin and they had the IPA.
Sep 12, 2017
Photo of Fowdy
Reviewed by Fowdy from Idaho

4.07/5  rDev -0.7%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 4.5 | selection: 3.75
Has a decent selection of Pacific Northwest and surrounding area brews. It's hard to find a good selection in Idaho falls and this is the place to go. Staff is super helpful. I recommend this place.
Jun 20, 2017
 
Rated: 4.13 by Squire from Mississippi

Jun 27, 2016
Photo of SitkaSteve
Reviewed by SitkaSteve from Idaho

3.5/5  rDev -14.6%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 3.5 | service: 3.25 | selection: 3.75
A go-to place for me. Good amount of European beers with a fair amount of Mountain and PNW beers.
Fairly clean. Good service. Prices - eh, maybe not so much, its a bit high even with the discount on mix-a-six packs but hey where else am I gonna go, right? Check it out if you get the chance, maybe you'll run into me.
Nov 15, 2015
Photo of StanleysCup
Reviewed by StanleysCup from Maryland

3.84/5  rDev -6.3%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 3.5 | service: 4 | selection: 4.25
Small bar tucked in the back of a cozy package store in "downtown" Idaho Falls. The selection (mostly ID-MT-OR-WA brews) is decent and while there is little in the way of a vibe, it lends character just the same.
Mar 09, 2015
 
Rated: 4 by casapy from Idaho

Mar 17, 2014
Photo of Hop_juice
Reviewed by Hop_juice from Wyoming

4.34/5  rDev +5.9%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4 | service: 5 | selection: 4
Was in town and wanted to pick up some beer I couldn't get over in Wyoming. They had a pretty good selection, a surprising amount of belgian and german beer. Solid amount of american craft beer. Space was small, intimate and the bartender did a great job of being friendly, not pushy and giving me the time to really dig into their offerings. There big on the mix and match sixers, which I loved but the pricing was a little high even with the 10% discount on six packs. Overall was happy with my purchases and would definitely recommend to anyone nearby in search of craft beer.
Sep 27, 2013
Photo of LIQUORBARREL
Reviewed by LIQUORBARREL from Minnesota

3.84/5  rDev -6.3%
vibe: 4 | quality: 3.5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 3.5
Marcellars in Idaho Falls is a interesting beer destination. Located in what looked like old downtown Idaho Falls. The retail store size is actually pretty small and accomodates a small beer bar as well.

They have NO BMC!! The a selection was mostly regional beers with a few Belgians and imports.
They promote mix a 6'r from two large beer racks and a 3 door beer cooler. The labels ranged from Oscar blues, Deschutes(I saw some Mirror Mirror and Jubel Ale), Ninkasi, Alaskan, Sierra Nevada to imports like Sami-Claus and Samuel Smith.

The beer bar accomdates a handful of chairs at the bar. They serve what ever you want buy in the store( for a very small charge). As well as 6-7? good taps. While I was browsing the beer, I enjoyed a pint of Ninkasi Ipa from Oregon. They also offered Guiness, Old Speckled Hen on Nitro, Big Foot from Sierra Nevada, and a few others on tap.

The manager/employee was talking it up with customers and gave a good feel to the place.

Overall, its worth the stop to check this place out. When checking out the employee gave me a discount on a box of beer.
Sep 25, 2010
Photo of Beernoisseur
Reviewed by Beernoisseur from Utah

4.44/5  rDev +8.3%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.5
This is one of my regular stops when I am back home in good old Idaho Falls. The place is pretty incredible, given it's location. They've got a ton of good beers in bottles, (probably 200 or so) and their selection on tap, while small, is always excellent. For example, the first time I went in there, they had Stone's RIS on nitro, which was delightful. Most recently, they had Ruination on tap, and The Abyss on nitro (which was sublime), not to mention a few other gems. The service is knowledgeable, friendly, and genuinely passionate about both wine and beer. It's also right around the corner from Vino Rosa, which is another great little shop, specializing more in wine, but they have a respectable beer selection as well. Spend some time in downtown IF. As a BA, you won't be disappointed.
Mar 29, 2009
Photo of colts9016
Reviewed by colts9016 from Idaho

4.06/5  rDev -1%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4 | service: 4.5 | selection: 3.5
I love to find hidden gems where you live. I would like to think that I am headed to become a beer aficionado. I heard about this place and wondered about it. I asked my brother to locate this place. We drove by once and the second time I went to look for it I found it. The place has a small store front The Display in the front of the store is pleasing. I stepped in and I was in heaven, although they don't have a huge supply of beers the have a descent supply and some hard to get beer. As I was browsing there selection the employee or owner I don't know came over and started to chat with me. The young lady was very knowledge about what she had and what she had tried. I like the fact that they purveyed there agents to get some of the best that the state would let them get. I found Delirium there, I haven't seen it much in any store that I visited to find this beer. I asked the young lady about acquiring beer. She told me that if there are some beer that I am looking for she would see if that can get the beer. I like that. I am always looking for beer so I hope that they can be of service to me. Great store and a descent selection.
Jan 01, 2009
Photo of warmstorage
Reviewed by warmstorage from California

4.56/5  rDev +11.2%
vibe: 5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.5
I was quite happy with what a small place has managed to do: they use every inch of space, and use it well, without feeling crowded. Others have mentioned a number of the brands available, so I'll just rattle off a few that I grabbed: Deschutes Hop Trip (fresh hop ale), Alaskan Smoked Porter 2005, Widmer Broken Halo IPA, Anchor Old Foghorn, Deschutes Jubeale, Sierra Nevada Celebration, Full Sail Vesuvius, Rogue Mocha Porter, Rogue Juniper Pale, Big Sky IPA, etc.

Example prices are $1.35 for 12 ounce Jubelale, $2.99 for 12 ounce Old Foghorn, $3.49 for a 22 ounce Deschutes Hop Trip, $4.49 (or was it $4.99?) for 16 ounce Smoked Porter.

They also had a decent selection of Belgians, as well as British and european brews. I was particularly pleased to see a place carrying a number of the more obscure Rogue beers, as well as specialties like fresh hop ales and Alaskan smoked porter. I struggled with my score for selection: theirs is excellent for such a physically small space, and I love the lack of BMC-style macros, and great for a small town, so I erred higher (4.5) rather than lower (I considered 4.0)

The selection is definitely skewed to the Pacific Northwest, but that's not a big surprise in Idaho Falls, and they carry a lot of the good stuff. They have most everything (at least American brews) available both in the coolers, and warm on the shelves. I chose everything from the coolers. I understand what a small space can force you in to, but it's be nice to see them buy a few more coolers, and only have one warm bottle at a time for display purposes.

Prices are decent, and there is huge benefit to being able to buy a bottle at a time, though it does make things cost more in the long run.

The atmosphere is very pleasant: a long, narrow room with beer coolers and shelves on one side, wine racks on the other, and tables up the middle. A small bar with maybe five stools is at the back of the room, and if I didn't have to drive, it looked like a very pleasant place to toss back a few.

The staff was excellent: friendly, knowledgeable, and suggesting things he thought I'd like based on other things I'd chosen, while not pushing anything too hard.

A nice feature is being able to buy any bottle and drink it in-house for a $1.00 (corkage) fee, so you can decide whether or not to buy more.

It's not the largest place, nor does it have the deepest selection, but what it has is high quality, and the vibe is excellent. I will absolutely, positively return the next time I'm in town, and hopefully take advantage of the bar as well as the liquor store selection.
Nov 04, 2006
Photo of slander
Reviewed by slander from New York

4.64/5  rDev +13.2%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 5 | selection: 4.5
Yeah, so anyway, I'm in Idaho Falls, and the brewpub I hit was so-so and the posted cask of Deschute's Black Butte Porter was on the "86" list. I was sad, like the clown, and I had a 213 mile drive back to Salt Lake City ahead of me. I was stupidly toying with driving another few hours to Jackson, WY, but thought better of it as it would just turn into a 600 mile day, and besides, there was somewhere else I had to see in Idaho Falls. Wait, wait, wait. This place is a wine shop and a beer bar? That doesn't sound right. I'm sure there's some mistake...
On the other side of the Snake River, down the road a bit, a left, a left, and a left and easy street parking, Marcellar's Vintage Wines. Now, I'm going to tell you out of the gate that I was planning on spending about, oh, I don't know, 4 minutes in there. You know the drill. You look over the beer selection, pick up this one, this one, and that one, offer up pelts and beads for exchange, and be on your way. It didn't work out that way.
Wines to the left of me, micros to the right, here I am. It's a good collection of regional micros (5 beers from New Belgium, 4 from Anderson Valley & North Coast, 3 from Bridgeport & Snake River, a pair from Mendicino, Pike, Grand Teton & Alaskan, and various offerings from Eel River, Squatters, Polygamy, Acme, Sierra Nevada, Anchor, Big Sky, Pyramid, Rogue, Full Sail, Bison, Bayern) and then a rack of Belgians (Chimay, Delirium, McChouffe, Gouden Carolus, Grotten Brown, Artevelde GC, Kasteel, Corsendonk Xmas, Lindeman's, De Dolle Mad Bitch) and Germans (Ayinger, Schneider, Spaten, Samiclaus, Paulaner).
Just beyond the shelved beers are coolers with additional offerings or the same offerings just, you know, cooler. They had glassware and gift baskets for sale and I spotted Garrett Oliver's book on the counter, a long way from home.
It wasn't 'til I got towards the rear of the store that I realized there was a small bar back there. A little 5 seat, "L" shaped jobby sporting 7 taps (Guinness, Mendicino Eye of the Hawk, North Coast Old Rasputin, Pike Naughty Nellies & Kiltlifter, Deschute's Cindercone Red Ale and New Belgium 1554 Black Ale). The Anchor Old Foghorn is on deck. I opted for a Pike Kiltlifter and noticed the 3 bar tables in the middle of the room in a row. Some regulars started to roll in, grab a pint and migrate to the tables. A real good crowd here and plenty of great conversation, mostly initiated by our host and proprietor Marcellar, a displaced Vermontian, via (I think it was one of the) Carolinas or maybe Atlanta and then Florida. She's a pistol, just really damn funny. Allegations of scaring away the customers by being nice to them abound. I picked me up a few New Belgium singles (who hoo!!!) It was really nice hanging out and having a beer here on a mild Friday afternoon in March in Idaho Falls. If I lived in town, I'd be living here.
Apr 08, 2005
Photo of alexgash
Reviewed by alexgash from Connecticut

4.56/5  rDev +11.2%
vibe: 5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 5 | selection: 4
Hands down a must-stop for any Beeradvocate if ever driving through Idaho Falls. Marcellar's is a small wine and beer shop located in the quaint historic downtown of Idaho Falls. But don't let its size fool you. Inside you'll find beer on the right and wine on the left. Both sections are crowded with very good selection. But forget about their vintage wines for now--you want beer. The selection isn't enormous. I've been to several beer stores that easily have four times what Marcellar's has. But they stock quality. No BMC here. Lots of West coast and Rocky Mountain beers: HOD, New Belgium, Deschute's, Stone, Odell's, Pyramid, Alaskan, and many others. English and German selection is decent, and the Belgian selection is very good (especially for Idaho). I picked up Abbaye de Rocs and the Grand Cru there last time. Some stock is at room temp., some in coolers. But all is well-cared for, and they let you buy singles of anything (really cool). Oh, and the best part...they have a little bar in the back with 6-7 awesome beers on tap! When I was there they had Tripel Karmeliet, AK smoked porter (!), Deschute's IPA, SN Celebration, another good Belgian and a couple other US micros. They also let you drink any of the bottled beers they sell for an additional $1 "bottle cap" fee. The service is great--they love beerlovers and are the hub of the local beer scene.
Dec 16, 2004
Marcellar's Vintage Wines & Brews in Idaho Falls, ID
Place rating: 4.1 out of 5 with 15 ratings