DC Bottle shops suggestions

IMHO, the best overall DC shop is now the P St. Whole Foods -- great selection and prices. De Vinos in Adams Morgan has some gray market stuff (mostly Lost Abbey/AleSmith/Central Waters last time I was in). Its sister shop DVines in Columbia Hgts is good as well. Conn. Ave Wine & Liquor in Dupont Circle has largely gotten out of the gray market area, but has a solid selection of Belgians and Evil Twin and related beers, and other good, more obscure craft.

Perennial can be found at P St. and De Vinos. Hardywood is not in DC, but can be found across the river in Arlington -- check Arrowine for a big selection of these, and most of the others you're looking for.

 

In Northern Virginia: Total Wines, Arrowine, Norm's

 

I'd add Westover Market and Lost Dog in Arlington (across the street from one another). Although some of Westover's prices can be quite high, they have a very wide selection generally speaking and you can sometimes find beers there that are otherwise unavailable.

 

Whole foods p street is great. Make sure to ask the beer/wine guy what they have in the back.

 

Some of these places you guys are listing aren't Metro accessible.

 

I was at the Lost Dog in Dunn Loring a couple of weeks ago, and it was pretty good. I assume all of the locations have a similarly good selection, so I'd second that suggestion. They have really good pizza too.

 

Whole Foods P is a good option, but they are out of the Armageddon. I am actually running into Armageddon in several places these days but they are a bit out of the way (Franklins).

However, Cario which is near P Whole Foods, had (last I was there) Wings of Armageddon and also the Sweet Baby Jesus as well. There are also lots of dusties so watch dating accordingly if you go there, but the wings is very recent (it just got distributed recently).

Connecticut Ave is also good for grey market items, and that's right off Dupont Circle (red line).

Closest line to P st is Mcpherson (blue/orange), but you can easily get off at Dupont, hit Cairo, then P street for a short leisurely walk.

 

The wings is 1/24/2014 according to the guys at the brewery.

 

Conn. Ave Wine & Liquor in Dupont Circle has largely gotten out of the gray market area, but has a solid selection of Belgians and Evil Twin and related beers, and other good, more obscure craft.

Is this true? I have to admit after scoring there big time this past summer with Surly stuff, I didn't notice any "interesting" breweries right after Christmas. Would you say D'Vinos and D'Vines have the best grey market selection now?

 

Sadly, I think Barmy and One West are the only ones at the moment and I hope those go out of business for their price gouging.

 

I would agree with D'Vines and De Vinos, though they don't have the kind of selection Conn Ave used to. It's also true that with the number of breweries coming to the DMV and the number of good online stores, you can get much of what they used to have fresher and cheaper (excluding shipping). The gray market now seems much more bar-centered.

 

I think Conn Ave is out of the grey market stuff or maybe it's only to their regulars. I stopped in about a month ago since I read somewhere in here that they had some RR stuff for sale. I didn't see it and I asked if they had any out of market stuff for sale like a RR, Surly, etc and they told me that they weren't importing stuff from outside markets anymore.

 

I talked to Al over there a month or so ago and he said that they're out of the grey market for now and had been for a few months. He said it was just too much work to keep doing and that with all of the new beer coming into DC through regular distro, he would rather just stock his shelves with those beers instead.

 

That sucks, I just moved to the DC area last September. Connecticut Ave was one of the first places I found and its still one of my favorites, they always have something good in there.