The New Bottle Shop

This place is absolutely horrible when it comes to service. The latest member of their staff is not only rude, but completely unknowledgable when it comes to certain wines. I live close by and only come to this establishment out of convenience, but would never, ever frequent it if I lived farther than I do. I can’t reiterate enough how the staff is rude and disrespectful to its clientele. I am surprised that this place has stayed in business as long as it has. I wouldn’t recommend shopping at this store if you were dying of thirst and this was the last wine shop in town.

This place is a real enigma. On the one hand, there’s a lot of run-of-the-mill stuff; many prices are a buck or two more than everywhere else; Unibroue 12-oz bottles are inexplicably only sold as singles; and if you do buy singles, they don’t have any empty six-pack holders to place them in (they tried to shove a six of singles into a plastic bag before I told them I’d just carry the bottles). On the other hand, you’ll occasionally find rare gems here; the place doesn’t get picked over like some other beer stores in the area, so you can find seasonals and limited releases when they’re gone elsewhere (I found Oskar Blues Ten Fiddy here in early June); and some offerings are actually under-priced. Staff is very nice, but pretty clueless when it comes to beer. If you live in East Rock, this is a nice, walkable option if you are going somewhere other than The Wine Thief on Whitney. They also have a large selection of wine and liquor, though the same contradictions apply to those spirits as well.