Di Carlo Fine Wines and Spirits

April 22, 2008
Holy shit...great selection!!! Prices very reasonable and they do have some rare beers....I met Scott the Director of Specialty Beers and what a super guy he was! I must’ve spent an hour and a half there looking at beers and talking beers (much to my girlfriends chagrin I think)...a must stop in the area!

January 15, 2008 [ Updated February 8, 2008 ]
Not the biggest selection in the area but you will find many bottles here not available in SE Wisconsin. Very good prices as well.

January 14, 2008
When I stopped by here in June 2007, I had a nice chat with Scott, the Director of Beers, and liked the direction he plans on taking this store (he also gave me a glass of 3F Black Sun that he had on tap in the back!). The store had a large, kind of old and dusty warehouse feel to it, so not so aesthetically pleasing. The beer selection was fairly large with most of the sixers available as singles (large wall of ’em). They had a solid selection of Belgians and other imports. The goal is to devote more of the store to beer, which can make this even better.

July 22, 2007 [ Updated July 25, 2008 ]
Looking at the ratings, I decided to stop here on my way between Flat Landers and Mickey Finns. They had a smaller singles selection. I left disappointed and did not even buy 1 beer as there wasn’t anything of interest for me here. Original rating on 7/22/07. 2 8 7 n/a 9Decided to stop by and give this place another chance. Looks like they’ve gotton more beer so I raised my rating.

May 18, 2006
When I entered, it seemed like a dusty old warehouse. The selection wasn’t as large as I was expecting from the ratings, but it did have some very hard to get Belgiums (among others). There was some vintage items on the shelf which made me leery to buy since it was out in the lighrt. To tell the truth, I was a bit disappointed to drive all the way out there to see what I saw. I think Binny’s in the Chicagoland Area has just as much selection as the Mundelein Di Carlo’s.

May 14, 2006 [ Updated April 8, 2007 ]
large selection. went there on the free spring beer tasting. that was awesome, big up for putting that on. like zeswaft said, large selection but nothing i’ve not seen before. still, i got about $40 of stuff, all bombers. pricing is very good, only $3.30 for all of the Rogues. i was hoping they’d have some behemoth but they didn’t. seems like the dudes in charge care a lot more about wine, though, which is unfortunate. Rerate: there’s a guy named Steve there. He knows a ton and shared his homebrew with my friends and me when we were there. It was phenomenal. These guys rock.

March 6, 2006
This is a truly decent beer store with a solid selection including plenty of singles. I was able to pick up a goodly handful of "new" brews on my recent visit. But, and not to put the place down in ANY way, I think the reviewers who treat this as The beer lovers’ Mecca need to get out more. There are plenty of fine beers stores in the greater Chicagoland area. And this is most certainly one of them.

February 20, 2006 [ Updated March 1, 2006 ]
A clean store that is convenient if you’re visiting Mickey Finn’s or Firkin. Nice selection of Belgian and Eastern European brews and a surprising amount of mead including the much sought after Apis Póltorak Jadwiga. Plenty of singles. Staff seemed tired but were helpful when asked. Keep your eye on the register as not all beers are in "the system" and errors can occur when the cashier enters them by hand. (Not only did one of my beers get rung up twice, but when I got home I realized that a 330ml of Dulle Teve 10° registered as a 750ml. )

Rerate: I must mention that despite an initial bad impression at checkout, I received a prompt response from Beer Manager Tony who offered compensation for the error. Ratings for "Service" and "Overall" have been adjusted.

February 7, 2006
For the 20 mile drive there this was a pretty big disappointment, especially after the raves. This place looks more like a tittie club on the outside than a liquor store (if you neglect the trite giant "LIQUOR" sign on front). The fact remains that this place has a great selection. Let me refrase that, a large selection. The truth is nothing that is really that special or great. They probably have 300 German and eastern European beers alone. A lot of English and a decent selection of Belgians (NO Rochefort). I liked how they had both 750’s and 330’s of a lot of the belgians if you don’t want to commit to a large bottle. Domestics are quite lame. They had a lot of Behemoth still around. Didn’t have any Bell’s Stouts! Very few domestic bombers. The coolest thing I found were 3 different Jolly Pumpkins (Oro, Roja, and Calabaza). They had Avery Samaels, which I’d never seen. I only brought $50 because I didn’t want to binge, I walked away buying 3 bottles for a total of $17. I got a Lion Stout, JP Roja, and a Tripel Karmeliet. Prices were pretty good. I don’t really have any desire to ever go back here.

November 11, 2005
Hmm, apparently I haven’t rated this one yet. This is great for us SE Wisconsinites. It has a decent amount of stuff Discount doesn’t carry, and isn’t too far into IL. Its amazing how much time you can spend here too, carefully eyeing each bottle, wondering where to throw your money. Only 10 minutes off I-94 (each way), so worth a stop if you are making your way through on a beer-oriented trip.