Southside Sanctuaries - Liquorama

Living in the southside of the city and being a craft beer lover, unfortunately, I’m limited to the places I can get a good quality brew. Fortunately, there are a number of those hidden neighborhood bottle shops that are full of treasures. People are often asking me where they can go get craft beer so I decided to visit these places one by one and show my fellow southsiders a little bit about them.

"Gem of Brighton Park"

First stop, Liquorama. They are the “Tequila Oasis” but I like to call them “the store that always has the limited release beer everyone in the city is looking for but never thinks of checking here” store.  

Located on the southwest side of the city, this family owned business has been around for over 40 years now bringing the Brighton Park community good taste. Rows of bottles after bottles of very neatly placed tequila and right in the middle is the gem, a growing colorful display of craft beer. You can find local brews, special release brews, brews from the Midwest, west coast brews, Belgian brews, barrel aged brews, and many more. You can walk in one week and find that six of Zombie Dust you’ve been looking for and walk in the next and find that four pack of Furious everyone is going crazy over. Heck you can still get Bourbon County here! While everyone else pretty much gave up looking for it, I walk in and see this beauty sitting on the shelf. I was very tempted to buy it but decided I already had my fair share of it and someone else deserves the opportunity to enjoy it.

Side Note: The craft beer community is not selfish. At least we try not to be.

Thanks to Vicki, the store’s awesome owner, I got the chance to come in to take a couple pictures and talk with her about the business and her views on the craft beer community.

And even though their craft beer space is not as big as the store, they feel very proud of it and they stand up for it. 

Vicki made some points that I thought were great.

“Unlike “regular” beer, craft beer is all about layers.”

I totally agree with this. It’s all about appreciating the craft as much as you appreciate the beer. As you open up your palate, you learn to distinguish those little things that make the beer you’re drinking different from the next.

“We’re talking about a community. Not only do you drink it but you talk about it.”

Yes! Exactly! I would much rather share a bomber of my rarest beer with my friends than drink it all alone! Which brings me to her next point.

"The craft beer community is all about sharing."

When I get to enjoy an awesome beer I immediately think, oh man I can't wait for my dad to try this or I can't wait to show this to my beer nerd buddies.

They also have a VIP e-mail list in which they send out e-mails of their most recent allocations before they put it up on beermenu. Its free to join and they keep you on top of the game!

Just shoot Vicki an e-mail at liquoramachicago@gmail.com

Or stop by and say hey sign me up as a VIP!
4430 S. Kedzie (right off Kedzie and Archer)
Chicago, IL 60632
773-847-1166

Check out their website here!

Follow them on twitter for more beer info here!

So there you go my fellow southsiders... A Southside Sanctuary.