Sheila’s Liquors

they are always open, and prices are fair. good service, decent selection, and they keep a ton of stuff cold.

The owners are some of the nicest people you will meet. The space is small, and selection limited, but they have all of the reliable options and do a nice job of bringing in a variety of new and interesting products for customers to try.

The family who runs Sheila’s is incredibly nice and friendly. They always greet you with a smile and they always recognize their regulars. When I was moving recently, they seemed extremely happy to help me out with boxes, and they’ll often give you little gifts, like free Bacardi glasses.
They definitely are great neighbors for the Delaware Ave area.
That said, I think they are a little pricier than other places, and the wine selection lacks a little. There are plenty of Napa Valley and other Northern Cali wines, but not very many wines from France or Spain. But for liquor or a quick bottle of wine for dinner, it’s a good place to stop.

sheila’s is run by a very nice family. the grandfather doesn’t speak any english except to say with his toothless grin ‘happy-​happy’ (i adore him) when you come in. the two brothers always greet you with enthusiasm and point out some new wine they have recently gotten and think you should try. sometimes some of either brother’s small children are shyly looking up at you while you peruse the shelves. they will say ‘hi’ back and run and hide with a finger in the mouth if you smile at them and say hello.
while the store is quite small, they do have a pretty good selection and are always willing to buy something for you that they don’t have if they can. there are those adorable little individual saki bottles on the counter that i quite often fall prey to. (who can resist something that comes with it’s own cup as part of the package?) and the prices are quite reasonable. the best is that after they ring you up, they Always say ‘that will be $xx.xx Only.’ i love that.
they were closed down for a while over the summer because they sold to underage minors. but for this i do not blame them. due to the location somewhat near one of albany’s considered ‘ghetto’ areas, there are a number of hoodlum-​ish types that come in as well. i have personally seen them intimidate the sweet guys into serving them with statements like ‘dude. my Man! i forgot my id! it is in the mail and i will bring it in tomorrow!’ but with malice. so they serve it and get caught. sucks.
they have gotten adorably clever however — recently they decided to do more to become a part of the community. they are carrying a ‘help the kids of the local school’ jar on the counter and they did a ‘free pizza and soda’ night last week. this was such a sweet effort. offer everyone pizza and they will like you and not try to get you into trouble. they insisted i take home a slice of pizza hut pizza for kenz. and a cup of soda.
i would suggest that they do a wine and indian food tasting but i am not sure how they would take it. hmm.
oh! update: they now have a credit/​debit machine and you can get money back with your purchase. this is a really great thing as the only atm available nearby is at the spectrum and i always feel silly walking in and smiling at them and going ‘um. just getting some cash, not actually seeing a flick.’ and giving them my ‘casual, doing no harm’ toothy smile. oh, and no atm fee is good too. yay!