Louie’s Superette

Ah, Louie’s. Lived right down the street for a couple of years and Louie was an invaluable provisioner, as well as teaching me some choice phrases in Mandarin. Sure, the hours are unpredictable, but the beer is as cold as advertised and you’ll always hear a great story. Louie, happy to see you’re still going great after all these years! Thanks always for taking care of us.

Louie is a character. Classic just around the corner throw back convenient neighborhood establishment. What’s not to love?

Louie’s is conveniently located but the hours are completely random. Now if only someone could revive the old islouieopen Twitter account…
Ok, his real name is not Louie, but he’ll ask you to call him that. And he’s the main draw of this place. I’ve been living around this part of town for the past three years and even though I don’t come by here every day, when I do he always asks me about my research or we’ll chat about some recent event. He’s given me some good tips on which buses to take to NYC (the cheap ones!). And the man has a PhD in biophysics so he’s not just making small talk when you’re
I stop by here whenever I’m walking home and need to get some milk or eggs… and of course if he’s open. The beer and wine selection is limited but decent for the shop-​around-​the-​corner. He’s got Harpoon, Sam Adams, Goose Island, Magic Hat, Leffe, and those Hawaiian ones in addition to your run of the mill college drinkery.
He’s got some regular convenience store items but you should check the expiration dates. He’ll usually do that for you but it doesn’t hurt to double check. It’s cash-​only so no plastic.

Louie has an extremely limited selection, unpredictable hours, and a temperament to match this poorly run business. Don’t bother trying to use anything other than exact change to pay for items from this store; «Louie» does not carry any change and a $ 20 bill is to large for him to break.
Save yourself the time and walk the few extra blocks to a CVS or Walgreen’s where they can take your cash and your credit or debit card.

Extremely unpredictable hours and rather limited selection — but I suppose that’s the price for convenience.
As far as I can tell, Louie’s is a one man show, and he opens up pretty much whenever he feels like it, so a trip to Louie’s is really only convenient when you already know he’s open.
Quite a good selection of cheap wine, and quite a bit of overpriced beer. He has a couple aisles of essentials like cereal, cup noodles, and toilet paper, but extremely limited and mostly old. I was about to buy a box of Cheerios once, but upon lifting the box saw a couple of cockroaches chilling underneath it on the shelf.
If you can venture into the square, or even to Central, the options are far better, but Louie’s does the job. He tends to be open pretty late at night.

fine for that wine on the way… Owner is a character. If only he could fix up the shop and make it run like a normal business, he would make a lot more money. He just opens the door when he feels!

I live up the block from Louie’s and if it werent for him, we would never have beer nor would friends ever bring us anything when they come over. per previous reviews — expirations dates are only a number. his prices are fair. he is enlightened. he could be open more hours/​more consistent hours, but that would be my only critique!

I was born in Cambridge around the corner from Louies. It actually had a previous name before «Louies» It was called «Kiddies» The original owner sold this business for an unbelieveable amount of money and retired to FLA.
My suggestion about the expired beer, don’t buy it. Yup he does get a deal on it because that store goes through sooo much beer due to the colleges. He has a PHD for a reason.

I used to come to Louie’s everyday after elementary school (20 years ago!) for candy and numerous times in high school.
I’m very happy to know Louie is still running this business after all these years!
I wonder if he’s still extremely hard to understand!!! Finding out he has a Ph. d was intriguing. Since I’m back in the neighborhood, I’m going to pay a visit and hopefully the store is still stocked well without outrageous prices.

Considering all the 10:55 visits to Louie’s, it is difficult for me to write this review. Just to ease my conscience a little I’ll start with the good:
–Great location (for me at least)
–Personable owner (had to understand him, but he’s well versed on world affairs and has a PHD)
–Stocks Longboards.
Now the bad:
–Almost all of Louie’s beer is expired. That may be an exaggeration. It’s probs closer to 20% of his beer, but still, this is unacceptable. At first I used to shrug off the experience of drinking his expired beer, but eventually it happened too many times. I think that he may buy older beer at discounted prices, but I don’t want to accuse him of this. Maybe he is just screwed by his suppliers. One thing for sure is that while Loiue’s Superette has saved me many a weekend night, it has also screwed me multiple times.
–I went in to return the expired beers and got my money back, but the next time I went in he harassed me about misleading him and I had to leave his store. It was pretty annoying.
I probably shouldn’t have returned to Louie’s after the first problem, but the convenience was so tempting. But still, Louie (not his really name, but he goes by it) is rude, and the beer is often bad). Stay away foo’s

I live in the same street and just love this little corner shop.
Don’t expect more than just cold beer, standard wine, and gum and cigarettes.
But expect to have a great conversation with Louie, the owner. Born in Taiwan and having a Ph. D, this is certainly the corner store owner with the highest academic degree I have ever met. Something like this can only happen near Harvard. Dr. Chen is certainly a local celebrity and will greet you in your language whenever you come back — German, Italian, French, Cantones, you name it.

Decent selection of snacks, beer, and wine, though it’s all a bit overpriced (even for a convenience store). It’s acquitted, however, by its mom-​and-​pop-​owned charm. «Louie» (who has an interesting backstory, by the way… as the story goes, he’s a millionaire PhD engineer who decided several years ago that his life’s calling was to open a convenience store… maybe he watched Clerks one time too many?) is like the wacky Taiwanese uncle that I never had.

Decent beer selection. Otherwise, it’s basically an empty store. A few bottles of cheap wine and champagne. The joke is that they just have «beer and beef jerky,» and it’s not far off from the truth. Actually, I think they’ve probably run out of beef jerky.
They’re pretty friendly, though. I wish they would help us order kegs more often.

awesome, but the best part is you’d never know it (and hence the extra star). bf and i discovered it on a walk one day when we were like, uh, what’s that sign down there? tiny convenience store — small selection of gum, random toiletries, cookies, and chips, but dominated by the wall of beer and wine (good chilean choices) with a little smirnoff ice mixed in. apparently frequented by the harvard college set from the dorms next door. $ 8 – 9 for a six-​pack, which is about the palatable range. the guy who runs it has a great back-​story (hint: he has a ph.d.:
) and is superfriendly and interesting.