Gold Crown Liquors Store

Great service by Greg. Awesome suggestions, wonderful selection, good prices. Can’t wait to go back.

It’s a liquor store — they sell beer and… yup, liquor! BUT, I will say I love this place. HUGE selection of boozes and wines, pretty decent beer selection too (think of a full wall+ of coolers). The staff has always been friendly and nice and the store is kept sparkling clean. Prices are slightly higher than Binny’s or a grocery store, but you’re paying for convenience. Never had keg delivery service as I’m probably past the age of hosting keggers. Though I may attend them occasionally, don’t judge.
Good selection, friendly staff — I give gold crown a gold star. Or four orange ones.

rude dicks, halfway decent selection with average prices, 6 pack handle was damp and I dropped the 6 pack on the floor cause the handle broke off, they tried to make me pay for the beer. I told them it wasn’t on purpose, the pack was pre damaged, the jerk said he was calling the cops if I didn’t pay for the damage. I left the 6 pack on the floor and walked out. Will never set foot in this place again.

Bless ‘em, they carry Crabbie’s Ginger Beer. Alba go bragh!

It’s a liquor store. They have a lot of alcohol, but not a lot of other things. Their snacks and other beverages are somewhat lacking.
It is very clean, though. I would trust that their wines or beers were all within expiration dates.

We were in the area for dinner at a restaurant we found out was BYOB. We walked over here and found a large selection of cold beers (and wine) that fit what we were looking for.
The place seemed to be well stocked and had quite a variety to fit anyone’s party needs.

Been going here occasionally since 3 years ago, and the greek owners were a lot easier to work with; they had the keg and tap ready to go on a friday night, in 20 minutes from me calling them, that’s impressive.
Since then, I think it was bought out and a whole new set of owners & employees. I do like what they did with the floor space, and they’re just easy to work with. However, I agree with the other review mentioning their prices going up (I despise that).
Now I’m pretty much a daily visitor to this store; even if I bought a cheaper bottle elsewhere, they are open late and convenient to get chasers, papers, single beers, whatever. They also post up a few specials here and there but don’t know if they’re truly a bargain or not.

My work access has been shutdown… writing Unilocal reviews until I get back online.
Aside from the Wrigley location, this place was easy. Keg out and keg in. Honestly, the only reason I picked this place was because they carried Oberon. Not cheap, but soooo good. What’s hilarious is that Heineken was the same price. You have got to be kidding me!

I recently worked an event at this location, and was pleasantly surprised. This liquor store was beautiful! Wide plank wood floors, and big bright signs so you can locate what you need quickly. The aisles are wide, and the staff is friendly and helpful.
I was worried about parking, as this is Wriglyville, but they do have a place for a few cars right in front on the street… and it’s free to park there. Just don’t try to go anywhere else while parked there, as they will have your car towed. Those spots are only for customers shopping in their store.
They seem to have a good selection of product there as well.
If I lived even remotely close to this store, I would definitely choose to shop there. Modern, quick, friendly are the words I would use for Gold Crown Liquor Store.

The Greeks are gone and now there’s a whole slew of strangers that own the place.
They made a counter so high I can’t hardly see, much less pay.
And notice how all the prices went up $ 1 – 2? Yeah… no thanks.
Guess I’ll head to Addison Liquors instead. Though I will miss that hilarious Greek guy and his wife. They made the neighborhood a hoot (though some didn’t get the humor I see1!)
So long to the real Gold Crown Liquors. Now it’s an even more – so over priced blight on the neighborhood.

I have ordered liquor delivery from Gold Crown twice and feel they did an exceptional job handling my order and delivery. One bonus is that they will carry and setup a keg for you, no matter what floor you’re on. The last time I ordered the truck had broken down so they were late and I had to call to get the status which I feel like they should have called me ahead of time, but not that big of a deal. Overall I would say the convenience of having all your party liquors delivered for you including ice, cups, keg, taps and having it all setup is priceless, especially in the city!
One thing to note is the price. Kegs are almost $ 100 for Miller Lite and ice costs $ 10 a bag! Ice! Frozen water! I was not aware that ice was so expensive, so next time i’ll pick up some ice myself.

I don’t understand all these bad reviews.
The guys who own this place are really nice guys I have never ever had a problem in here they have the best prices in the neighborhood and are always extremely friendly.
People also need to realize that reporting a business to the BBB is a waste of time when you can pay $ 300 to have an A on there no matter how many bad reviews you have.
I will always give these guy’s my business!

Everything negative people have said about this place is true. It’s akin to a used car lot where they quote you a price and by the time you are out the door it’s the old bait-​and-​switch.
I got a keg of Miller Lite for our kegerator one time. I didn’t realize until after a few days (having just placed it inside and not tapped it) that it was skunky. Gold Crown made me wait for the Miller Lite rep to come in to refund my money. It’s comical how stupid this place is. Did I place my order directly through Miller Lite or through Gold Crown? This happened once before at Binny’s and I got an instant refund. Not that I want to support giant corporate establishments, but anything is better than giving my money to these asshats.
Save yourself some frustration and go somewhere else.

Their kegs are really expensive in my opinion, but they were the only place that I could get to deliver to the Ukrainian Village (if you have other suggestions, let me know).
Why delivery? Because I’m lazy sometimes. I felt like even more of a sloth when the keg showed up and ONE guy carried it up all by himself… with no dolly. Is that good for the beer? He gave me a good tip that I’ll pass along to you: «Never drink the first beer out of the keg, it’s probably left over from an old batch». I love a candid delivery man.
The beer was decent (miller lite). There was a curious amount of foam though, even on the second day… it got to the point of us filling up two cups at a time, one at play and one on deck, de-​foaming.
They have the most hilariously ghetto filing system for keg check out. It consists of a few brown paper bags stuffed next to the register — each persons receipt clipped to a piece of paper with their last name on it. Errrr… very authentic, however, I can name about 50 better ways to stay organized. I’ll give you one: an envelope!
Obviously used to hung over idiots making excuses as to why they can’t turn the keg back in on time, the lady on the phone was very flexible when I told her I would need a one day extension. Because she was so nice and understanding, I’ll only quickly mention the 4 days I had to wait for the deposit refund — I wont deduct any additional stars for it.

I hate that I even have to give this shit-​hole a star.
I can take into account what an earlier Unilocaler said about the outside chance of these people actually having souls beneath their veneer of unapologetic asshole-​ness, but I am not looking to know them on a personal level.
In fact, I do everything I can to steer clear of this place, including boycotting one of the most conveniently located liquor stores in my neighborhood.
I’ve been here about 3 times and have never had anything short of a shitty experience: one time a «$ 50» keg came out to nearly $ 200. Another time I had 3 friends (all sober) kicked out because the owners did not deem it necessary for all of us to be in the store to make the purchase; I do not go out with people to hang out with them only at necessary moments.
This place is awful. Go to Binny’s, go to Jewel, even go to 1000 Liquors (also over-​priced and ran by assholes). Just don’t go to Gold Crown, or as I call it, Brown Hat.

This place Suuuuuucks! The guys that work here are dicks and not very bright. I understand, they are used to dealing with the drunk Wrigleyville crowd, but we are not all like them. I have been in several times (completely sober) and gotten hassled by the ape-​like counter guy.
One time i was with a buddy who was buying a cigar that ended up being broken and the guy gave him all kinds of shit because he wanted to trade it in for an unbroken one. He even followed us outside, still talking shit. Only when we turned around to ask what his problem was did he turn around and go inside.
Now I will only go in here if it is a booze emergency.

Cheapest price on kegs.
Easy last minute orders.
Stupid, rude ass staff :-(

I can only rate based on my experience of getting a keg here for a party. It was around St. Patrick’s Day, so I can understand that’s a moderately busy time for a liquor store in Chicago, but we were the only customers IN the store…
My friends and I got screamed at (literally… he was shrieking…) by the guy behind the counter about everything. He was yelling at us to hurry up and get our ice bags and get the keg in our car, he offered us no help though. Oh I’m sorry sir, lugging this full keg to my car is not exactly the EASIEST task! Would you like to do it for us instead of screaming in our faces?! He charged us more than what we were quoted on the phone. When we returned the keg, it was the same situation repeated, we got screamed at again, but this time by a woman who I assume was the owner’s wife, about where to set the empty keg down in the store. Some Miller Lite delivery guys saw the one-​sided altercation that time around, and when we left in a huff, he was like «Sorry guys, these people are crazy, I hate delivering to them.»
They also charged my card TWICE, which I quickly disputed with my bank. Clearly, these people are f**king nuts and I wish they were out of business… But it’s a liquor store in the heart of Wrigleyville, that’s what I call job security.

Conveniently located close to Stage Left Theatre (a BYOB establishment), I came here to buy some beer before heading to the play.
Beer selection: Fairly impressive for a corner liquor store. There were whole cooler sections full of micro brews (Dogfish Head, Boston Beer Company, Leinie’s).
I took my selection up to the counter to pay and the man working could not have been nicer. He mentioned liking the beer I selected (Dogfish Head India Brown Ale) so we discussed microbrews briefly (ok, ok, I’m a little bit of a beer snob… we all have hobbies, right?).
All in all — good selection, friendly service, convenient location; the trifecta of liquor stores.

Two stars for having the cheapest kegs anywhere in Chicago (at least that I know of).
However, the service was incredibly rushed and rude. The guy who helped us load the keg into the trunk accidentally brought out a bud lite instead of miller lite and the guy behind the counter (i’m assuming he was the owner perhaps) started cussing at him and went over to the dolly and shoved the keg back at this poor guy screaming at him to get the right keg. I was in no hurry either so there was NO point in treating his employees like that. My roommate and I were literally scared of this guy!
When I returned the keg I had to have help getting it out of my trunk and again this guy starts screaming at his employees. While outside I kind of asked the guy who was helping me, how it was working for him and he smiled and just said «eh you get used to him. a little over the top. I know» The crazy guy was at the counter when I went in to take care of my deposit and he made small talk with me. He was a lot more friendly, but his intense personality still showed through.
Right now I’m still kind of afraid of going back there, but the second time it seemed like this guy tries to be a hard ass for «the show» of it and really isn’t that bad.
beware. that’s all I’m sayin.
¹²⁄₅₂