The Root Cellar

A top three off-​premise craft beer stop in Cincinnati. They have everything distributed in the city.

I took a list into Root Cellar of beer recommendations our bartender in Charleston, SC gave me last week on vacation and found most of them. For such a small place they seem to have almost everything. The employees are very helpful and know exactly where everything is. It’s also one of the only places I’ve bought a winning scratch off lotto ticket. $ 10 puts a dent in the beer bill. :)

I visit Kenwood a lot, and I’m surprised that I’d never noticed this place. I found out about it from a blog post by Beer Quest ABV, a local beer blog. Since I needed to visit Trader Joe’s anyway, I thought I’d pop in. The parking situation is kind of confusing. I came in the side street next to it, and while there’s spots by the back of the building, you can’t drive around by the front entrance because both aisles that connect to the front are one way, front to back. Once I parked in the back and walked around to the front, I realized that you can just go in the back door! I’ll be doing that in the future, especially since it’s right by the beer section.
Toward the front of the store, there’s a shelf that has a bunch of single bottles on it. You have to watch this area though, because some of the cans and bottles were past their best-​by dates, including a few IPAs. Still, this area is good if you want to try something, but don’t want to commit to an entire six-​pack. In the back is where the real beer section lives. There’s pretty much every craft brand you can get in Ohio represented. You name it, they probably have it. Also, their prices are very good. They have a lot of wine and liquor too, but I don’t pay attention to that stuff.
The staff are super nice. I had a great time talking to two of them at the register, and it seems that they know quite a bit about the beer they sell. I’ll definitely be making this a regular stop on my visits to Kenwood!

Hands down the best selection of rare beers in Cincinnati. While they may not have every normal beer that you would find at Jungles Jim’s or the Party Source, they do have rare beers from all around the country. The price is a dollar or two more than you would pay elsewhere, but its well worth it to support a local business that has a great selection of hard to find brews.

Great selection and very helpful employees. They were eager to try an order a beer for me that they didn’t have in stock (which must be a rare occurrence because they have, as I said, a great selection).

Great beer selection! Best place to find sone wonderful microbrews like Stone and others.

If you can’t find that beer you’re looking for at the Party Source, Jungle Jim’s, or the Dilly Deli, there’s a good chance they have it at the Root Cellar. Great selection of beers for such a tiny place.
Along with Liquor Direct in Covington, this is one of the hidden gems for drinkers.

Hidden, thus able to find some beer gems past their season. If your first reaction to that is that they’ve skunked, you aren’t thinking of the sort of beer you’ll find here (well, that’s there, too, but I prefer not to think about the macrobrewed swill). I’m talking seasonal brews from Jolly Pumpkin, Fantome, Three Floyds. I’m talking the stuff that should be marked up because they’ve been aged.
It’s a crapshoot, sure, and the overall selection isn’t anything to Unilocal about, but there’s usually something cool and always something quality. Just keep it quiet; I want them to keep cellaring good beers for me until I’m ready for them.