Firefly Fine Wines & Ales

This review is based off my one experience today but it was awesome. As the date stamp says it’s two days until Christmas and the boss wants to send a couple cases of wine locally as a gift. I called, let them know what I needed and the called me back fifteen minutes later to ring the order through and told me they’d have it delivered over same day no problem. They saved the day for me! (now if only I was the recipient…)

Firefly provided me great service. I called them a few days before my wedding (after my initial alcohol plan fell through and I was in a bit of a panic), and they were wonderful and helped me build a well stocked bar. They even provided delivery, which was amazing because it saved us the bother of lugging around a bunch of alcohol the day of our wedding or having to ask friends to transport alcohol for us.
They have a great selection of wines, beers and liquor. They provided some really great recommendations of local products that our guests loved. Would recommend them to help stock a bar for a party, or to just pick up a few bottles for yourself.
Thanks Leanne and team!

4 stars for marketing, 3 stars for me personally as I’m not a big wine connossieur, with my line of work of hopping from one restaurant to another, can’t be drinking and driving. No matter how often I get comped, I fight vigiourously to say no ;) But I digress…
Love how they present the wine according to the food that you want to eat, as they are quite helpful, much more personable than going to the government liquor stores. They carry good stuff here, didn’t see any $ 15 bottles last time I was there; Remy Martin was on par, $ 85 or so… but didn’t carry any Hennesssey, surprisingly.
They also offer wine tasting tours, or come up with a list for any corporate event. Also a wine club, free delivery — like I said, they know marketing.
Parking can be tough on the streets but there’s free parking in the back.
Kiddy corner to city hall.
ps. if you go to Safeway to get a receipt, you get 10% off.

Good spirit selection — not huge but what they do have is varied and interesting. The staff are good at recommending sipping spirits and ask you what you currently like before recommending something.

These guys possibly have the best beer and cider selection on the West Side. Staff is always pleasant as well.
I don’t go here often enough because the location is in a bit of an unfortunate spot and I keep forgetting that it’s there. Minus 1 star as it’s fairly pricey.

The staff really know their drink. Went in looking for a white wine for my wife that usually enjoys red wine. Based on my description the helpful person picked out a nice rose. My wife loved it. Great selection of beers including the giant walk-​in beer fridge.

Best beer store in Vancouver! Enormous and fantastic selection, and the staff is incredibly knowledgeable and helpful. Not much more to say — this place is great.

FIrefly is a mandatory stop for me. The wine selection is top notch and different than what I find on the East Coast. While I can mail-​order many of the wines carried, it’s a great place to browse, taste and purchase wine.

Great selection of craft beers, among other wines and spirits. Good-​sized cooler and friendly staff.

The best selection of beer in the city! The walk-​in cooler must be experienced to be believed. They have everything you could need in a beer or wine including several types of GF beer. They lose a star for service. The last few times I’ve gone in the staff have been indifferent at best. Too bad, because they used to have stellar staff working there…

This store has been an interesting place to visit ever since it opened. It’s kind of industrial in feel but it has a large tasting bar section, a great freezer section for quick beers to pick up (some very good crafts are there, among others), some cool events (I was there once for a Movember wine tasting which I think was pretty awesome) and a vast array of wines — some of the wines they carry are from BC wineries I hadn’t heard of (and I’ve been quite thorough in my drives through the Okanagan, Bench and Similkameen), as well as a vast US and a moderate French selection (though they were lacking the Château Canada I was looking for!)
The staff does seem to be much less knowledgeable than before. For instance, the saleswomen I was talking to didn’t seem very good at discussing wines at all, and one was in charge of POURING three for tasting to encourage its sale! The other admitted she didn’t know that much yet, though she was in the process of tasting the wines and blogging for the store on them, so I’d cut her more slack.
What’s a major plus in this store is that it looks like they always have six wines on offer for tasting. I got to try a bunch of wines from Platinum Bench (which I think were pretty bad, actually) and an Italian red which I kind of liked, though I think it’s pretty neat that they have one of those Wine Vacuum machines devoted to preserving these tasting samples as such.
I like the store, but it does have things it could improve on. It’s usually fairly marked up compared to other stores in the city but they have a nicer specialized selection for the mid-​range prices, though the staff doesn’t seem to be that helpful in determining what product would best suit your purposes.

It kind of pains me to write this, since a year ago (even less), this would have been a 5-​star review, without question.
Firefly used to be my go-​to, undisputed #1 liquor store in Vancouver. Their selection was unparalleled and their staff was incredibly knowledgeable – they always had at least one person who could school you on wine and one for beer on shift during the afternoon/​evening. Heck, it used to be managed by the president of BC’s chapter of CAMRA (the Campaign for Real Ale). But, alas, the place has fallen off hard as of late.
The staff are still really nice, but save for a few older staff members, the level of product knowledge has noticeably dropped off, to the point where I’ve gotten a shrug more than a few times when asking about a product (and, while they were «craft» beers, they were local beers, so nothing extremely obscure and weird). The shelf labels still indicate a large selection, but the actual shelves are out of product way too often. Plus, other places are starting to catch up. The other day I walked in, noted that they were out of Central City IPA, Lagunitas IPA, and Hopworks IPA… and I found all three down the street at the Liquor Depot (who, as their name would indicate, aren’t exactly positioning their business as a specialty store).
If you need to grab a bottle or a six pack, you could still do worse, for sure. But, it’s disappointing that a store that was quite soundly the best in Vancouver in their industry (field? whatever) is pretty run-​of-​the-​mill now.

Great selections of beers. The staff put up with all of my percentage beer questions (I had a lot) and even though I could tell I was getting on his nerve, the guy still kept coming back to ask if I had any more questions. I was happy with my picks!

I have to say Firefly has the largest craft beer selection in Vancouver.
I’ve always been a big fan of Brewery Creek, which has a comparable section, but lacks the amazing walk-​in freezer. One could easily spend enough time browsing the selection and mulling over the perfect buy to leave with a bit of a chill.
Today I walked away with a La Vache Folle Imperial Milk Stout and Bear Republic Hop Rod Rye. An excellent way to end the weekend!

Firefly is a beer fan’s wet dream. Shelves and shelves, rows and rows of amazing beer and the prices are really good considering they are a private store and are bringing in some special beers.
In addition to a number of beers on the main floor, Firefly has a walk-​in cooler with a number of other beers. This is great if you are going directly somewhere where you’d like to drink your beer without chilling it.
The staff are super friendly and the layout of the store is quite nice. They have a great selection of beer and wine and if you’re ever confused the staff are more than happy to help.
I will say that I can’t go in there without dropping $ 50 bucks on a number of different types of beer, and I have made it my mission to try everything they have but I don’t regret any of it.
All in all this is my favourite beer shop in town!

I finally made it to Firefly and promptly had a beer boner once inside. If you don’t mind paying extra for an amazing selection of craft beers Firefly is the place to go.
Not only is the selection incredible but they have a large walk-​in fridge so your beer (or white wine) is ready for drinking once you’ve got where you’re going. I was tempted by the mixed pack from Dieu du Ciel. It was $ 45 but really $ 3 a beer isn’t bad when you’re not paying restaurant prices. Instead we got a mixed pack of Paddock Wood, one bottle of Sam’l Smith Organic Cherry Ale (amazing) and a big bottle of Rogue Chocolate Stout.
They have parking but right now it’s under construction. Load your meter ’cause it’s going to take a while to choose from all the options. I’m giving them extra props for their name. It probably has nothing to do with the tv series Firefly but anything that makes me think of Nathan Fillion is a bonus!

Good, Good, Good. Open till 11 every day!
Hard liquors aren’t expensive like at most cold beer & wines.
Ill be sad when I no longer live on this block

Not really sure why it has taken me so long to pay Firefly a visit?
This five star review of their beer selection was a no-​brainer.
They’ve got an even better beer selection than Brewery Creek!
A massive walk-​in cooler full of hoppy awesome-​ness.
So many beers, so difficult to make a decision.
I settled on a limited release by Howe Sound (Grapefruit IPA).
Damn good!
I shall return very soon with a wallet full of Sir John A’s.

Lighthouse Brewing! Samuel Smith’s ales! Propeller Brewing!!! An inconceivable amount of other beers!!!
For all ye who lament the sorry choice available at the gov’t liquor shop, here be thy salvation.
Now go forth and partake of the malty goodness that is Firefly.

I’m not much of a drinker, but this place had interesting things. I bought a Belgian framboise beer. I had it today and it tasted pretty :) It had a crown and a cork!
I also noticed they have two kinds of Umeshu (plum wine) in the cooler room.
I didn’t know there was wine sampling until I read the reviews. I’ll have to go back with my friend who knows more about wines and loves beer. I think I’ll get them a gift card for this store for their anniversary.
— $ 10 minimum for Credit & Debit (as of Feb 2010).