Montgomery County Liquor Control

Excellent selection. They usually have whatever I’m looking for, aside from one particular wine, but I have trouble finding that in a lot of stores, so no big deal. The store is nicely organized, it’s pretty easy to find what you’re looking for. Staff seems pretty helpful too.
Not giving five stars because one time I came in at like 8:58pm and they close at 9pm and the guy was kind of rude even though I knew exactly what I was looking for and was out of the store by 9. I stopped for a half a minute to look at some wine, which I did purchase and the guy got snappy. Not cute.
If you’re in the area, I highly recommend this place. They have everything you’re looking for. There are a lot of cute little boutique beer and wine places, but this place has everything, including liquor and mixers.

I stopped by here on my lunch break to pick up some items to make a Thank You gift for a friend. Since I’m a Wineologist, I have no clue on the first step of seeking out the hard stuff.
So when I asked my friend if he liked wine, he said «Yep».
Do you like the hard stuff, he said, «Yep».
What about the white or brown stuff, he said «Yep».
The harsh or sweet stuff, he said, «Yep».
Well gosh Unilocal it.
I figured since I have a private little selection of wine at home, Id’ gift him a bottle if he ever wanted to partake in the breaking of grapes.
Hence, at the Liquor Store I arrived.
I was greeted from a far from someone in the back office/​stock room, and then the lady at the counter gave me a nice hello. I told her of my project at hand and shared some of my friend’s «Yep’s» with her. She gave me a small yet friendly smile, told me her name and she began to answer my clueless inquiries of what the «cute/​colorful» labels on the mini bottles represented.
Me: That’s a cute little white bottle, what’s that?
Karen: A Rum with a coconut flavor.
Me: I like that frost looking bottle, what’s that?
Karen: A Vodka, with a hint of Lemon.
Me: The little brown bottle with red trimming looks fancy, what’s that?
Karen: It’s an orange flavored cognac.
Me: Let’s do a brown bottle, an old school brand and your choice.
Karen: Ok, let’s go with a Whiskey.
Me Mentally: Hey, now I know what Whiskey is as I tried a Whiskey Sour, well way too many back in 1989 during a Giants game, NEVER AGAIN!
Karen: You want old school, let’s shoot for Jim Beam.
I had no comeback LOL.
Karen rang me up, they have great prices for mini bottles of liquor libations, so I can only guestimate the prices across the board are competitive to the area. She asked if I wanted my receipt, I told her yes and thanked her for being such a great sport of spirits selecting.
I wasn’t able to do my mini excursion of a new establishment due to time. Yet, with a quick scan, the store is very neatly in order, has a massive selection of alcohol preferred bottles and of course saving the best for last, an outstanding section of wine.
I’ll be back!

Terrible service. There was a guy working there was just rude with how he was talking to me and my friend. right after, went down the street to pick up beer at Cork57 where the niceness was refreshing and very much appreciated.
Won’t be coming back in the future despite how close I live to it.

This place is cool because when they ask for your ID, they ask for it… meaning asking, rather than rudely demanding as they often do elsewhere. That’s a real pet peeve of mine, because manners take such little effort that it is truly an easy thing to do.
Anyhow, this is the best place to buy alcohol in the NW DC area. If you use the Red Line, then it’s fairly easy to get here and the prices are much lower than in DC. It isn’t uncommon for things to be $ 5 to $ 10 less, which makes it worth the extra traveling time, probably even if you have money to burn. Absolute Vodka is usually around $ 19.99 or so, for example, whereas in DC it is about $ 25 or $ 28.
The shelves are well stocked, sales are communicated with excellent signage, and the staff is competent. Also, the hours are great. There is a lot of construction going on in the area and the newer staff sometimes could use some product knowledge, but that’s true anywhere and all in all it’s great. Low prices and staff that care about the customers, that’s what I like.

Three and a half stars. Attached lot with validation and credit card payment, local street parking, both not enforced Sundays. They have a ton of space and I’m not sure that they spend it wisely when rationing out booze inventory. For simple needs, they carry all the basics to restock a bar. A few less common things but no Ardbeg and only two Laphroaig variants. Started carrying plain Tyrconnell 10 in the last year and a half. Knowledge base is a bit hit or miss, and service is otherwise fine. Selection of cordials rivals Cairo’s, quite a bit of wine.

So… if your not from montgomery county then you don’t understand how DLC works in the area. The government basically sets the price and we pay it, eliminates competition.
The beer selection is smaller at this particular location, but they carry everything else too. Sake, Soju, wine coolers, lots of wine, and a lot of liquor.
When theres a sale on something definitely take advantage of it! It’s not like the alcohol is gonna go bad.
Try to get in and out in less then 30 minutes, parkings free for the first 30 minutes!

Great prices with a fabulous selection of wine, liquor and beer. The staff is very helpful and accommodating. The location is convenient to downtown Bethesda and perfect for me since I work right on Bethesda row. Prices are great, probably the best in the area for sure! They offer parking in a private lot which I’m pretty sure has validated parking. The only bad thing I have to say is that all of the beer is room temperature. They have an OK selection but none of it is refrigerated.

This is my favorite liquor store mostly based on convenience. It is within walking distance of where I live. They have roughly the same selection of any of the other DLC stores in the county and a friendly staff. There is a parking lot in attached to the strip mall in which the store is located that is free if you are there for less than 30 minutes. Also it is close to the metro and bus lines.
The County store has moved a few times since I have been living in the area and this is by far my favorite location, but that is mostly for selfish reasons, but it does have the best parking situation of all of them.

On the one hand, yes, this is a county run operation which eliminates price competition. Oddly enough however, MoCo has some of the lowest liquor prices in the country, and is easily the cheapest source of booze in the region. Actually, as best as I can tell, California and Wisconsin are the only places where you’ll find lower prices.
As others have pointed out, the beer selection here is quite weak… but the liquor and wine selection is good. I found the bourbon selection more than acceptable and the Scotch and tequila selections above average. The best liquor store in MoCo, at least that I’ve been to, is the one at White Oak. Great selection over there with a particularly strong bourbon selection. Can’t say much for prices at any of these places because they’re all the same for each store in MoCo.
The main reason I give this a three-​star review, as opposed to a four-​star review is that the staff can be complete assholes. The folks in the evening are better, but the guys there in the afternoon are downright unbearable. The older guy behind the counter is especially rude, insulting, and also completely unhelpful. I recall one time when I went there and bought a bottle of cognac. I pointed out to the guy that the MoCo DLC website had it listed as being on sale but they were charging me full price. I was literally told that I had no idea what I was talking about. However, after checking his computer, the guy found out he was wrong and I got my discount and a very angry stare down from him. That’s just one of several unpleasant shopping experiences there.

Terrible service.
New to the neighborhood and while on a walk came in on a whim with two friends. When I tried to purchase a bottle of wine and my companion didn’t have her wallet on her to prove her age, we were rudely admonished by the salesman and practically ordered out of the store.
Won’t be coming back in the future despite reasonable product selection, prices, and proximity.

4 stars instead of 5 purely because I can’t bring myself to award 5 stars to a government monopoly in an area in which privatization actually works, but this is a very nice location. It has a better selection of local wines than the Mont​.Co. Liquor Control store in the Giant Foods complex on Westbard Avenue, and they seemed to have more varieties of wine coolers, too.

This has been an afternoon of miracles! I swore after last night’s Rockville Pike bonanza that I would never eat again. My co-​worker and co-​conspirator Anne suggested all-​you-​can-​eat sushi for lunch, and suddenly my stomach was rumbling. When we stepped outside the office, the skies were threatening mass amounts of rain. Not a drop appeared until we crossed the threshold of Hinode, and then it poured — not just cats and dogs, but snakes and mongooses.
Post-​lunch, with tummies bulging, we decided to dodge the rain by staying under the protective awnings of the small plaza and doing a little window shopping. And then, we saw it: a bright beacon shining in the depths of this chaotic world; the holy grail of retail: a store authorized by the rulers of Montgomery County to sell not only beer, or beer and wine, but beer, wine, AND liquor. I stared hard at the building and rubbed my eyes, but it was no raw fish-​induced mirage! It was real.
Armed with the knowledge that lugging a brown paper bag full of alcohol back to the office might give off the wrong impression, I bought nothing, but I gleefully stalked the aisles and made a mental list of things to snag on a future spree:
— $ 21 bottles of assorted flavors of Stoli
— $ 5 bottles of André, the most delicious cheap champagne invented by man or beast (they had peach!!!)
— $ 9 bottles of Riesling Relax
— Cases of blackberry Sam Adams
— Mint-​flavored Bailey’s
— Flavored sugar perfect for rimming end-​of-​summer margaritas
As I was reluctantly exiting this magical fairyland, I asked the man behind the counter how long they had been open.
Counter guy: «February.»
Me: «Wow. Where was I??»
Counter guy: «Yeah, not a lot of people seem to know about us.»
Me: (under my breath) «Not for l-​o-​ooong…»