Empire Liquors
“They have a large selection of wine at good prices.”
“They also carry a huge selection of the hard stuff – scotch, whiskey, vodka, everything.”
“Throw in free pens and calendars at holidays, and they had me at Hello!”
Empire Liquors
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range Moderate
6 reviews
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My go-to store for liquor. They have a large selection of wine at good prices. The hard liquor is a little more expensive than what I'm used to paying, but the staff is friendly and knowledgeable. It's worth paying a few extra dollars to support their business.
Bottom line: clean store. Great selection. Good prices. Wonderful staff. Don't bother trying other stores just come here.
"my store has very best for me, Booze Emporium, Booze Emporium…"
this is truly an empire of liquor! huge variety, good prices, and friendly staff at this giant store. does it take up the whole block? it sure feels like it. it's like the League of Nations of alcohol up in this joint.
they even have a clearance section for older bottles, overstock, and damaged packaging (as in, the box is ripped or partly crushed, but the liquor is still good) – holy crapola!
lots of crazy liquor bottles you must fight to not spend your money on. like a huge bottle of Beefeater Gin inside a holder that's a scale model English phone booth (dooo weee oooooooh), or a bottle of cognac shaped like the Eiffel Tower.
free samples from time to time, and gift certificates to purchase too.
will I be back? of course, I'm running low on gin – down to four bottles on my shelf!
Decent place to pick up alcohol when I can't make it out to Astor Wines. Largest liquor store in the neighborhood with a nice selection. A range of spirits from cheap to top shelf and in assorted sizes (most importantly they have 1.5 and 1.75L volumes, I like the big bottles). For mixologists they carry the spirits that other smaller stores may not carry i.e. lychee.
Wine selection is organized well and offerings include cheap wines for an impromptu picnic or cellar worthy Bordeaux from the Saint-Émilion regions. Champagne selection is a little lacking and on a totally different note, they stock some decent bottles of sake (they don't have Nigori and they should).
Prices are fair, all within a few dollars of average prices, whether it be on the low or high end. Too bad there is no walk-in fridge here. The biggest downside is that parking is damn near impossible at this area. It's ok if I need a bottle or two, I'll just bike there, but if I gotta pick up multiple bottles for a party, forget about it. If only they had their own parking lot, business would probably go up ten-fold.
Oh yea they should get rid of those glasses for sale at the entrance. First the glasses looked used as hell, nothing wrong with second-hand items, but it doesn't even looked washed. Secondly, it cheapens out the establishment, IMO.
The range of wine and liquors here is outstanding. The store is very neat and clean and the service here is quite excellent.
Range 1 to 5
Vodka – 5, A huge section of all types of vodka. They got just about everything and every size you can imagine. They even got the Skull vodka in a liter size. It's a great lookin bottle, check it out!
Whiskey/Bourbon – 4.5, They have a nice range of Whiskeys and Bourbons but they continue to fail at getting Pappy Van Winkle.
Tequila – 2, Their tequila section would have to be their weakest point in the store. A very small section. I guess tequila isn't a big seller in this neighborhood.
Rum – 4, They got the usual line of popular rum brands like Bacardi, Malibu, Captain Morgan, Brugal, and others.
Cognac/Brandy – 5, They carry the usual stuff. Hennessey, Remy Martin, Martell, E&J, Christian Brothers, but I'm not sure if they carry Louis XIII. If they do, that's a gangsta bottle to have in your liquor cabinet.
Champagne – 5, They have a butt load of champagne here so you can't go wrong.
Liqueurs, Imported Cordials – 4, Pretty neat selection of stuff to mix. Prices here are great for Midori, Baileys, all Dekuyper and Hiram Walker products. And they also carry those other weird flavor patrons.
Wines – 4, There's a wall load of kosher wines due to the Jewish Population in Forest Hills but their foreign wines are a bit limited. They have a decent selection of California wines but when it comes to French, nothin much goin on there. There's no Fine Wine Room for more of the vintage collection or anything. It seems like whatever that is on their racks/displays is what they got. As for their wine prices, it's excellent here.
Gift Sets – 5, Awesome selection of gift sets here.
Pints/Half Pints/Airplane bottles – 5, Name it, they should have it behind the counter.
The only thing that is a inconvenience here is PARKING! There are meter spots along Queens Blvd but in this area, those are usually taken. And to find a residential spot, forget about it. You gotta be extremely lucky to find a free parking spot here because this store is surrounded by apartments!
Great selection, huge place (for queens), decent prices.
Liquor stores in queens tend to be small affairs with a shitton of bottles shoved in.
This place though? Nice large aisles, good setups of wines and liquors. Helpful workers. Prices are about average of any other liquor store. You want it liquor-wise? Chances are they have it. Wine-wise? Eh, maybe. But you're better off here than anywhere else in the area.
As neighborhood liquor stores go, Empire Liquors is relatively large. Located along a busy business strip on Queens Boulevard, the space feels bright and open from a lack of tall aisles.
Wines occupy the right half of the store, divided by region, mostly Italian, French, and American, with small sections for other regions, and Kosher wines also. A large collection of champagnes in the back, including large format bottles.
As typical of most liquor stores, their selection reflects neighborhood demand. Among spirits, vodka and whiskies are plentiful; for the whiskies, the selection takes up much of one wall and extending behind the counter, including American, Irish, Japanese, Scotch, and others. They even surprised by carrying two whiskies from Kavalan, Taiwan's first distillery. Gin and rum have fewer choices. Others like tequila, and particularly mezcal, have the fewest choices.
Whether the selection by spirit is large or small, Empire curates well enough to carry not just the most popular brands for most, but sometimes a few more interesting choices. So among amari, not just Campari and Aperol, but Amaro Montenegro is available. The back wall has a good selection of liqueurs, often with more than one choice per type, such as two elderflower liqueurs and a few pear liqueurs.
Empire is a good neighborhood liquor store; broad selection such that even for more obscure items, it is very likely to have at least one option for purchase. Prices are reasonable. The staff also tend to be consistent. A gem to have close to home.