Cameljockey 3 Posted August 17, 2009 I've heard them called a lot of things, package shop, package store, liquor store, but most seem to refer to them as the "Red Dot" as most of the liquor stores have red dots on the facade. If you want the "good stuff", well, you'll have to visit the local bootlegger! His wares give new meaning to the term "firewater"! CJ Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
UK_Widowmaker 571 Posted August 17, 2009 In Australia, we don't pooh-pooh good table wines. A 1979 Cuvee Reservee Chateau Bottle de nuit san Wagga Wagga, which has a kick on it like a mule. This is a wine with a message, and the message is STAY AWAY! But seriously... This is not a wine for Drinking....This is a wine for laying down and avoiding!..at the opening of the Sydney Opera house, they were fishing them out of the main sewer every half an hour! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Herr Prop-Wasche 7 Posted August 17, 2009 Lots of good advice here, guys! Anyone care to break it down a little more by price range? For example: cheap, moderately priced, expensive, premium? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Duce Lewis 3 Posted August 17, 2009 Down south in South Carolina I think they are called "Package Stores"? Camel, is that right? Up here we call them the standard: Liquor Stores... or Booze Shops. We call them Package Stores or Packys here in Connecticut too Pretty strict liquer laws here, only Mon-Sat, 8 or 9 PM allowed Supermarkets are limited to beer only When I went to school in Michigan they had drive through Liquer Stores open to 2 AM Just pull right up to the register and they'll pass the case through the car window Can't remember if they had wine or spirits as we could only afford beer then Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bullethead 12 Posted August 17, 2009 In the US, liquor laws are at the whim of local jurisdictions from state down to town and all points in between. It's quite possible to have a bewildering array of different laws on liquor availability within a 20-mile radius. Probably the best example of this is the Dallas-Fort Worth "Metroplex", which has 2 huge cities separated and surrounded by a couple dozen small towns spread over 2 counties. All these entities are contiguous so you can't tell where one ends and the next begins except by road signs. Pretty much all of them have different liquor laws. The only constant in this patchwork is that both counties (Dallas and Tarrant) have ordained that bottles of hard liquor have to be sold in separate liquor/package/whiskey stores. Thus, no whiskey at any supermarket (unlike Lousy Anna). However, few of the small towns allow liquor stores within them. Thus, for example, if you live in Arlington, you have to go to Fort Worth (adjacent to the west) to buy a bottle of whiskey. You can tell where the boundary is because there's a large cluster of liquor stores just on the Fort Worth side . However, Arlington allows bars to sell liquor buy the glass without special restrictions, plus you can buy (but not drink) beer and wine in convenience and grocery stores. Adjacent to Arlington on the east is Grand Prairie, which also has unrestricted bars, but no other place AT ALL to buy any form of alcohol, not even beer and wine. I say "unrestricted" bars because most of the small towns north of I-30 don't even allow bars. Some are completely dry, but most allow "private clubs" to sell alcohol to their "members". This probably came about so that VFW halls and such could have beer busts, but has been exploited by restaurants that want to serve alcohol. You pay a couple of dollars and you're a "member" of the "club", with a card to prove it. In fact, huge numbers of restaurants in the DFW area have banded together to for 1 big "club" with a common "membership" card called a "Unicard". Pay for 1 Unicard and drink in any restaurant in DFW. And believe it or not, the waitresses actually ask to see your Unicard when you order a drink. Acquiring such a card should be the 1st priority of any tourist to the DFW area :yes: . However, if the "club" is actually a bar, with most of its income derived from selling booze by the glass, then it has to have its own separate card, assuming it's even allowed to exist in a given town. It's thus quite possible for a DFW native to need a separate billfold full of bar "membership" cards. I had one when I lived there. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Red-Dog 3 Posted August 17, 2009 (edited) Toon army when the Red-Dogs put a dozen by um.... Edited August 17, 2009 by Red-Dog Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest British_eh Posted August 18, 2009 (edited) Hi there: Parama certainly has sonmegood varietals picked out.Trivia for you, and a bonus for the Brit's. THe BEST place to buy wine is.........in Britain. Why? Well, you get imports form all over Europe, and North America, vs. in Itlay, just Italian wines. OF course I enjoy Italian wines, but just trying to make a point. Did you know that two wineries in Kelowna, BC, CANADA, hae won the coveted "Best Chardonay in the World" contest hosted in the UK? We do very good whites, and a couple of decent redssuch as Old Vine Syrah, which the Ausies will know as Shiraz. Ok, so I drink mostly Pinot Gris, a nice light white, pleasant nose, slightly sweet, because my wife likes it. Me, Rosemont Shiraz is a great Red, an Italian Chianti with a Sangiovese base. CHEERS, British_eh Edited August 18, 2009 by British_eh Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
RAF_Louvert 101 Posted August 18, 2009 Down south in South Carolina I think they are called "Package Stores"...up here we call them the standard: Liquor Stores... or Booze Shops. In Minnesota, about mid-winter, we call them a necessity. Cheers! Lou Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JimAttrill 24 Posted August 18, 2009 The US looks like a very confusing place for drinkers! We used to have some silly laws, like the one that pubs and bars were shut on Sundays, sometimes after 8pm I can't remember now exactly. But many years ago I went to a small airport to wait for an HS125 to come back from Namibia. I went to the cafe/restaurant/bar as I had a while to wait, and ordered a beer as there were others there drinking beer. The barman gave me the beer and a pretty old looking sandwich wrapped in plastic. I told him I didn't want the sandwich and he said that I had to have it, otherwise I couldn't have the beer as the law said you could only have drinks with food. So I drank the beer and gave him back the sandwich. He put it back in the display cabinet where it sat on its own. Many others came in and took the sandwich and gave it back. I suppose somebody would eventually eat it ..... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bullethead 12 Posted August 18, 2009 The US looks like a very confusing place for drinkers! It definitely can be. We have places like your airport, too, where local law doesn't allow true bars (usually defined as places that get most of their income from selling booze), but does allow restaurants to sell drinks. In such places, however, you'd have to buy the sandwich to get the beer, and the sandwich would natually have to cost more than the beer. All this nonsense goes the fact that the US is a new country so the attitudes of the original settlers are still much in evidence. Most of the restrictive US liquor laws were passed long ago by local governments dominated by rather devout members of non-drinking religions like the Baptists, who made vast regions of the country effectively dry even before Prohibition. Those laws that are still in force are mostly in what is called the "Bible Belt", where attitudes haven't changed enough yet to cause a major change in the laws. Today's current patchwork of confusing local laws is the result of attitudes changing in some small areas faster than in others, usually due to development bringing in lots of less-zealous newcomers. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BirdDogICT 3 Posted August 19, 2009 Today's current patchwork of confusing local laws is the result of attitudes changing in some small areas faster than in others, usually due to development bringing in lots of less-zealous newcomers. Local laws are usually changed due to the necessity for economic development...a number of years ago, we had "private club" laws in Kansas, much like those in Oklahoma and sections of Texas. It was difficult to entertain visiting businessmen and convince them that the Midwest was such a great place to conduct business when the only place they could drink was the Holiday Inn where they stayed. And forget about getting a decent wine with dinner. Lancer's was considered a fine imported wine. Does chicken fried steak go best with white or red wine? Thankfully it's changed...we can even go to the liquor store on Sundays in some small towns now. As of last month we can have the best wines from around the country delivered to our homes, as long as we don't consume too much. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bullethead 12 Posted August 19, 2009 Does chicken fried steak go best with white or red wine? It goes best with either Shiner Bock or Lone Star beer :yes: Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Duce Lewis 3 Posted August 19, 2009 All this nonsense goes the fact that the US is a new country so the attitudes of the original settlers are still much in evidence. Most of the restrictive US liquor laws were passed long ago by local governments dominated by rather devout members of non-drinking religions like the Baptists, who made vast regions of the country effectively dry even before Prohibition. Those laws that are still in force are mostly in what is called the "Bible Belt", where attitudes haven't changed enough yet to cause a major change in the laws. Today's current patchwork of confusing local laws is the result of attitudes changing in some small areas faster than in others, usually due to development bringing in lots of less-zealous newcomers. Yeah, in the US, liquer laws are controlled by the States (and Municipalities) rather than the Federal Gov't Legal age can be anywhere from 18-21, or not at all if it's a dry region Not sure it's an entirely religeous attitude The pious Pilgrims stopped in Massachusetts instead of continueing to Virginia for 1 reason ...they ran outta beer Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bullethead 12 Posted August 19, 2009 Not sure it's an entirely religeous attitude The pious Pilgrims stopped in Massachusetts instead of continueing to Virginia for 1 reason...they ran outta beer I've never seen a dry county that wasn't dominated by devout Baptists, or was an Indian reservation. I personally like the fact that local jurisdictions get to make their own rules. The Feds have zero business telling the locals what they can and can't do on matters such as this. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
