Downer Avenue Wine & Spirits

I’m a fan. They have a nice beer selection and some that are rare or limited. I think they’ll even special order product for you, but not 100% sure.
They have a good selection of wines and even have a wine club where you get points which eventually equals, free wine! Okay, $ 5.00 off a bottle of wine but still kinda free.
Cute little shop that delivers what you’d expect. Breadsmith will sometimes give them their leftover bread so if you’re lucky, you might get to take home a loaf for free. What better to soak up that booze you’ll be enjoying?

Downer Avenue Wine and Spirits has quickly become my favorite place to pick up a six-​pack, bottle of wine, or my favorite spirit (rye whiskey, for those of you might care). It is a relatively small space, but they still bring a good selection to the table. The staff are also very knowledgeable, and more than happy to help any customer make the right decision. On a recent visit I was pointed in the direction of rye whiskey I had never tried before. I gave it a shot and was enjoyed it very much. Thanks for the discovery Downer Avenue Wine and Spirits!

Great team of employees willing to give advice and grab me a warm six-​pack to take back to Chi-​town!

Downer is my favorite liquor store in Milwaukee. It is small but they pack so much in. My sister came to visit this weekend and fell in love with Malort (.?) so she wanted to buy a bottle before she left. Downer had Malort and we also walked out with a bottle of whiskey they recommended and some free «cake» because it was my birthday. The staff is knowledgeable, helpful and friendly. Keep it up DAWS!

This cute little liquor store has it all! Wines, hard liquors, craft beers, and domestic. Friendly staff, great selection and that neighborhood feel. Their prices are standard and the store is well kept.

This place is sort of an East Side gem. It’s tucked away on Downer by some little restaurants and shops, and is not overly crowded with UWM students like some of the other liquor stores in the area.
I’m a self-​admitted beer snob, and Downer Wine & Spirits can satisfy my brew shopping needs. As others have stated, there isn’t a lot of space but they pack it with quality products. Decent selection of liquor too! Prices aren’t the absolutely cheapest, but they’re not unreasonable and I don’t hesitate spending money here.
Employees are helpful. Bonus points for having a water dish outside for four-​legged family members.

Walked in a whim walked out with 3 bottles and part of a wine rewards club. The owner is nice and will walk your through flavors of wine to find the best one for you. The rewards program is pretty nice. You get 50 points for joining and then a point per dollar spent on wine. At 100 points you get a $ 5 gift card and at 200 points an even bigger gift card. Not a bad deal especially since it’s based on price and you get the 50 bonus points.
They also have mead! I am slowly expanding my love of mead and trying new things is the best way to do it.
Overall I really like this place.

Great prices with a great selection of wine and beer ! Staff has forgotten to offer my purchase onto the wine club multiple times but if I just remind them they will look my last name up and add it on :) Have an awesome price on high end liquors as well such as Hendricks ! Staff is super friendly and their emails always keep you up to date on events and promotions —winning !

For a few reasons, this has become my default destination for finding good craft beer:
— Most of the beer is refrigerated, essential for preserving the beverage
— Excellent selection of bombers… some unique stuff I don’t find at other stores
— Fairly priced single bottles
— Helpful staff, especially during the day or shortly after 5 pm. These guys tend to know the stock well and when new stuff is coming in. For high-​demand beers, they are honest about what they are getting.
Ummm and it’s close to my house.

After a year of monthly trips to Downer (sometimes bi-​monthly), I’m still on the fence. I’m a beer fan, and their everyday selection is very good, especially considering the size of the shop.
I can usually count on them to have Black Husky, which is my barometer on whether or not a beer shop knows what they are doing. Good info, relatively decent access to special releases, and fair prices.
The service is good, but doesn’t blow me away. One of my major peeves when shopping for beer in a liquor store is when I ask a question and get a response like, «I don’t know anything about that, I’m not the beer guy.» When the beer guy is there, awesome service.
They’re part of my regular North-​side loop from Whitefish Bay Sendik’s, down Oakland to Kensington, Otto’s, Downer, and eventually Whole Foods.

Good selection — good service!

My liver is such a bitch sometimes. I have to keep reminding him who’s in charge. «waaah wahhh Joe stop hurting me…» Shyadup. You’ll get brown liquor and you’ll like it.
Downer Ave Wine & Spirits helps me fight the battle against my memories and internal organs. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff who will talk booze with you for as long as you want. When I asked about something they didn’t have and hadn’t heard of, the dude was all, «Sheet meng, I gotta order sum a dat». It’s small, almost boutique-​y, but the selection is primo to the max brah. Really good special sales (stop in regularly, they change) and decent prices over all. They have some high end shit, so don’t be surprised by sticker shock from the top shelf. Gift certificates are available and make a wonderful gift for your most favorite and sardonic Unilocaler. Would give it a five star, but it’s on Downer Ave and the denizens of that neighborhood couldn’t appreciate a $ 10 liter of Gordon’s if they were shanghaied to Beloit and stuffed in an old refrigerator with Tom Sizemore and a fuckin’ raccoon.

This place was pretty cool. It’s teeny, but packed with good stuff. The counter is funky and has some bizarre stuff on it — I think I recall seeing a container for people to donate to some sort of death ray fund or something.

Best liquor store on the eastside — hands down.

Downer is an excellent liquor store for its size. I’d say this is a top-​2 liquor store in the City of Milwaukee. The beer and wine selections are extensive. If you want to buy individual bottles of craft beer they knock off 10% when you buy at least four bottles. They also have a walk in beer cooler, which is great both for shopping and cooling off on a hot day (which I confess I may have done once or twice… what can I say, this summer was really hot).
The staff is phenomenal — both friendly and knowledgeable. This makes Downer Wine and Spirits the ideal store both for the alcohol connoisseur and casual clueless drinker alike.

Great little store with many craft beers and a very cool beer bunker.

A fair share of my income goes towards beer, wine, booze and inebriation in general, so having this place right near my school and my residence only seems to amplify that. Not that it’s a bad thing.
Wine here is mostly California, and mostly red. They have small sections devoted to France, Italy and other wine regions of the world (think S. America, Australia, maybe a S. Africa or two). This is my only gripe, and it causes a one star down grade. Living next to Gloriosos for 3 years really, really spoiled me and my undying love of guzzling Tuscan Pinot’s.
Beer selection, on the other hand, is a wet dream for snobs like me! Respectably large selection of normal domestics, cans and bottles. Blah, Blah, Blah; onto the alcoholic goodies: stouts, porters, triples, quads, doubles, ales, bocks, they’re all here, and there is all kinds of them to choose from. Most are sold by the bottle, so you can even build your own four pack of micro brews. They have large Liter sized beers too, and an awesome walk-​in Beer Freezer.
Employees here are super helpful and really know their stuff. You can spend a good 15 minutes bantering them about libations at the check out isle alone.
Free Breadsmith bread with purchase late at night, too.
Checkout the La Fin du Monde four pack here, its a steal!

My Mom always told me, «Good things come in small Packages.»
I don’t think she was talking about this store, but, hey, it fits!
Extremely small, but packed with interesting Wines, Liquor and Beer. They don’t waste space on wines you can buy anywhere. This is the perfect place to go if you are looking for something unique or different. I picked up a Spanish 2010 Burgans Albarino. It got 90 points from Wine Spectator and was only $ 14.99!
Even though the space is really tight, I actually didn’t have much trouble navigating the aisles in my wheelchair. Even if I did, the staff was very friendly, so I am sure they would have helped me out if I asked.

This place is the perfect small, private, and very knowledgeable liquor store.
They have a very selective selection. The one thing I love is that even if they don’t have what you want, you can talk to the staff, explain it, and they will help you find something similar. They are very knowledgeable and know their products!

Hmm.
Booze nerd mini-​heaven? Sure!
*They’ve got boutique-​y bourbons and a serious sake selection and a nice/​relatively extensive mix of old and new world wines and an impressive collection of craft beers.
*for their size, which is pretty freaking small
Okay. So not every wine/​spirit dealer can be a warehouse of booze. (Not necessary, but fun!) It’s actually (and I speak from experience) almost more difficult to create a comprehensive and well rounded collection of great beer/​wine/​spirits when you’re limited, spatially speaking. Each selection has to be that much more thoughtful, and that much more impressive. Each selection fills a niche. «What’s the most affordable, standard, easy-​drinking and accessible yet boutique-​y bourbon I can find?» «Four Roses. Done.»
So Downer does this pretty dang well. There are a few things that I wish they carried that they don’t, but on the whole, this little liquor retailer does a pretty awesome job.