Sentyrz Liquor & Supermarket

Love this store

Fun little grocery store located on the corner of 16^th and 2^nd, meat selection wonderful, freezer section is moderately stock with items ranging from frozen vegetables to pork neck bones. I go here for my simple needs most times and sometimes you even find gems here. They have these wings and nuggets THEY make in the back, and I’ve love almost all the flavors (The Honey BBQ was questionable and waiting for Parmesan Garlic :)). But if you’re looking to do some quick shopping and stay convenient to the neighborhood, Sentyrz is your stop, did I mention they have a liquor store inside… with a decent selection…

I work nearby and very much appreciate the selection of healthy items at Sentryrz. I frequently get an Amy’s frozen vegetarian item for lunch, but sometimes it is yogurt (good selection), V-​8, mineral water, or other items. Always welcoming, friendly service. A great neighborhood place.

I wouldn’t do my regular grocery shopping here (I live in Como not NE, but still), but I originally came here in search of good perogies and found a few other gems. They have a surprisingly good meat counter and brat selection and I randomly found a massive bag of hush puppies, which I haven’t seen/​had in years, super cheap. Also, their ice cream seems better priced than others and they actually have a decent, albeit small, selection.
Bonus for having a liquor store inside that’s actually pretty good, especially for its size. Not sure how they got away with that.
It’s an awkward place and pretty small but I come back for the those perogies and a few others things they do oddly well.

I go to Sentyrz a little more often then I’d like because it’s one of the few grocery stores in my NE neighborhood (also, they sell booze). There are good and baaad things about this little supermarket, but overall I’m a fan.
Bad Things About Sentyrz:
1) The produce: poor selection, poor quality and sometimes just plain weird looking veggies (shriveled, muted colors, etc).
2) Lack of vegetarian options: something you should probably be able to infer from the state of the produce section.
3) The bread: mostly just generic wonder bready-​type offerings and not once have I found a loaf of crusty french bread :(
Good Things About Sentyrz:
1) The staff: I don’t give a sh*t attitudes — but in an endearing sort of way, if that makes sense. Many have worked there for years and they all seem to like each other (and regulars) quite a bit.
2) BOOZE: Sentyrz is the only grocery store in the city that also sells alcohol in the same store. Very convenient.
3) Location: it’s right there, down the street from my apartment.

Great prices for two of my must haves in life — good meat and green chartreuse.

I know that come winter I’ll be frequenting Sentyrz even more frequently than I am now as a resident who lives in the vicinity. It’s nothing to look at as far as the inside goes, but you’re here to buy foodstuffs, beer/​booze and probably have a nice little chat with one of the friendly employees here and there. While they aren’t overflowing with health-​conscious items I get my Bolthouse Green Goodness and avocados for noticeably less than other grocery stores in the area and ditto on the Athenos Greek Yogurts (the only good yogurts are those that keep in the fat/​flavor), which on a recent occasion were on sale and I ended up doing a bit of hoarding. Unlike some fancy prepared items at Lund’s which purport to be prepared with fresh ingredients only to be tainted with cheap nasty partially-​hydrogenated oils, I can feel better about buying the Shurfine Oreo knockoffs which surprisingly enough are free of the stuff. All in all, considering the convenience factor, selection of goods, and decent hours, I’m willing to tilt my review up to 5 stars.

If you consume eight daily servings of anything, this is not the place for you. If you enjoy classy ice cream, this is not the place for you. If you appreciate clear signage indicating merchandise location, this is not the place for you. If you seek some combination of chips/​dead cow/​exotic beer/​strange cashier editorialization, this is the place for you.
This is the place for me.

Upon moving into a new neighborhood, one of the first orders of business is to find your local supermarket. Traditionally this required a fairly sustained intelligence-​gathering campaign: extensive foot/​bike/​car patrols of the area, interviews with neighbors and postal workers, vague directions punctuated by lots of hand gestures, etc.
Nowadays, though, there’s Unilocal.So I saved myself some time and found out it was Sentyrz.
Sentyrz is your typical neighborhood supermarket, which is to say somewhat shabby, slightly overpriced, not the greatest quality, but amazingly convenient. It’s actually a little bigger than most neighborhood markets and could, if one was so inclined, probably function as your sole grocery store.
The two things that tip the scale, though, are the butcher counter and the liquor store. The meat section is a bit of a gem, with very tasty house-​made sausages and some very affordable cuts of meat (including jaw-​droppingly cheap Smart Chicken). Since it is a proper butcher counter, that also means you’ll see the odd bulk pack of corned beef ends or $ 3 ham hock pop up as well.
The mere fact that there is a liquor store inside the supermarket is worth your attention, but lo and behold it’s actually a rather good one too! The selection of beer, wine, and liquor is quite good and some of the prices and available brands (Rogue Spirits!) rival the other bigger liquor stores in town. Peter, the buyer, knows his stuff and it shows.
If you live in the area, consider yourself blessed that this odd little market/​butcher/​liquor store has survived through the decades. If not, you may owe it to yourself to swing by at least once to get beer and brats in one stop.

Fancy Sentyrz is not. But it is convenient for us NEsters and the staff if friendly as all giddyup. Their sausage is awesome and the butcher is very helpful Ask him what cuts he has in back and you may surprised by a cheap custom cut primo piece of pork or beef. They’ve also added quite a few organic and healthier items to their shelves and the freezer lately. Ask them to stock something and chances are you will see it there next week. Of course, the cherry on top is the liquor store, which has some surprising wines. The produce is not great, but has improved.

I can’t stress enough the convenience of the grocery /​liquor store. I mean, really… how many are there out there? I heard that Sentyrz was grandfathered in, which is why they got to keep their current setup. I’m always amazed that this tiny little store has what I need. I assume an «ethnic market» of this size (and Sarah J, you’re right, there’s nothing ethnic about it) won’t ever carry the random things I ask of it, but I’m constantly surprised. I wouldn’t recommend shopping for your produce, but again, if you’re in a pinch, they’ll definitely have what you need saran-​wrapped ten times. The food that can’t be beat is their brats and sausages. They make their own brand and they are fantastic AND cheaper than all the others in the store. hmmm. coincidence? Probably not. Either way, be sure to take advantage of a typical NE fare done right.
Favorite Sentyrz moment: While my boyfriend and I were getting a few things at the store, we just got word that our offer was accepted on our house down the street. Once the staff overheard, we all celebrated with a small wine tasting. Each staff member introduced themselves along with the NE street they live on. Now… is that going to happen at Rainbow? Doubt it.

Sentyrz bills itself as a neighborhood ethnic market of sorts. For what I can tell, it is ethnic in that it sells polish sausages in the meat case, but otherwise, it’s a pretty crappy little grocery store.
Now don’t get me wrong — I live around the corner from Sentyrz and I’m very happy to be able to trot down to the market and get some eggs or bread or whatever I’m out of. But the quality of the food just isn’t very good. And the prices are high — which I would support, since it’s a family business, if they actually sold quality food. The produce comes wrapped — in plastic! On Styrofoam trays! Yuck.
What Sentyrz does have going for them is that you can find really strange products and no-​name brands that make for an entertaining half-​hour of browsing if you’re looking for something to do.
And why Sentyrz gets any stars is because they have a liquor store *in* the grocery store. They got grandfathered in! They have a decent selection of beer and a couple rows of curious wine selections (I went in there a few weeks ago to by beer and looked at the wines on a whim — they had several bottle of a cult wine that sells out immediately at places like Surdyks. Whoda thought?) Prices are a little higher than say, Chicago Lake, but I love being able to buy beer and brats at the same place (points for their polish sausage BTW. Tasty)
If you for some reason were to drive to Sentyrz (it’s not exactly a desination), park haphazardly in the half-​circle drive out front. That’s what everyone else does, and it feels good to ignore the parking spots.