Oak & Steel Fine Wine and Spirits

Recommends

selectivegirlnyc

Joined 2 years ago

Great wine, great staff!. Just checked this place out. In NY you often find staff that would rather kick over than help you out. However, this place is the total opposite. Everyone here is well versed in wine and so friendly. I highly recommend this to anyone looking for a great neighborhood wine and liquor store (it's not like the common trashy places you find).

Recommends

Vino Chic

Joined 2 years ago

Wine (-Geek) Retail Therapy. Had to seek out this boutique shop known for its carefully selected, amazing wine selection. Found out they also carry my fave smokey single-malt and a huge selection of artisanal spirits too. The store itself is very inviting with smart design elements like tin ceilings and matching rotary phones on either side of the registers. The Cult-Cali section will make you drool, as will the blazin Italian section. I like how they have the shop set up by region but also have a couple of sections devoted to famous importers, for example, Terry Theise, Reading Between The Wines. I was greeted by a super helpful saleswoman who showed me around and offered up some insightful stories to go along with her great suggestions. Ended up buying a 96 point Cannonau by Dettori for a steal. BTW prices are great and you CAN NOT BEAT the savvy and rare selection.

Recommends

Anton Ego

Joined 4 years ago

Excellent Wine Selection and Spirits!. I wandered into here for a bottle of wine and found a selection of wines that I have not seen in years! Excellent place for rare and vintage wine!

Doesn't Recommend

merlot4life

Joined 4 years ago

Unfriendly and not wine savvy. I have been going to the store that used to be located next to this store all my life, but when i noticed that my usual place was closed I decided to check out the new store. WHAT A MISTAKE! When i walked in the help was talking to each other and completely ignoring me while I was stuck to choose from a selection of overpriced wine. After finally giving up and making a selection I was greeting with a rude "anything else" as if my $25 merlot was beneath him. Overall a horrible experience, which is only topped by my knowledge that the owner (who is also rude) previously owned the camera shop and couldn't tell a pinot from a cab. After al this trouble I found out that my usual store was moved up a block and was better than ever

Recommends

Wanderer108

Joined 4 years ago

Excellent Wine Store. I love this store. Every time I stop by I wind up getting into some very interesting discussions with the staff about wine and where it comes from. I've never felt pressure to buy anything outside of my price range and on top of that every single employee is passionate about their product. To me this is what wine is all about, meeting people, trying new things, and enthusiasm for great discoveries. Its astounding the amount of knowledge the staff has about every single bottle in the store.

This is a store on a mission, to make good wine available and comprehensible to everyone. They are knowledgeable, unpretentious, and have wines to suit any budget. If you want to stretch your wine muscles this is the place to do it.

Recommends

KS00

Joined 4 years ago

Love the wine & Open late!. I work odd hours, and love that I can show up at 11:30 p.m. most nights and get a bottle of wine. Its a great find!

Recommends

Munequa819

Joined 4 years ago

Give it a try, you won't be disappointed!. I work in the neighborhood and was having a bad day so I decided to have some "liquid therapy", and I stopped in here. The store can be overwhelming to a wine amateur like me, but as soon I asked for help, I was helped tremendously. Yeah, I wasn't trying to spend tons of money, ( i was trying to get some Yellowtail, which they don't have) but I walked away with a really nice $15 Pinot Grigio that I was told is made in the best region for Pinot Grigios. I definitely felt like they listened to me and was trying to get me past Yellowtail to something with better quality with just a little more of an investment. I was happy i took their advice as that has become one of my fav regular wines to buy at the store!

What's nice is that they have free wine tastings everyday so I can experiment with their selection and not feel like I have to spend tons of money which as we all know, hard to come by in this economic climate.

And they are open late too, which is good!

I really don't get the bad reviews. I thought they were great and very passionate about good wine!

Recommends

Wino419

Joined 4 years ago

Great staff! Great selection!. I have never written a review for one of these sites before, but after visiting this store I looked it up to see if other people were on to my new discovery. I was appalled to read a negative review, because I had a GREAT experience!

The staff is absolutely first rate, and owners are some of the most welcoming shopkeepers I've ever encountered. There was a wine tasting that night (I later found out that they have these every night) and they poured me a taste of a delicious riesling. As much as I liked the wine, I was looking for something red. The young lady who helped me asked me what I liked to drink and tailored her recommendations to my taste. I ended up walking out with a $15 Pinot Noir which was one of the best bottles I've had in recent memory. After I had paid for the wine, I stayed and looked around bit (it was freezing outside!). I was looking at the Champagne section, and another one of the salespeople asked me if I had any questions. I said I had already bought something and wasn't in the market for Champagne but that I was surprised at how many bottles that I didn't recognize. He, fully aware that I wasn't planning on spending more money, launched into a fascinating lesson on the differences between mass produced Champagne like Veuve and Moet and the lesser-known, but higher quality producers that they feature.

I left with the feeling that the staff truly cared about the products that they were selling and wanted to impart their passion for them onto the customer. Although I live in Brooklyn, I will definitely be returning to Oak & Steel the next time I have to make an important wine purchase.

I have lived in New York for almost ten years and been to all kinds of different wine stores in different neighborhoods, but I have never been treated with as much care as I was at Oak & Steel. And, unlike the previous commenter who boasted that she "had the ability to buy the whole store", I only wanted to spend fifteen bucks!

Recommends

josh0502

Joined 4 years ago

Super-friendly, super-knowledgeable staff. Excellent selection of wines.. I'm a bit flabbergasted by the comment below. We needed a good wine for a barley and mushroom soup we were making for Thanksgiving. The sales clerk helping me (Kim, I think?) recommended a wonderful $12 bottle of red burgundy with earthy notes that really worked with the mushrooms in the soup. I would never have picked this bottle for myself and probably would have spent three times as much unassisted -- she actually suggested a cheaper and better bottle than the one I originally meant to buy. I will definitely be back.

Doesn't Recommend

marimac

Joined 5 years ago

Boo! Wine shop with a bad finish.. For my age (24) I spend a good deal of hard-earned money on QUALITY wine -- and I care about the shops that I patronize. The best wine stores feel warm and welcoming, with people who smile and try to understand your preferences and give advice that's not based on simply pushing the highest-priced bottle. In fact, the best wine sellers will tell you that they try to offer bottles below a visitor's price point. But the people here are SNIDE and mean, and the store has a cold-as-steel feeling to it. OK, so I'm not in the market to buy a 70 dollar bottle today -- but come on -- how many people in this economy are throwing back pricey wine in their apartment on a Tuesday night? OK, so I might not LOOK old enough to know what I'm talking about, but don't ignore me as I'm standing there, looking at you, awkwardly waiting to be served for TEN WHOLE MINUTES! How do you run a business and not pay attention to customer service? I will never be going back here. There are too many other stores in the city (and even in the neighborhood!!) that have better SERVICE, better SELECTION, and better PRICES. Give your money to NICE PEOPLE, not these folks. I never write these reviews, but I feel strongly about this.