Sam's Wines Heading West

By Benjy Lipsman in Food on Aug 12, 2004 5:21PM

Sam's Wines & Spirits -- quite possibly Chicagoist's favorite store with its 35,000-square-feet of intoxicating goodness -- is expanding into the suburbs with a new store in west suburban Downers Grove.

Sam's had previously announced plans to open their second store in New York City, but backed off those plans. "We put New York on hold because we're like farm boys. It's much harder to deal with the people there. It's not like Chicago," said owner Fred Rosen. Also contributing to decision not to open a store at 42nd Street and West Side Highway were late changes to the lease made by the developer, inluding a reduction in parking from 50 to 20 spaces.

NYC's loss is the western suburbs' gain. The new Sam's in Downers Grove, located at 355 at Butterfield Road, opens August 20th. While Chicagoist will probably never venture out to the new store when the current one's so close to home, we're glad our suburban friends will now have access to the "4,322 French wines, 3,621 U.S. wines, 3,623 Australian wines, 165 New Zealand wines and 131 South African wines" plus countless varieties of beer, liquor and $6,500 bottles of scotch we city dwellers have access to.