Thursday 16th of December 2010 11:18:48 PM

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Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Good beer selection and great concept. Browse the beer while you sample a (limited) tap selection in a very pleasant environment. Prices are a bit high but you can probably find a fair number of items that you won't get at the local grocery store, albeit nowhere near what is available at Bottleworks or Broweres. What could be bad? Attitude. I have been there several times even though it is quite a distance to travel to pick up something hard to find. On my last (never to return) visit I arrived about five minutes after opening time but the door was still locked. A couple of people were waiting outside. My wife had some shopping to do at the nearby Redmond Center so I took her there and returned about 20 minutes later. Still closed. I waited about ten minutes and then went back to retrieve my wife. Returned about 30 minutes later (now over an hour past opening) just in time to see someone opening the store. I went in and expressed disappointment at having to make several trips and suggested that perhaps a discounted draft while shopping would alleviate my frustration. I was told by the owner that he had had a bad night and that if I had and problem I was free to leave. I did.

Wednesday 20th of October 2010 12:05:23 PM

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Malt & Vine I knew they had a good beer selection but I did not know about the wine or the taps they had going on. 6 different taps at the ready with some killer beers being poured. They have 700 different bottled beers from near and far to the crazy Belgian stuff from Belgium-land. Also have an extensive wine area. Very knowledgeable service I know I will be back when I am in the area.

Monday 23rd of June 2008 03:39:32 PM

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Open for just about a year, this is the Eastside's answer to Bottleworks in Seattle...the eastside being those communities on the east side of Lake Washington, the west side being Seattle and its environs.

Doug & Lizzie thought at first they'd try wine & beer but have come to realize what's important - beer. Not that wine has been displaced, but after a 9-month interval between visits, it was apparent to wife Persimmon and me that the stock had changed.

The back of the store remains dedicated to spiritus fermenti, its necessary glass-ware and such but the front refrigerators contain more beer than wine and many more representing the local area breweries than outside the Pacific NW. Yes there is Dogfish Head here and Sam Adams (naturally...isn't Koch's beer everywhere?) but there's also Laughing Buddha, Rogue, Scuttlebutt, Stephen's Aldergrove and many others. So now, we have a beer store without having to fight the daily...hourly traffic jam on the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge (or the "520" as we locals call it) making our way through the University of Washington and then merging onto I-5 only to get off a quarter mile later to fight the 4 lanes down to 1 to get to Bottleworks in Wallingford.

Plus, they've installed a half dozen beer taps so, although it may not be the most delicious place to enjoy a brew (you're sitting in the middle of a mini-mall) it is a place where you can enjoy a beer that you might otherwise have to travel to Richland to drink on a hot, summer day in 100 degree heat after 4 hours on the road...I'd rather drive 10 miles instead.

Doug, a former computer software programmer for a small, little known Redmond company got tired of fighting the traffic as well and opened Malt & Vine.

I, for one, am glad he did.