A quick visit to the BootLegger

Beer Fever with Weaver: Keep your inner child happy with Blackberry

Long Trail Blackberry Wheat?$7.95 for a six-pack at Uncle Tom's Market When I was little (by little, I mean before I graduated from high school), I approached each night's family meal like a general going into battle. As my mom prepared the meal, I would slink around the kitchen, scouting out what villainous vegetable dish was destined to make my otherwise glorious meal miserable. After I was done with the good stuff, I spread the remaining vegetable medley across my plate as thin as a pancake, in hopes that my mom would not notice and instead think that there had been a new, rainbow-colored plate added to her collection.

Beer Fever with Weaver: Words of wisdom from the face of SmuttyNose IPA: Paul Barber

Paul Barber?Face of SmuttyNose IPA and Man of Infinite Wisdom. Spring is here. But enough about the weather. As classes come to an end and reading period begins, it is important for all of us to get our priorities straight and prepare for the long road of finals ahead. This is why I enlisted the help of Paul Barber for this week's article. Mr. Barber holds his faded jeans up with a big gold belt buckle that says "Aloha." His eyebrows are bushier than a Chia Pet on Miracle-Gro and his love for Bowdoin lacrosse rivals his love for good beer, which, incidentally, has landed him squarely in a patio chair on the label for SmuttyNose IPA. Clearly, this guy has his priorities straight.

Beer Fever with Weaver

This piece represents the opinion of the author:

Alex Weaver

Columnist

April 27, 2007

BootLeggers Beverage Warehouse

It often amazes me that in Boston you can't buy booze in gas stations. But here in Maine you're far more likely to head to your local 7-Eleven for a fill-up on Natty Light than for gas. Just the other week, coming back from an interview in Beantown, I pulled off to a Mobil to fill up on Bull Ice and was appalled when the sales clerk told me I should settle for a pomegranate seltzer water instead. Not in Maine. Here, kegs are delivered right to your doorstep and finding an aestival respite from the heat is as easy as locating the nearest neighborhood hard lemonade stand (50 cents!). Booze in Maine is sold like knock-off Louis Vuitton bags in Chinatown: It's not a question of where to find it, but rather where to find it cheapest. Welcome to Maine: The way life should be, baby.

Thus, in the spirit of Ivies, I offer you not an eloquent exploration of what to drink but instead a humble offering of a new place to purchase alcohol?whatever your poison of choice may be.

For the first time in my Bowdoin College tenure (and probably since the pornography boom of the '80s), Uncle Tom's has some competition. The place is BootLeggers Beverage Warehouse, located on your left as you head toward the Topsham Mall. While there may not exactly be a new sheriff in town, I think it's safe to say that he has a new (and much cleaner) deputy. As the official spokesman of Boozeville, I thought I'd pay our newest member a little visit.

BootLeggers is really just a huge, glorified gas station minus the pumps out front. Once inside, three things struck me right away. First, aside from a fairly primitive grocery selection (prominent brands include Doritos, Lays, and Bugles), BootLeggers truly is a warehouse of assorted beverages. It is big and filled to the brim with liquid?alcoholic and non, classy and otherwise.

Secondly, it is extremely clean. While I would expect nothing less from a store's grand opening, I must confess that?unlike shopping at Uncle Tom's?it was nice to not find myself periodically looking over my shoulder for the nearest exit should the ancient jars of pickled sausages spontaneously combust. I guess I just never believed that a booze store could actually be clean, which leads me to number three...

BootLeggers does not sell porn. Any other time, I would count this in the loss column, but I don't enjoy feeling like I'm being judged when I go to buy a six-pack for a scholarly article, let alone a keg for a Saturday night. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not morally opposed to pornography?I write articles, other people take their clothes off. But seriously, the World Wide Web was made for a reason?the wide and unreserved dispersal of "information," and I think the porno mag has become somewhat obsolete (more on that next week). Another advantage of not having 200 pairs of...eyes...looking at you while you decide between Ice or Light (go Ice), is that your girl friends may actually agree to come along and contribute to the decision-making process. Hell, most girls I know have never even been to Uncle Tom's. I can't honestly say I blame them.

Clean, pornless, and full of booze?sounds like a winner, right? Perhaps, but don't hop on the booze wagon just yet. BootLeggers does have a great selection of alcohol. Ted went on Tuesday to stock up for Ivies and came home with more than a hundred Smirnoff Raw Peach Teas that only cost him 37 cents each (actual retail price). Sweet. But 30-racks are still overpriced (Hannaford's remains the clear winner) and Uncle Tom's still has BootLeggers beat as far as kegs are concerned. If you need a tap, the prices are fairly even, but Uncle Tom's delivers (a service everyone should take full advantage of) and has a much wider selection of beers in the barrel.

In the end, I think everyone should embrace our new neighbor. BootLeggers has a great variety of specialty beers, wine, and other alcohol, and you can walk in without thinking that car parked outside is Chris Hansen and the "How To Catch a Predator" crew. While the prices are on the high side now, they may very well come down as the business picks up. So as you head into Ivies Weekend, pay a little visit to our neighborhood BootLegger: He may not be the sheriff just yet, but I hear his Smirnoff is excellent.

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