I’m looking for opinions on options for wine storage in or around Chicago. I’m in the Kinzie Street Lock-up facility, but they raise my rates about 15% every 8 months. It’s ridiculous! So I need to move.
I’ve used Domaine before and moved from there because their prices were extremely high, and I have a philosophical issue with Marc Lazar. I like having easy evening and weekend access because I live in the western suburbs.
What places would you suggest I look at?
East Bank Wine Storage on Lake and Halsted is close to where you’re keeping your wines.
They are opening up another facility soonish (I’ve been told summer) that is further away (near the medical district) that is expected to be a bit cheaper.
Edit: Looks like John has seen my response…please pm me for more information.
Cheers,
JP
I have wine at Kinzie and Canal. I went to the prior manager of the facility at Kinzie a couple of years ago and complained of the rate (and never getting notices of increases), and he locked me into a very favorable rate. Canal is the least expensive (for now), though
Sent you a PM.
I’ve stayed away from Canal because accessibility times are pretty bad if you’re not in the city from 9-5 during the week.
Maybe I’ll go to the manager of Kinzie and see if they’ll roll back the increases to save a customer. If not, I definitely have to move.
East bank has not increased for several years and you can get a 24 hour swipe card
Oh, I like that!
You do have to pay extra, i think its $40 a year to get the extra access, they have a special door that only lets you into the wine area the only downside is i think that its stairs only im not sure you get to the elevators but that needs verifying, its only one floor down though so not to bad as long as your not moving loads of cases.
I’ve been thrilled with East Bank for a lot of the reasons mentioned and others. One correction though—unless Alan has “extra special” access, the after hours card isn’t quite 24hr—more like 9 or 9:30pm, but still gets the job done!
I’ll definitely call East Bank tomorrow. Which location are you guys using, Lake St. or Ohio St?
I looked back at my history with The Lockup and am getting more P.O’ed. Here’s the history:
I’m definitely done with these folks. Just informational for anyone else thinking of using The Lockup wine storage.
Lake for me
Lake for me, i just renewed at $1150 a year for a 96 case locker, Mark might well be correct about the times, check with them.
Their 24 case lockers i think are about $30 a month
One hint, make sure you inspect the locker first, some of them have weird shapes and support beams in them
Good call. I had a locker once that had a weird layout that actually let it hold more than it was rated at depending on how you stacked.
I just spoke with East Bank on Lake. I’m definitely in for that. I’m going to go on Saturday to see what they have and get this worked out. Thanks much for the help.
I’ve been at most of the places in the city John. I’m happily at domaine now but if I were not it would be East Bank for me.
Agreed with Nick. I store at both domaine and east bank. Domaine’s rates are outrageous but their service and product is also far superior.
Of the more commodity storage options East Bank has good service and prices. They’re more basic than the Lockup and I don’t think kept as cold, but I have zero complaints from my many years there.
I have a locker at East Bank on Lake and I am pretty sure that the temperature is kept at 55 degrees and humidity at 70 %. No clue what temps are at Domaine.
I believe my card enables me entrance until 9:00 pm. I’ve thought about asking why I can’t have 24 hour access on a number of occasions but does one really need access to their wine at 3:00 am?
Don’t know about you but I make great wine consumption decisions after midnight.
Just make sure there’s no asbestos.