Best Place to Find a Latvian Liqueur

When you need just the right wine, beer, aperitif, or liqueur to complement your authentic ethnic feast, head on down to this whimsical, impressively stocked emporium of high spirits. There are acres of well-organized vino, of course, but the fun of the place is its wide array of exotic booze: Croatian pelinkovac, Czech carlsbad, Hungarian unicum, Peruvian pisco, Turkish raki, cherry liqueur from Poland, orange brandy from Mexico, and on and on. One wall is dedicated to beers from Lebanon, Israel, Vietnam, Switzerland, Brazil, and El Salvador -- as well as England, Belgium, and the Bay Area -- but the store's centerpiece is a towering cabinet packed with some 250 single malts (including a 30-year-old Balvenie at $325). There are two dozen Irish whiskeys, 61 bourbons, 27 types of gin, 48 vodkas (one, "Jazz," in a trumpet-shaped bottle), 50 cognacs (a $575 Courvoisier among them), and 21 breeds of anise liqueur alone. There's also a 747's worth of 50-milliliter-sized bottles, from Goldschläger to Godiva, including one urn filled solely with tiny Stolis in various flavors. Sköal!