BEST LIQUOR STORE

Remember all those times in college you told your parents you had been at the library studying when you actually had been out drinking? You weren't lying. You were just anticipating this place. Crown isn't just a liquor and wine shop; it's the ivory tower of vino, Wine U., an institute of higher fermentation. To go along with its stunning assortment of beer, wine, and liquor -- and gourmet cheeses, and fine chocolates, and premium salsas and chips and dips -- Crown has as knowledgeable a staff as you're likely to find outside the Ivy League. Sure there's Chip Cassidy, Crown's wine director (who really is a college professor, regularly lecturing on wine technology at Florida International University's School of Hospitality Management), but most everyone who works there knows the stuff. Take, for example, Fred Barger at the North Miami location. "There's a real interesting history behind Krug champagne," he recently explained while ringing up a bottle of it for a customer. "During World War II, the elder Krug [who was French] convinced the occupying German forces that the complete stock of champagne they were looking at had already been sold. Why that would keep the Germans from confiscating it, I don't know, but he printed up counterfeit receipts for all of it. Consequently there are still a couple of bottles left of Krug 1925, 1926." Pause. "Is that all today?" Drop in even if you're not short on wine. You could learn something.