Bottles & Bones

The list at Bottles & Bones is short — 32 labels — but it's priced with unusual restraint for a chophouse in the suburbs. Bottles topping out at $95 and a by-the-glass program stretching across 20 options tells you this place wants wine to be accessible, not aspirational.

The list leans heavily on reliable California names — The Prisoner, Patz & Hall, J. Lohr, Justin — with a few international nods in the Melini Riserva Chianti, Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio, Paul Buisse Touraine Sauvignon Blanc, and a Trivento Malbec from Argentina. There's no real deep-dive territory here: no aged bottles, no grower Champagne, no obscure regions to geek out over. What you do get is a well-curated crowd-pleaser list that steers clear of total grocery-store mediocrity. The inclusion of a Donati Claret and Predator Old Vine Zinfandel shows at least a passing interest in offering something a little different.

Twenty by-the-glass options is genuinely impressive for a 32-bottle list — essentially the entire list is available by the glass, which is a real commitment. Prices run $12–$25/glass, with the splurge ceiling being The Prisoner Cabernet at $25/glass. That kind of range lets a table of mixed drinkers all land somewhere comfortable without being pushed toward a full bottle.