Char Steak & Lounge

The list opens with enough confidence to match the room — dark wood, candlelight, the kind of place where someone orders a Cab with a ribeye and calls it a night. There are real bottles here, not just the usual suspects, and the price ceiling climbs high enough to tell you this place takes wine seriously, or at least wants to. Whether the execution lives up to the ambition is where things get interesting.

The geographic spread is respectable for Rochester: California and France anchor the list as expected, but there's genuine effort in the Piedmont corner with the Vietti Perbacco Langhe Nebbiolo and a Chateau Lynch Bages Pauillac that signals someone on the ordering side actually reads wine. Oregon shows up with the Illahe Cap Fizz Rosé, which is a fun left-field pick for a steakhouse. The Kosta Browne Santa Rita Hills Pinot at $159 is the trophy bottle on the list — technically justified, but it's doing a lot of heavy lifting in the prestige department.

Ten-plus options by the glass with a $9–$18 range gives the table something to work with across different budgets and courses. That said, without a clear rotation program in place, the by-the-glass list reads more like a fixed menu than a living, breathing program. It gets the job done for a pre-dinner pour or a lighter option alongside pasta, but don't expect weekly surprises.