Chicago Prime Italian

The wine list at Chicago Prime Italian arrives with the same confidence as the room itself — white tablecloths, a buzzing bar, and the kind of energy that says 'we take this seriously.' Flip through it and the Italian backbone is immediately apparent, with Tuscany and Piedmont anchoring the bottle list in a way that feels intentional rather than default. It's not a list that's going to surprise you, but it's one you can work with.

The list leans into the Italian steakhouse brief with genuine conviction — Tuscany and Piedmont do the heavy lifting, with Veneto filling in the middle ground and Napa showing up for the crowd that still needs to see a Cab. An 80-120 bottle range is respectable for a suburban steakhouse, and there's enough spread across price points to avoid feeling trapped. The gaps show up when you look for adventurous picks outside the Italo-American comfort zone — there's no real detour into Sicily, Campania, or anything that would signal a wine director with an agenda. What's here is solid, just not inspired.

Fifteen to twenty-five by-the-glass options is a generous pour program for this zip code, and the $12–$18 range tracks with the room's positioning. The Badia al Colle Chianti makes a welcome appearance on that list — a Tuscan producer that earns its spot without leaning on name recognition alone. Rotation isn't evident from what we found, which suggests the BTG list is more steady-state than dynamic.