Columbia's Steakhouse with Actual Wine Ambition
Forum Boulevard / south Columbia · Columbia · American and international; steak and seafood-focused · Visit Website ↗
Reviewed July 4, 2026
Wingman Metrics
Walk into Chris McD's and the wine bar branding isn't just for show — 35 by-the-glass options and nearly 200 bottles signal that someone here actually cares. It's a family-friendly steakhouse that also wants to be your neighborhood wine spot, and it mostly pulls that off. The list skews California-heavy and recognizable, which will please most tables in a college-town market.
The list is built around crowd-pleasing California heavy-hitters: Cakebread, Caymus, Silver Oak, Far Niente, and Kathryn Hall cover the Napa Cab and Chardonnay bases with names that land well at a business dinner or date night. There's some depth toward the top end — Sassicaia 2020, Roederer Cristal, and a Chateau Lasseque Grand Cru Bordeaux suggest someone was paying attention when building this out. The Triple C Chillan Red Blend is an interesting outlier that points toward a bit of South American curiosity, though international representation beyond that remains thin. Gaps are real: minimal Burgundy, no meaningful Rhône presence, and the list doesn't venture much into Italy beyond the Sassicaia.
Thirty-five pours by the glass is genuinely impressive for a non-wine-bar steakhouse in Columbia, Missouri — most spots in this market offer a dozen at best. Prices run $12 to $20, with the Cakebread Chardonnay anchoring the top at $20 a glass, which is fair for what it is. We'd love to see more rotation and a few lower-intervention options in the mix, but the raw count earns respect.
Chateau Lasseque Grand Cru Bordeaux 2013 — $65
A Saint-Émilion Grand Cru with more than a decade of bottle age for $65 is the kind of find that makes a wine list worth scanning. Most restaurants would charge $90+ for this, and the 2013 vintage has had time to soften into something genuinely worth drinking. It's the most interesting value on the list if you're willing to go off the California script.
Twomey 2021 Russian River Valley Pinot Noir
Everyone at the table is ordering Caymus, and that's exactly why you should order this instead. Twomey is Silver Oak's Pinot project, and the 2021 Russian River bottling is a legitimate wine — bright, cooler-climate fruit with more nuance than anything else at its $90 price point on this list. It gets overlooked because it doesn't have the brand recognition of its stablemate.
Roederer Cristal Brut 2014
At $560, Cristal is a flex purchase, not a wine purchase — and a restaurant in Columbia, Missouri is probably not the place to cellar or serve it at the right temperature with the right attention. Veuve Clicquot at $140 does the celebration job just fine without making you do the math on what that works out to per sip.
Booker Fracture Cabernet Sauvignon 2019 + Steak
Booker's Fracture is a Paso Robles Cab built for exactly this moment — it's ripe, structured, and has the kind of dark fruit intensity that makes a well-seared steak taste like the best decision you've made all week. At $85 it's one of the more interesting Cab options on the list that isn't just a status label, and it earns its place next to a proper cut of beef.
✔️ The Bottom Line
Chris McD's is doing more with wine than almost any restaurant in Columbia — 35 by-the-glass pours and some genuinely interesting cellar selections earn it real credibility. Markups run steep and the list leans heavily on California safe bets, but as a neighborhood wine bar that also happens to serve a good steak, it punches above its weight class.
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Grocery Store
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
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Grocery Store
Steep
Basic Stemmed
MIA
Set & Forget
Acceptable
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Crowd Pleasers
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
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Solid Range
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
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Small but Thoughtful
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Knowledgeable & Friendly
Active Program
Acceptable
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Crowd Pleasers
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
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