Coastal Kitchen

You sit down, Monterey Bay sprawling outside the window, and the wine list lands like it has something to prove. Two hundred to three hundred fifty bottles deep, with California heavyweights shoulder-to-shoulder with serious French and Italian producers — this is not a list that coasted on the view. The Best of Award of Excellence from Wine Spectator since 2023 is hanging in the right restaurant.

California anchors the list hard — Kosta Browne Pinot Noir, Kongsgaard Chardonnay, Marcassin Chardonnay, and Darioush Cabernet Sauvignon are all here, which tells you sommelier Sarah Kabat isn't cutting corners on the home-state lineup. France shows real intention too: Louis Jadot Puligny-Montrachet and Chateau Montelena Chardonnay sit alongside Gaja Barbaresco representing Italy with full authority. There's a local angle baked in with Bernardus Winery and Scribe Winery making appearances, which feels right given the Monterey County address. The gaps, if any, are on the natural wine and Southern Hemisphere fronts — but this list isn't trying to be everything, and it doesn't need to be.

Eighteen to twenty-eight pours by the glass at $12–$22 is a genuinely strong program — that's enough range to take a real trip through the list without committing to a bottle. We'd want to know which producers rotate through the glass program, but with a list this caliber and a dedicated sommelier running the floor, the by-the-glass game should reflect the cellar's ambitions rather than just clearing slow movers.