Cucina Toscana

The wine list at Cucina Toscana reads like a love letter to central Italy — Brunello, Barolo, Super Tuscans, all present and accounted for. It's serious enough to impress a date but not so precious that you feel like you need a decoder ring. The historic Firestone Building setting does a lot of heavy lifting for the atmosphere, and the list mostly holds up its end of that bargain.

With somewhere between 100 and 180 bottles, this is a legitimately substantial list anchored hard in Tuscany and Piedmont — exactly what you'd want from a place with this name. Brunello di Montalcino and Barolo anchor the high end, Chianti Classico Riserva and Vernaccia di San Gimignano cover the approachable middle ground, and the Super Tuscan blends add some crowd-pleasing swagger. Umbria gets a nod too, which shows someone was paying attention beyond the obvious regions. The gaps show up outside Italy — if you're hunting for a Burgundy or a Rhône to mix things up, you're largely out of luck.

Twelve to twenty by-the-glass options is a healthy pour program for a restaurant at this price point, and the Italian regional focus carries through here as well. Don't expect a lot of rotation or surprises — this feels like a list that gets set and mostly stays put. What's there is competent, but ask your server what's freshest before committing to a glass.