Elephant Bar

The safari-themed dining room is doing a lot of heavy lifting here — carved wood, ambient lighting, globe-trotting menu energy. Then you open the wine list and land squarely in the grocery store aisle. The adventurous atmosphere and the thoroughly unadventurous wine program are not talking to each other.

Twenty to thirty-five bottles, almost entirely California and New Zealand, almost entirely names you'd find on an end-cap at Ralphs. Kendall-Jackson, Meiomi, Josh Cellars, Kim Crawford — these are fine wines in the right context, but at a restaurant billing itself as globally inspired, the lack of any Old World presence, any interesting regional picks, or any producer with a story to tell is a missed opportunity the size of the Serengeti. There are no gaps to forgive because the list barely stretches far enough to have gaps. If you came here hoping a Côtes du Rhône or an Argentinian Malbec would show up alongside the Mongolian Beef, keep hoping.

Eight to fourteen pours by the glass sounds generous until you realize most of them are just different expressions of the same three or four brands cycling through. At $7–$12 a glass, pricing is approachable, but you're essentially paying restaurant markup on wines that retail for $10–$15 a bottle. Rotation appears nonexistent — this list looks like it hasn't changed since the dining room got its last set of throw pillows.