Johnny's Italian Steakhouse

The wine list at Johnny's reads like a California greatest hits album — and honestly, for a steakhouse in Eau Claire tucked inside a Holiday Inn, that's not a bad thing. It's a focused, unpretentious collection that knows its audience and delivers. Wine Spectator has been handing them an Award of Excellence since 2018, and you can see why they keep earning it.

This is a California-forward list built for steak — Caymus, Jordan, Stag's Leap, Silver Oak, Duckhorn, and Opus One cover the cabernet and merlot side with confidence. On the white front, Rombauer and Far Niente anchor the Chardonnay section, which is exactly what most guests here are ordering anyway. Don't come looking for Burgundy or Barolo — this list isn't trying to be adventurous, it's trying to be reliable. At 100-150 bottles with a $30-$150 price ceiling, it threads the needle between accessible and respectable without overreaching.

Twenty to thirty by-the-glass options is genuinely strong for this market — most steakhouses in mid-sized Midwest cities barely crack ten. The $8-$14 glass price range is reasonable and won't make you do the uncomfortable bottle math mid-dinner. There's no evidence of a rotating program, but the lineup appears consistent enough that you won't be stuck choosing between two bad options.