Ruth's Chris Steak House - Indianapolis

The list reads like a greatest hits of American wine — Caymus, Silver Oak, Opus One, Far Niente. It's not trying to surprise you, and it doesn't. What it does do is show up fully dressed for a steak dinner, which is exactly what you came here for.

Two hundred to three hundred bottles deep, but the range is narrower than that number suggests — this is Napa and Sonoma's bench players and All-Stars, with a Bordeaux section that nods to Old World without committing to it. Cab Sauv dominates, as it should at a steakhouse of this caliber, but don't expect anything left of center. There are no natural wines, no esoteric Jura whites, no quirky Finger Lakes Riesling — and that's a deliberate choice, not an oversight. If you came for intellectual diversity, wrong room; if you came for a Duckhorn Merlot with a ribeye, you're exactly where you need to be.

Twenty to thirty options by the glass is genuinely strong for a steakhouse, and the selections skew toward the same California-forward playbook as the bottle list. Rotation appears limited — this reads more like a permanent fixture than a dynamic program. Still, having this many glass pours means you can build a proper flight across courses without committing to a full bottle.