Ruth's Chris Steak House – Rochester

The wine list at Ruth's Chris Rochester is exactly what you'd expect from a national steakhouse chain: polished, predictable, and priced for expense accounts. Twenty-nine options, all by the glass, which sounds generous until you realize most of the bottles top out around $99 and you're essentially paying restaurant markup on wines you could find at a well-stocked Total Wine. There's nothing offensive here, but nothing to get excited about either.

The list covers the obvious bases — California Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, a Malbec, a Merlot, a couple Pinot Grigios — with a few names that suggest someone did minimal homework: Stag's Leap Karia, Belle Glos Las Alturas, and Catena Zapata Vista Flores all show up and are genuinely good wines. The Alsace Trimbach Pinot Blanc is the only real curveball on an otherwise coast-to-coast American-focused list, and it sticks out in the best way. Gaps are obvious: no Cabernet Sauvignon, which is almost comically absent for a steakhouse of this stature, no Italian reds, no Rhône, and the sparkling section leans heavily on Prosecco and Moscato rather than anything with real fizz credentials. This list was built to please, not to challenge.

The entire 29-bottle list is available by the glass, which is a genuinely customer-friendly setup — you're not locked into a bottle if you want to try a few things. Glass pours range from $11 to $28, though the research data only shows bottle prices, so the per-glass math isn't fully transparent. Rotation appears non-existent; this reads as a static corporate list that changes on a seasonal or annual schedule at best.