Shiraz Kitchen & Wine Bar

Walk into a Persian wine bar in White Plains and you already know this isn't your average suburban restaurant list. At 26 labels, the list is compact — but whoever built it was paying attention, with representation from Etna, Toro, Alsace, and the Loire sitting alongside the expected Napa crowd-pleasers. It's a tight edit that punches above its square footage.

The white wine side is genuinely impressive for a list this size: the Alta Mora Etna Bianco brings volcanic personality, the Soalheiro Alvarinho from Portugal is a smart off-the-beaten-path pick, and the Finca Allende Rioja Blanco is a white Rioja that most people in Westchester County have never heard of. Reds lean heavier toward crowd-pleasing territory — Justin Cab, Whispering Angel rosé, Conundrum — but the Numanthia Termes Tempranillo from Toro and the Louis Sipp Pinot Noir Bio from Alsace show genuine curiosity. The Château Rollan de By Médoc 2014 is a quietly interesting inclusion: an older vintage Bordeaux at a restaurant level is not something you stumble across every day. Gaps are real — no Champagne, nothing from the Southern Rhône, and the red depth thins out quickly — but the selection earns its place.

Twenty-one of the 26 bottles are available by the glass, which is an unusually high ratio and a genuine differentiator — you can essentially drink your way through the entire list in a single visit. Pours run $16–$25, which is fair for Westchester without being a steal. The range by the glass tracks the bottle list well, meaning you can get to the Etna Bianco or the Sancerre without committing to a full bottle.