Table & Main

Table & Main is famous for its Michelin Bib Gourmand fried chicken and its Simple, Seasonal, Southern soul, not for its wine list. But the backstory matters — the Pernice brothers who own this place also run Osteria Mattone's Wine Spectator-decorated cellar next door. Daniel Pernice, a sommelier trained at The Modern in New York, curates this list. It is deliberately compact and that is the point.

Sixteen selections total, every single one available by the glass. The list leans New World with smart California, Oregon, and Washington picks alongside a handful of well-chosen French bottles. Willamette Valley Pinot Noir gets two entries — the Argyle Bloomhouse and Pick Road — which is a meaningful choice for a Southern restaurant. Washington's Hedges Red Mountain Syrah adds a smoky, savory option that plays beautifully with the pork chop. The quiet standout is a 2012 Borealis Vintners Riesling — a 14-year-old Pacific Northwest Riesling hiding on a fried chicken menu. That is not a distributor pick. That is a sommelier's wink.

Every wine on the list is available by the glass, priced from $12 to $20. That is the whole program — no bottle-only holdouts, no upsell pressure. With most pours in the $12 to $15 range, you can work through fried chicken, shrimp and grits, and blackened catfish with a different glass for each course and still come in under budget. The Francois Montand Brut from Jura at $13.50 is a genuine celebration pour at a Bib Gourmand price.