Drift Modern Coastal Cuisine

You're sitting on the second floor above the Gulf of Mexico, the water is impossibly blue, and the wine list lands in your hands looking like it was assembled by someone who Googled 'upscale restaurant wines' and ordered accordingly. It's not bad — it's just deeply safe. The bones are here, but there's no personality.

Drift runs a list of 75-100 bottles that covers the obvious bases: Champagne heavy-hitters, a handful of French whites, California crowd-pleasers, and a few international ringers. The Champagne section is the most interesting corner — Perrier-Jouët Belle Epoque 2011 and Schramsberg Blanc de Blancs sit alongside Ace of Spades, which tells you the clientele skews toward celebration-mode. The white wine selection actually shows some thought — Pazo das Bruxas Albariño from Rias Baixas and Trimbach Riesling from Alsace are genuinely good picks for a coastal menu. The red wine side is thinner; Barone Ricasoli Chianti Classico Brolio is a solid entry but the list doesn't go much deeper than that. No serious Burgundy, no old vines, no wildcards.

The by-the-glass program runs 12-18 options, which is a respectable count for a beach restaurant. Expect the usual suspects — Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc, Veuve Clicquot, Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio — all perfectly drinkable but nothing that's going to make you put down your phone. Pricing by the glass skews toward the higher end given the location premium, so if you're ordering more than two pours, a bottle is almost certainly the smarter play.