Joey's Italian Restaurant

The new $5M building is gorgeous — soaring ceilings, warm lighting, the whole deal — and then the wine list lands on the table and the illusion cracks a little. It reads like a grocery store end-cap from 2009, with names like Cupcake and Yellow Tail sharing space with Ecco Domani. For a restaurant this proud of its heritage, the wine program feels like an afterthought.

The list runs roughly 25–40 bottles and leans almost entirely on mass-market brands that you could grab at any Price Chopper on the way home. There's a nod toward Italy with Santa Margherita and a handful of Pinot Grigios, but nothing with any real regional character — no Barbera, no Montepulciano, no Nero d'Avola to match the depth of the kitchen. Kendall-Jackson and Robert Mondavi Private Selection anchor the reds, which tells you everything you need to know about the ambition level here. It's not offensive, it's just completely, stubbornly safe.

The by-the-glass program offers somewhere between six and ten pours, but given what's on the bottle list, don't expect any surprises. You're likely looking at the usual suspects — Cavit Pinot Grigio, maybe a Yellow Tail red — rotated rarely if ever. There's no evidence of a seasonal program or anything approaching a dynamic pour selection.