Mediterranean Exploration Company

The wine list here reads like a passport — Lebanon, Greece, Israel, Spain, France — and it's immediately clear this isn't a place that defaulted to Napa Cab and called it a day. For a Pearl District restaurant in a city that often plays it safe with European selections, this list has actual conviction. The regional focus is tight enough to feel curated, not overwhelming.

MEC leans hard into the Eastern Mediterranean and it pays off — Château Musar from Lebanon alone earns serious credibility, and the Greek selections push well past Assyrtiko-only territory. The Domaine Weinbach Riesling shows they're not afraid to bring in Alsatian heavyweights alongside lesser-known producers like Oenogenesis from Macedonia. Spain shows up via the Basque Country with the Artomana Txakoli, which is exactly the kind of unexpected detour that makes a list like this worth reading twice. The gap is anything outside the Med corridor — if you want New World, you're mostly on your own.

Twelve pours by the glass is a respectable count, and the program appears to mirror the bottle list's geographic adventurousness rather than retreating to safe crowd-pleasers. The Domaine Ott Rosé makes a smart appearance here — recognizable enough for the hesitant diner, good enough for the person who actually knows wine. We'd like to see more rotation, but what's here earns its place.