Rick Erwin's Eastside
Greenville's dependable steakhouse wine anchor
Eastside · Greenville · American Steakhouse / Seafood · Visit Website ↗
Reviewed June 15, 2026
Wingman Metrics
First Impression
The wine list lands with some real weight — 200-plus bottles, a Wine Spectator Award of Excellence on the wall, and enough geographic range to feel intentional rather than accidental. This isn't a list built by someone who just called a distributor and said yes to everything. It reads like a steakhouse that actually wants to get wine right.
Selection Deep Dive
The backbone is American, which makes sense when you're anchoring around steaks and seafood in the Southeast — expect Napa Cabernets and California coast whites to dominate the real estate. Italy and Spain get legitimate representation too, evidenced by full wine dinner programs built around each, not just token bottles. The Huneeus family portfolio showing up — Quintessa, Flowers, Faust — signals the list skews toward prestige California producers, which is crowd-pleasing but not especially adventurous. Gaps in natural wine and smaller domestic producers keep this from reaching the next tier.
By the Glass
Fifteen to twenty-five pours by the glass is a healthy spread for a steakhouse format, and the range likely mirrors the bottle list's American-forward lean. Without confirmed rotation data, it's hard to say how often the glass program refreshes, but the wine dinner programming suggests the kitchen and floor are engaged enough to keep things moving.
Faust Cabernet Sauvignon — null
Faust consistently punches above its price point as a Napa Cab — it's the Huneeus family's approachable entry into the portfolio, and steakhouses routinely mark it up less aggressively than the marquee labels. Worth asking the floor what they're pouring it for before you commit to Quintessa.
Flowers Chardonnay
In a room full of red-meat drinkers, the Flowers Chardonnay from Sonoma Coast gets overlooked. It's a completely different animal from the oaky, buttery California Chards that usually populate steakhouse lists — cooler, tighter, and genuinely interesting. Order it with the seafood and watch the table rethink their assumptions.
Quintessa
Quintessa is a genuinely excellent Napa red, but steakhouses are not where you want to spend Quintessa money. The markup will be punishing, the glassware won't do it justice, and the noise level of a busy dinner service isn't the setting for a $200+ bottle that deserves attention. Save it for somewhere it'll get the treatment it deserves.
Faust Cabernet Sauvignon + Ribeye
Faust's Napa Cab has the dark fruit and structure to stand up to a well-marbled ribeye without requiring you to spend flagship-label money. It's the kind of pairing that feels exactly right without making you feel like you had to try.
✔️ The Bottom Line
Rick Erwin's Eastside is the wine list Greenville's Eastside deserves — serious enough to earn a Wine Spectator nod, programming-forward enough to run Spanish and Italian wine dinners, but still priced like a steakhouse that knows its audience. Come for the steak, drink Faust or Flowers, and skip the temptation to order the trophy bottle.
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