Grill 23 & Bar

Where the Cellar Does the Talking

Back Bay's dining corridor along Berkeley Street runs through some of Boston's most formally constituted restaurant real estate, and Grill 23 & Bar occupies a building that communicates this before you reach the door. The ground-floor entrance opens into a room with the proportions and materials of an older financial institution: high ceilings, dark wood, the particular weight of a space that has not been decoratively refreshed for trend's sake. The atmosphere reads as confidence rather than aspiration, which is consistent with a restaurant that has spent decades in the city's upper steakhouse tier.

The American steakhouse in its contemporary form splits between two broad camps. The first is the national chain model, which standardizes experience across markets and prices on volume. The second is the independent or regionally grounded house, which builds identity through cellar investment, sourcing specificity, and staff continuity. Grill 23 falls into the latter. Its wine program, recognized with a White Star by Star Wine List in December 2021, represents the clearest evidence of where the restaurant has committed its institutional energy.

A Wine Program Built for Comparison

Wine lists of genuine depth are relatively rare even among upper-bracket American steakhouses. What separates a serious cellar from a curated selection is inventory breadth combined with regional specificity, and on both counts the Grill 23 program is a substantive one. The list holds 2,540 selections and an inventory of 14,825 bottles, figures that place it in a category where the reference set is not other Boston restaurants but nationally recognized wine destinations like Le Bernardin in New York City or The French Laundry in Napa.

The program's documented strengths span California, Burgundy, Bordeaux, Piedmont, Rhône, Champagne, Loire, and Germany. That range is significant because it avoids the common steakhouse shortcut of building deep in Napa Cabernet while treating everything else as supplementary. A serious Burgundy section and a Piedmont holding of genuine depth suggest a list assembled for wine-led decision making, not simply as a complement to protein. The Loire and Germany presence, in particular, signals a sommelier team willing to steer guests toward non-obvious pairings with red meat, which is a mark of program confidence. Wine pricing sits in the $$$ tier, meaning the list carries many bottles above $100, consistent with both the cellar's scope and the overall positioning of the restaurant.

Wine Director Brahm Callahan and Hugo Bensimon oversee the program, supported by a sommelier team that includes Paul Lee, Tori Testa, Katie Stotler, and Erik Cancelmo. In a list of this size, floor staff depth matters as much as the inventory itself: a 14,825-bottle cellar without knowledgeable guidance is navigational friction rather than an asset. The team's breadth suggests the restaurant treats floor sommelier work as a service discipline in its own right.

The Kitchen in Context

Chef Ryan Marcoux leads the kitchen, and the format is dinner-only American, priced at the $$$ tier (meals above $66 for a typical two-course, excluding beverages). The cuisine classification is American, which in the context of a restaurant operating at this price point and with this wine infrastructure typically means a menu organized around premium proteins and seasonal market produce, with technique employed in service of the ingredient rather than as the point of the dish.

Boston's upper dining tier has diversified considerably. The city now has serious representation across Japanese formats (see 311 Omakase), Italian (see Bar Mezzana and Bar Volpe), and New American formats (see Asta). The traditional American steakhouse occupies a specific position in that mix: it is the format where wine list investment has historically concentrated, and where the occasion dining crowd, business entertainment, and serious collectors most reliably converge. Where Abe & Louie's leans into a clubby, relatively accessible register, Grill 23's wine program depth gives it a slightly more specialist identity among guests who arrive with the cellar as a primary motivation.

High-spend occasions are unforgiving: a single service failure registers at this price tier in a way it might not at a casual level. A sustained 4.6 across over two thousand reviews suggests operational reliability that goes beyond opening-night momentum.

Placing It in the National Picture

The question serious wine-focused travelers ask when visiting Boston is where the city's leading cellar sits. For those accustomed to wine programs at destinations like Alinea in Chicago, Lazy Bear in San Francisco, Atomix in New York City, or Single Thread Farm in Healdsburg, Grill 23's 2,540-selection list represents a credible answer.

For context on the scale of ambition, it is worth noting what 14,825 bottles of inventory requires: dedicated climate-controlled storage, capital tied up in aging stock, and a procurement philosophy that looks years ahead. Restaurants in international markets like Hong Kong or established American cities like New Orleans approach wine depth differently based on import costs and market demand. In Boston, where the dining public skews toward occasion dining and business entertaining, maintaining this inventory is a statement of long-term commitment to wine as a core identity pillar, not an amenity.

Planning a Visit

Grill 23 & Bar is at 161 Berkeley Street in Back Bay, accessible from the Arlington or Copley stops on the Green Line. Dinner is the only service. At the $$$ price point, a full dinner with wine from the upper tiers of the list will comfortably exceed $200 per person, so this sits in the occasion dining and serious collector bracket rather than spontaneous weeknight territory. Advance reservations are advisable; the combination of a strong wine program and consistent reviews at this price tier means demand is steady. For those building a broader Boston itinerary, the full Boston restaurants guide covers the range of options across the city's neighborhoods, while the Boston hotels guide, bars guide, wineries guide, and experiences guide provide the broader context for a full visit.