By Lori Fredrich Senior Food Writer, Dining Editor Published Jul 08, 2016 at 4:06 PM

Wine Spectator has released the list of winners of the 2016 Restaurant Awards, which honor outstanding eateries with extraordinary wine lists.

There are three award levels: the Award of Excellence, the Best of Award of Excellence and the Grand Award. This year, the program recognized 3,595 restaurants from all 50 states and 71 other countries, including 41 in the state of Wisconsin and 14 in Milwaukee.

If you’re keeping track, that’s four more Milwaukee restaurants than last year.

Both Bacchus and Carnevor were awarded the Best of Award of Excellence, an award granted for offering a wine list of typically 350 or more quality selections with significant vintage depth or superior breadth in one or more major wine regions. Both Milwaukee restaurants were recognized for their strengths in wine selections from California, France and Italy. Bacchus has been a recipient of the Best of Award since 2006.

Wisconsin wide, two more restaurants made the list: the Immigrant Restaurant at the American Club in Kohler and Lake Street Cafe in Elkhart Lake.

Twelve other Milwaukee venues were awarded the Award of Excellence, which recognizes a wine list offering an interesting and diverse selection of wines that are well-presented and thematically match the restaurant's cuisine in price and style.

  1. Bartolotta's Lake Park Bistro, noted for its French wines
  2. Bosley on Brady, noted for its California wines
  3. The Capital Grille, noted for its California wines
  4. c.1880, noted for strengths in its international wine selection
  5. Eddie Martini’s, noted for strengths in wines from France, California and Oregon
  6. Mason Street Grill, noted for its California wines
  7. Pizza Man, noted for its California wines
  8. Pizza Man Tosa, noted for wines from California and Washington
  9. Ristorante Bartolotta, noted for its Italian wines
  10. Sanford Restaurant, noted for strengths in wines from France and California
  11. Story Hill BKC, noted for strengths in wines from California, France and Italy
  12. Ward’s House of Prime, noted for wines from California and Australia

Waukesha County also boasts a number of Award of Excellence honorees:

Other Wisconsin-wide notables include Black Wolf Run Restaurant (Kohler), The Bottle Room (Green Bay), Canoe Bay (Chetek), Courthouse Pub (Manitowoc), The Del-Bar (Wisconsin Dells), The Dining Room at 209 Main (Monticello), Eno Vino Wine Bar & Bistro (Madison), Fleming's Prime Steakhouse (Madison), Grey Rock (Green Lake), Hunt Club Steakhouse (Lake Geneva), Liliana's (Fitchburg), Rare Steakhouse (Madison), Riverstone Restaurant & Tavern (Eagle River), The Vintage (Oshkosh), Wisconsin Room (Kohler), Vino! Vino! (Bailey's Harbor) and Whistling Straits Restaurant (Sheboygan).

The Grand Award represents the program's highest honor. Those in this elite group generally offer more than 1,000 selections, with superior breadth and depth in many of the world's classic wine-producing regions. No restaurants in the Midwest were awarded this honor in 2016.

The complete list of award winners is featured in the August 31 issue of Wine Spectator, available on newsstands beginning July 19. Or download the brand new Wine Spectator Awards app, available through iTunes.

In addition, all of the restaurants can be found in WineSpectator.com's Restaurant Search, which allows users to find information about wine selections, cuisine, prices, key staff and more. 

Lori Fredrich Senior Food Writer, Dining Editor

As a passionate champion of the local dining scene, Lori has reimagined the restaurant critic's role into that of a trusted dining concierge, guiding food lovers to delightful culinary discoveries and memorable experiences.

Lori is an avid cook whose accrual of condiments and spices is rivaled only by her cookbook collection. Her passion for the culinary industry was birthed while balancing A&W root beer mugs as a teenage carhop, fed by insatiable curiosity and fueled by the people whose stories entwine with every dish. Lori is the author of two books: the "Wisconsin Field to Fork" cookbook and "Milwaukee Food". Her work has garnered journalism awards from entities including the Milwaukee Press Club. In 2024, Lori was honored with a "Top 20 Women in Hospitality to Watch" award by the Wisconsin Restaurant Association.

When she’s not eating, photographing food, writing or planning for TV and radio spots, you’ll find Lori seeking out adventures with her husband Paul, traveling, cooking, reading, learning, snuggling with her cats and looking for ways to make a difference.