Over a Decade of Distinction

Tucked along the shore of Payette Lake in McCall, Idaho, The Narrows Steakhouse has quietly built one of the most respected wine programs in the Mountain West. This year, that reputation was reaffirmed: Wine Spectator named The Narrows Steakhouse a 2026 Best of Award of Excellence winner, marking an unbroken streak of recognition in this category dating back to 2018, with an initial Award of Excellence in 2015.

For a restaurant tucked into a small Idaho mountain-lake community of roughly 3,500 year-round residents, that kind of consistency is by design. The thoughtfully curated wine program was built with the same care as the menu itself, and the restaurant treats wine not as an afterthought to the steak but as an equal part of the experience.

Wine Spectator’s Restaurant Awards are among the most closely watched honors in the dining world, evaluating restaurants each year on the strength, depth, and thoughtfulness of their wine lists. The program has three tiers. The Award of Excellence recognizes well-chosen lists that complement a restaurant’s cuisine. The Best of Award of Excellence, one level up, goes to lists that show real breadth across regions and vintages, along with a genuine sense of purpose behind the selections. The top tier, the Grand Award, is reserved for a small number of destination wine cellars worldwide.

The Narrows Steakhouse sits in that second tier and has for nine consecutive years. In 2026, Wine Spectator recognized more than 4,000 restaurants across all 50 U.S. states and over 85 countries, which makes a run like this one stand out even more. Restaurants earn this designation annually and must requalify every year, so The Narrows Steakhouse continues to reach the bar.

Part of what makes The Narrows Steakhouse wine program so impressive is scale paired with intention. The list currently runs roughly 560 selections deep, backed by an inventory of around 3,700 bottles, a serious cellar for a restaurant of its size. Wine Spectator flags California, France, and Washington as the program’s core strengths, a lineup that makes sense on a steakhouse list: structured Cabernets and other Bordeaux-style reds that can stand up to a well-seared Tomahawk Prime Ribeye or a Snake River Farms Wagyu New York Strip, alongside the classic French benchmarks that any serious wine director keeps close at hand.

Pricing on the list falls into Wine Spectator’s mid-range “$$” category, meaning guests will find a real spread of price points rather than a list stacked entirely with splurge bottles. For guests who’d rather bring their own, corkage runs $20, a reasonable number for a list this substantial.

Steering the program is Beverage Program Manager Cory Strobaugh, who works alongside Executive Chef Marcus Stewart and General Manager Tom Garcia to keep the wine and food program moving in step with each other. The restaurant is located on the main floor of Shore Lodge, a storied resort property that has anchored McCall’s lakefront since 1948.

Wine Spectator’s own profile of the restaurant highlights what guests consistently come back for: the incredible lake view, the wine tastings, and the Winemaker’s Dinners the restaurant hosts year-round. The space can accommodate groups needing a private event space, and is ideal for business gatherings, romantic dinners, and celebrations.

That commitment comes to life through programming across Shore Lodge. On the First Friday of each month, The Bar introduces a featured wine and offers tastings, live music, and a relaxed happy-hour atmosphere. More elaborate events like Winemaker Dinners are hosted at The Narrows Steakhouse and include a guided, multi-course exploration of food and wine pairings. Past vineyards have included Walla Walla’s Abeja, Napa Valley’s Cakebread Cellars and Idaho’s Snake River Valley AVA’s Huston Vineyards.

That dual identity matters in a town like McCall. It’s a destination for summer boating and fishing on Payette Lake and for winter skiing at nearby Brundage Mountain, which means The Narrows serves a guest base that swings between vacationing families, wedding parties, and serious wine collectors passing through on a food-and-wine detour through Idaho. A steakhouse in that position has to be genuinely good at more than one thing, and the wine program is clearly one of the ways it delivers.

Restaurant wine programs are notoriously hard to sustain, especially outside major metro dining markets. A nine-year run of Best of Award of Excellence recognition, uninterrupted since 2018, says something about institutional commitment at The Narrows Steakhouse: this isn’t a list that got built once for an awards submission and then coasted. It’s a program that’s been actively curated, expanded, and maintained year over year, through changes in vintage availability, shifting wine trends, and an increasingly competitive awards field.

Wine Spectator is not the program’s only national recognition. In 2025, Robb Report also named The Narrows Steakhouse among its ten best steakhouses for wine lovers, further underscoring the restaurant’s ability to pair a serious cellar with a destination dining experience overlooking Payette Lake.

Wine Spectator’s own 2026 award coverage notes that restaurants nationwide are “trading up and choosing better” as wine drinkers grow more discerning, a trend that makes consistent recognition even more meaningful. Standing still isn’t enough to keep winning; the bar moves every year.

The Narrows Steakhouse is located at 501 W. Lake St., McCall, Idaho, as part of the Shore Lodge resort, and serves dinner nightly. Reservations can be made online, and the current wine list and dinner menu are available on the restaurant’s website before a visit.

For wine lovers planning a trip through central Idaho, or locals looking for a reason to revisit a familiar favorite, The Narrows Steakhouse offers a rare combination: a genuine steakhouse experience matched with a wine program that has proven itself, year after year, to national wine critics. Nine years of Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence recognition is due to the meticulous care and expertise of the team.

Visit our website to reserve your table and join us for a great dining experience.