By Lori Fredrich Senior Food Writer, Dining Editor Published Jul 24, 2015 at 10:05 AM

Wine Spectator has released the winners of the 2015 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 more than 3,600 restaurants from all over the globe, including 10 in Milwaukee.

Bacchus, which was noted for strengths in wines from California, France and Italy, was 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.

Nine others 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.

  • Bartolotta’s Lake Park Bistro, noted for its French wines

  • Bosley on Brady, noted for its California wines

  • c.1880, noted for strengths in its international wine selection

  • Carnevor, noted for its California wines

  • Mason Street Grill, noted for its California wines

  • Pizza Man, noted for its California wines

  • Sanford Restaurant, noted for strengths in wines from France and California

  • Story Hill BKC, noted for strengths in wines from California, France and Italy

  • The Capital Grille, noted for its California wines

The Grand Award represents the program’s highest honor. Those in this elite group — representing 13 countries and 15 U.S. states — generally offer more than 1,000 selections, with superior breadth and depth in many of the world’s classic wine-producing regions.

Regionally, one restaurant in the Midwest, Tru in Chicago, was awarded the Grand Award.

The complete list of award winners is featured in the August 31 issue of Wine Spectator, available on newsstands beginning this week. 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.