Chris Lara, Director of the Wine Program at the Metropolitan Grill in Seattle - Grand Award Winner Since 2018
Photos by Andrew Valentine, except for the dining room interior by Suzi Pratt.
When Chris Lara was growing up, he never imagined a career in fine dining restaurants. He thought he might want to become an actor. But the jobs he got were all in restaurants, and eventually he was hooked on a hospitality career. The job that cemented his career as a “wine guy” was at Crush Restaurant in the Seattle area. As the restaurant grew in popularity, the chef and owner no longer had time to tend to the wine list. Chris gradually took over and made a decision that sealed his fate as guardian of the list. He was introduced to a Bandol Rosé for the first time and decided to put it on the wine list as a glass pour. Doing so was a gamble because of the price, but guests couldn’t get enough of it. And Chris couldn’t get enough of wine related work. In 2011, he became an Advanced Sommelier with the Court of Master Sommeliers, and in 2022 he became Wine Director at the Metropolitan Grill in downtown Seattle.
The Metropolitan Grill is a beloved institution in Seattle, having been voted best steak house numerous times. But the restaurant is also known for its wine program, having received Wine Spectator’s highly coveted Grand Award every year since 2018. This is the top award globally for restaurant wine programs, and only 97 restaurants have it, 2 of them in WA state: Canlis and Metropolitan Grill. The Met, as it’s often called, has an amazing wine collection of roughly 15,000 bottles filling 4 cellar rooms under the restaurant. The list contains over 2,000 selections in an 84-page book. In this interview, we discuss details about the wine program, what it takes to maintain a prestigious Grand Award, exciting things happening in the WA wine world, and much more.
Listen to the Interview: