It’s not that I consider myself a connoisseur of hot wings, but I know what I like when I taste them. Lately, it’s been a struggle to find hot wings in my local area which are worthy enough of my precious dollars spent. Case in point…last night I joined a couple of my beleaguered medical comrades for an evening of spicy wings & beer at our newest local wingery, Hooters. Now, I’m going to rant & rave a little bit, and not just about my experience last night…but about the piss-poor options in general for spicy wings, unless I make them myself of course.
Anyhoo, we stopped in last night and ordered the “911″ wings, supposedly their hottest wings. Now, Hooters’ wings are breaded and it’s more challenging to make breaded wings spicy because the breading has the tendency to tone the heat down. These were a little overcooked, and didn’t even look or smell that hot. My friend Josh, a self-professed Hooters veteran, stated that 911 wings should be glistening, very red, and you should usually notice that the waitress won’t be able to breathe near them due to the spicy fumes. These wings had none of the above qualities, and probably were no more than “hot” (2 rungs down the heat scale) despite claims by the manager that they were definitely the 911 heat level. Sure, Hooters has got all the things I want for comfort…good beer, good food, TV’s with sports on it everywhere you look, and tastefully-clad waitresses willing to flirt to make their tips better…but their hot wings ain’t so hot. More research is needed, tho. Perhaps the cook was having an off night, since the place was newly opened.
Despite a flurry of well-placed TV and radio commercial professing the quality of their wings, the BW3 hot wings just tend to be sorely lacking in real heat. We’ve bitched about this in a couple of posts, one back from August 2005 and another in March of 2006. Their wings are non-breaded, unlike Hooters. Usually they’re fairly tasty, but even when I’ve mentioned to the waitress that their hot wings weren’t that hot the last time I ordered, they still come out pretty lame in the heat dept. Perhaps they’ve had complaints about their hot being too hot so they tone it down for most people. Perhaps they just suck. Who knows? All I know is that they are now way down the list of places I want to stop & eat when I want spicy wings.
Quaker Steak & Lube (aka “The Lube”) has presented something of a dichotomy in quality. I had their wings quite a bit when I was up in the Cleveland, OH area as a medical student. Their hottest wings, the Atomic, are indeed hot & tasty. Once you go down from there, the taste quality lags a little. Unless I’m in the mood to hurt my heat sensors a little, I usually eat the Suicide wings (30,00 SHU) and am normally pretty pleased. Here in Columbus, our one Lube location has shown pretty spotty quality in their wing-making, though. The sauces are still good in quality, but they seem to overcook their wings and I’m usually in no mood to bitch about by the time they have finally reached my plate. That may be my fault for not saying anything, but overcooked wings and mediocre service has made for not too many trips to The Lube recently. They’ve got potential because their wing sauces are good, but it doesn’t help if they don’t make ‘em well in the kitchen. I’m sure I’ll go back, but not any time real soon.
Amongst the company mentioned above, Cluck-U is the gem of the bunch. We first tried their wings while living in Baltimore, MD, where Cluck-U is a staple of the college crowd and is located near a few of them. Their hot wings are usually sinfully good and can be really damn HOT. Their hottest heat level, the 911 I believe, is one of those where you have to sign a waiver attesting to your stupidity and/or lack of mental soundness in wanting to punish your tongue and intestinal tract with that kind of heat. I’ve had the 911 in both their wings and boneless wingers, and the taste & heat is all that and a bag of chips. However, here in Columbus their store is inconveniently located, has weird weekend hours, and their wings haven’t been cooked 100% right either. Like I said, it’s the cream of the crop here…but not to the quality I’ve had back in MD. Unlike the others, I’d still gladly go there for wings, but I hate wondering whether or not they’ll be as good as I remember from previous visits.
The moral of the story? If I want my wings spicy & well-made, it usually means that I have to break out the ol’ deep-fryer and make them myself. Adding a little of the Nate Dog wing sauces by CaJohn or some of the DefCon 1 sauce from DefCon Sauces will usually do the trick. Yeah, it makes a mess…but sometimes these are the sacrifices we have to make for good, spicy hot wings.
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GO to “The BoneYard” in Cleveland, Ohio. They have a huge selection of hot wing sauces that they use and the hottest one was INSANELY hot (it was an extract sauce).
Comment fired by Jonathan Passow — November 9, 2006- 7:46 pm
If they ever open a Wingstop there try them. ( there’s only 2 in Ohio right now..) Their Atomic wings are hot enough that even I have trouble eating them!
Comment fired by chuk hell — November 9, 2006- 11:53 pm
Sadly, the only Wingstop locations are up in the Cleveland vicinity. If they ever open up one down here, I’ll be all over it.
Comment fired by Joe — November 13, 2006- 10:08 am
Ok I have to agree with you 100%. I am what my friends call me ‘Nuts’. Mind you I don’t see it that way; they call me this because of the level of hot spice in my food. Other will eat suicide wings at a local wing place and sweat, they taste like mild to me and unless I feel like making up a batch of my own wing sauce or drenching them in an assortment of ‘XXX hot sauces’ there are no options.
It really disappoints me there are no good places to eat hot food for the spice connoisseur.
I lived in Hamilton, Ontario and the only place that had good wings there (for taste & some heat) they had inferno wings one step above suicide (though it was hotter then the rest) they were still no where near where I like them.
I live in Victoria now and the selections are even less.
WILL SOME BAR/RESTAURANT STEP UP TO THE SPICE CHALLENGE! MAKE ME SOME ACTUALLY HOT WINGS! I WANNA SWEAT WHEN I EAT THEM!
Comment fired by Joshua W. — November 21, 2006- 7:19 pm
Hey Joshua,
You’re not nuts…at least not about this, anyway. It’s pretty routine for food we get while out (wings or otherwise) to not live up to our high standards when it comes to heat. Like we said, sometimes if you want it hot enough to make ya happy you have to make it yourself!
Comment fired by Joe & Linda — November 22, 2006- 6:19 am
Or bring some sauce with you when you go out…that’s what I do…every time…
Comment fired by Jonathan Passow — November 23, 2006- 9:05 pm
Be careful what you wish for. Perhaps a Defcon Day will arrive somewhere near you. All you have to do is call a “Deathmatch” and I do the rest. If you’re not on the mailing list, you might want to get on it, as we list all of our upcoming events on a regular basis.
Comment fired by DEFCON Creator — December 6, 2006- 2:52 pm
I thought I was a hot wing pro until I ate wingstops ATOMIC wings.I am always disapointed with what people consider HOT.I once went to hooters and sent my wings back as I thought they sent me plain.They were the hottest they had so they said.Wingstop really put a hurt on me after 2 wings WOW they are hot hot hot.
Comment fired by austexed — December 6, 2006- 8:12 pm
Gotta get to a Wingstop…or maybe even a DEFCON day. This lack of good chicken wings is really starting to piss me off.
Comment fired by Joe — December 6, 2006- 10:52 pm
Hey Joe,
I dare ya to make some wings with the leftover Oblivion sauce you have. Let me know how that goes HA!!
Scotty B
Comment fired by Scotty B's Hot Sauces — December 10, 2006- 5:35 pm
Sounds like you’re calling us out? Hmmmm??!!!
Heck, we’re crazy/stupid/insane enough to do it, if it’s the only way we can get ‘em hot enough to really enjoy. Yeah, so we might need to buy some asbestos toilet paper…but it’s all out of love.
Comment fired by Joe & Linda — December 10, 2006- 5:54 pm
Ya know, it’s all relative.
Being mainstream pays. The problem with these wing joints is that catering to the 20% of the population who can seriously handle heat doesn’t pay: So… they don’t cater.
Give ‘em time, Joe, as time goes by, more and more people can handle heat and even Peppermaster will be mainstream!
T
Comment fired by Tina Brooks — December 12, 2006- 9:04 am
Joe & Linda make sure you stop at Mr. D’s in Hagerstown, MD and let me know how the wings were.
Marco
Comment fired by marcosauces — December 22, 2006- 9:20 pm
Joe, we have a DEFCON Day in South Orange, NJ on 1/14, and one in MA on 1/27. We’ll be in Toronto late April-early May, MD in June (date tentative), MI during the Wiffleball Championship (it should be truly interesting, lol), Brooklyn in August, and of course Fiery Foods in March and Zest Fest in September, with many more dates to come. If you’re not on the mailing list, go to the website and leave me your e-mail address, you never know where we’re gonna show up!
Comment fired by DEFCON Creator — January 5, 2007- 11:34 am
Joshua
I finally found a bar (The Harp & Dragoon, Norwich CT) that makes HOT wings. The cook had been trying to find the right recipe. The last time I was there he settled on mashed fresh habanero and honey. The wings were large, the hottest I have had and enjoyable to eat. You will sweat and don’t forget to wash your hands afterwards. Someday I’ll give this simple recipe a try.
Comment fired by david russell — November 13, 2007- 2:08 pm
Hi fellow hotmeisters,
I’m Dopey from Boston. I can’t locate a real hot wing joint around here that is worth the time of day. Any suggestions?
Comment fired by Dopey — January 11, 2008- 10:01 am
I prefer making my own sauces and wings. I find it much like trying to find a good steak, I’m always dissappointed. It’s not hard and is a heck of a lot less expensive. I have numerous home-made (for the most part) wing sauces and you can make em as hot as you want. When I was younger my theory was the hotter the better, but due to my having 3 sons I have to vary my sauces. If you are interested in any of my wing sauce recipes let me know….Ken
Comment fired by Ken Williams — January 21, 2008- 6:37 pm
Not sure it is okay to endorse another site, but Ken there is a wing recipe contest going on over at the Hotsauceblog. You should submit a recipe or two if you think they stack up.
Comment fired by Buddah — January 22, 2008- 1:45 am
there is this place in palmcoast florida the bowling ally coqona lanes if u ever go there order extra crispy and as hot as they can go
Comment fired by chadinsky — March 17, 2008- 1:07 pm