East Coast Super Subs

Welcome back everybody. Sorry for being away for so long. I haven't been keeping up with my wing eating very much lately, but it is good to be back. Yesterday I made a small hike from work to East Coast Super Subs. Some of you may remember that I briefly reviewed them from Tucson's Best Wing Fest almost a year ago. They had a mostly positive review back then, and fortunately for them, not much as changed.

The restaurant is situated on the southwest corner of 9th St and Park Ave, almost hidden like a gem in a little neighborhood. If you didn't already know it was there, you'd almost certainly never stumble across it. It must be well known or have a large and loyal fan base, because even at noon on a Wednesday, this place was packed. The decor was awe inspiring to any East Coast sports fan. The majority of it looked like Philadelphia teams, but there was a little bit of everything, especially from New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. There's almost nothing on this menu that looks unappetizing to me, so I'll certainly be back to experience more than just the wings.

As for the wings themselves, it was a very good attempt. The wings were cooked perfectly, with a wonderful deep fry making the skin crisp and kept the meat moist. There were just a few little things that hold these wings back from being perfect. The wings themselves were a bit on the small side, a problem all too common out here. As for the sauce, it was kind of a mixed blessing. I ordered the medium sauce and it actually had a decent spice to it, which is surprising considering that most hot sauces out here would be called mild in Buffalo. The sauce also had a slight sweetness to it, which was inviting. The main problem I had with the sauce is that there was black pepper in it. Wing sauce should consist of only a few key ingredients, such as vinegar, cayenne pepper, salt, butter and sometimes paprika. The bottom line is that it should be a homogeneously red-orange sauce. When you add black pepper, it doesn't mix into the sauce, and it feels like there's sand in the sauce when you eat it. You had the option of blue cheese or ranch to be brought as a dip, and the blue cheese was very good. There were no celery sticks served with the wings however.

My overall impression with the restaurant is that I'm sad it took me almost 6 years to find it. The food really was great and everything on the menu looks to be of the same quality. This is some of the best East Coast food you will find in Tucson. The service was very fast. I had my wings in probably less than ten minutes. Another positive point for this restaurant is the price. Everything here is very affordable and the portions are huge. You will not walk away hungry. They also offer take out and free delivery, but really, why would you pass up a chance to sit in this environment? It's simply amazing. I am going to upgrade my score of these wings from last year from a 4.0 to a 4.5. I will certainly be visiting this place again, soon and often, and I recommend that you do the same. Until next time, whenever that may be, just wing it.

Duff's

My pilgrimage to the wing holy land didn't result in as much wing consumption as I had planned, but on my last night in Buffalo, I hit up what is arguably the best place in town. Duff's has 2 locations that I know of: one in Orchard Park at Route 20 and Orchard Park Rd, and another in Bufalo around Millersport Highway and Sheridan (I think). I always go to the one in Orchard Park. They have recently expanded their wing sauces, but in the past they had only one sauce that was simply cut by butter to make different levels of heat for their monstrously sized wings. Simple. So freaking delicious. We usually get an order of Medium Hot for some kick, but it's almost guaranteed that we'll get an order of Mild Medium because of the great flavor without any overpowering heat.
The food is simply incredible, but the entire experience in the restaurant is fantastic. The beer list is adequate in size but epic in the quality of beer on the list. There are televisions everywhere and if a Buffalo Sabres game is on then it's sure to be on every screen. The waitresses are what my friends and I describe as Hooter's girls with a little more self respect. I'm not sure if I can pump any more adulation into this one review so I'll just leave you with my rating of 6 out of 5 and let the rest of you see for yourselves if you ever get a chance to visit one. It's my rating scale, I can do what I want with it. Until next time, just wing it.

Quaker Steak & Lube

The Wing Buffet

My first stop on my pilgrimage to Buffalo. The Quaker Steak and Lube sounds more like a place where you might get an oil change, and you're right. It began as a car garage that also served food, and the food became more popular than the car service. Tuesdays are All You Can Eat Wings nights, so I couldn't resist. I could go through a list of all of the flavors that I tried, but it's kind of pointless when everything that I tried would rate as a five out of five or at least close enough. My favorites were the Cajun, which in my opinion should be renamed to Caribbean or Jerk wings.

Flavors:
Mild
Medium
Hot
BBQ
Supercharged: third hottest sauce there
Cajun
Ranch
Golden Garlic
Atomic: second hottest
Louisiana Lickers
Honey Mustard
Arizona Ranch
Buckeye BBQ
Asian Sesame
Thai - R - Cracker
There is also something called the Triple Atomic, which is the Atomic sauce made with ghost chilis instead of habeneros, so it's supposed to be terrifying. My friend has had the regular atomic and has something close to post-traumatic stress disorder over it.

The Lube Tube

The Lube Tube. This is a 100 ounce beer with a spigot at the bottom. I'm not sure if there's really any reason for me to say anything else about this. It's just so beautiful. Check them out at www.quakersteakandlube.com/ Like I said earlier, it's a five out of five. Until next time (which is probably only four or five days away) just wing it.

Buffalo

In the coming days I will be making my annual pilgrimage to the chicken wing holy land. Expect a lot of very positive reviews over the course of the next 3 weeks.

Plans for the future

I have discovered a restaurant called The Native New Yorker in Marana on Cortaro road, which is about 20 miles north of Tucson. I may have rode 13.2 miles one way to go to wing fest, but a 40 mile round trip sounds a bit excessive. Hopefully I'll get there someday soon, preferably on a Friday to do a Fish Fry Friday. Is there a bus or something that goes between Tucson and Marana? All I know is that the wings had better deliver with a name like The Native New Yorker. We'll see.

Tucson's "Best" Wing Fest Mega-Post

I got leied at wing fest.

I know, it's been a while. I've been keeping up with my wing eating, but I've just been too lazy to write about any of them. Some places I could do from memory, but I like to think I have maybe a little integrity.

Today was the day of Tucson's Best Wing Fest at the east Hilton on Broadway and Pantano, from 4pm to 8pm. The event featured a number of Tucson restaurants showcasing what they can do with a wing. The deal was that once you were inside, you were able to sample 2 wings from each restaurant that was being represented. Admission was $15 dollars at the door, but I think that tickets were in pre-sale in other locations for less. Drink tickets were sold separately for $1 each: 1 ticket for a bottled water, 2 for a pop and 3 for a beer. The ticket for the event was also a scorecard where each booth would mark themselves off after you had sampled their wings. The ticket also had 3 categories to fill out: Most Exotic Wings, Best Decorated Booth, and Friendliest Staff. More on those a little later. For now I'm going to highlight my overall impressions and score each restaurant, but I'll have to visit each of these places (or at least, the ones I wasn't too disgusted by) to get an accurate reading of each.

1) Vistas Bar & Grill, at the Tucson east Hilton
They were offering 3 wings, but the ones I tried were their hot wing the "El Diablo" and their Hawaiian BBQ wing the "Maui." The hot wing was pathetic for being called a hot wing. A salt and vinegar potato chip is more intense. The Maui had an OK BBQ sauce, but I was too distracted by how close to being raw the wing was. Absolutely horrible. I took away a pamphlet with their menu highlights, and it looks like a high end restaurant, but it's a shame that the building hosting this event decided to enter, because they sure can't do wings. 0.5 out of 5. I know I said I wouldn't do fractions, but wow.

2) Brushfire BBQ CO., at 2745 N. Campbell Ave, Tucson, AZ
They offered a mild and hot variety, so I tried one of each. Their style of cooking (according to their menu) is to gently smoke the wings and then blanch them in a quick deep fry. Well, they need to go for a little longer because once again, I was given nearly raw wings. The flavors didn't vary that much either. Both were slathered in their respective BBQ sauces, but whatever is in them is simply hot just for the sake of being hot, and it's a lasting burn. A saving grace for these wings was that they were the only hot wings in the entire place that delivered on the advertised hotness. 1 out of 5.

3) Wing Street
What can I say but, pitiful? Who brings boneless wings to a wing fest? Don't try to bullshit me, they're chicken nuggets with a different sauce. 0 out of 5. Pathetic.

4) Nimbus Brewery
They served one type of wing. It's sad when you see a place that has so much potential and they just come up short. This was the only booth in the entire place that was serving a celery stick and a carrot stick with the wings. They had so many of the little things right, and then when you finally try the wings, you get a mildly smokey flavor that just keeps progressing to taste like an ash tray. 2 out of 5 for good effort.

5) Wings Over Broadway, 5004 E Broadway, Tucson, AZ
Just when it was looking grim, we get a saving grace in here. I tried their mild and their honey BBQ. The mild is damn close to Buffalo standard and the honey BBQ wasn't bad; not spicy, not too sweet. The wings were deep fried but unfortunately they were a bit on the small side. I grabbed one of their menus and the wings are prominently displayed first and for good prices. This also seems to be one of the only places in Tucson I've seen that offers wings in large numbers (100 and 200). When I tried the mild wing I wanted so badly to give it a 5, but it was just slightly off, and the wings are kinda small. 4 out of 5.

6) American Flying Buffalo, 6300 E Tanque Verde, Tucson, AZ
This place offered a good variety of wings, so I tried their medium-hot and their teryaki flavors. The medium-hot had a pathetic heat for what it was supposed to be, and the teryaki flavor was horrible. I've never had good luck with teryaki wings before, and this was no exception. Not to mention, the one that I got was some kind of mutant reject wing. The saving factors for this restaurant were that the wings were deep fried, and they were a good size. 2 out of 5.

7) This place had no indication of who they were supposed to be.
The man at the booth handed me two wings and told me that they were smoked over mahogany fires. I admit I was curious. Now I know why that cat died. These were like the ashtray wings, but with a crappier tobacco, marinated in lighter fluid, and somehow they were practically raw too. 0 out of 5.

8) Bianchi's Italian, 1110 N Silverbell (corner of Speedway and Silverbell), Tucson, AZ
What can I say? I love this place! It's just a mile from my house and I eat there all the time, so I may be a little biased, but you know what? Biases tend to exist for a reason. On a personal note, this was the first place I ate at when I first moved to Tucson, and they set up a standard for wings that most places down here can't dream of touching. Part of that may be because of the owner, Vincent Bianchi, who I had a chance to talk to and found out that he's from Rochester, New York, so of course he knows what goes into a great wing; he's from Buffalo's backyard. The size, the sauce, the deep fry: all perfect. 5 out of 5 and well deserved.

9) Risky Business
This place was offering 3 types of wings, but admittedly the third kind was just a blend of the other two, so I tried one of each of the flavors on their own. They had a hot wing and a whiskey sauce (which just seemed to be their way of saying BBQ). The whiskey sauce was good though; sweet and with a bit of a vinegar kick. The hot wing, of course, was not hot. There was thyme all over this wing. Thyme is not hot. They were deep fried and were a good size, but for some reason they weren't cooked all the way through. I keep thinking that maybe they deserve a 4, but I'm sticking with my original 3 out of 5.

10) Neighborhood Grill, 8838 E Broadway, Tucson, AZ
This booth was offering three flavors of wings: a sunset BBQ, a garlic parmesan, and their "wings on fire." I tried the garlic parm and the wings on fire. The wings on fire carried a mildly hot aftertaste and might pass for a mild in Buffalo, but I failed to be impressed after seeing the woman serving them describe them to another man as if he should bust out his health insurance card before trying them. The garlic parm were very good, and the parm they used wasn't that crap that comes out of the little shaker, no, they were grating a block of parmesan cheese right there and putting it on your wings. Well done. For being deep fried, a good size and for showing some care for their wings, they deserve a 4 out of 5.

11) Frankie's 2574 N Campbell, Tucson, AZ
This booth featured a "classic hot" and a habanero BBQ sauce, so I tried one of each. The habanero BBQ was pathetic. I know most places down here add habanero to their sauces to make them hot for the sake of being hot, but this place even failed to do that. The classic hot was OK, but again, it was more along the lines of a traditional mild, but don't get me wrong, it's still nowhere close to a Buffalo standard. They were a good size and they were deep fried well for a change. 3 out of 5.

12) Wing Stop, everywhere down here
These places keep popping up wherever you look. They offer pretty small wings, but the flavors and the total deep fry is spot on. I just went for my standard picks: the mild and the garlic parm. The mild sauce is done well and the garlic parm were great. I keep going back to these places so they must do something right. 4 out of 5.

13) Hooters, 4385 W Ina Rd, Tucson, AZ
This place is still considered to be in Tucson? I could have sworn it was Marana by that point. As a male, I'm hard pressed to complain about the tarted up college girls wearing spandex outfits, but why is there always that one tolken 48 year old woman whose hair has turned to wicker because she's been covering her brunette hair by bleaching it for some twenty plus years that nobody has the heart to put out to pasture? Oh ya, there was a BBQ and a breaded wing too, which were both simply average. 3 out of 5.

14) East Coast Super Subs, 187 N Park (9th and Park) Tucson, AZ
They offered a medium and a BBQ-medium mix that they call Schreiner. Sure, why not? The Schreiner was alright, but not stellar. The medium on the other hand was another example of a sauce that comes so close and then leaves out that little extra something. They were a decent size but they could have used a little bit of a longer cooking time in the frier. 4 out of 5.

15) Buffalo Wild Wings, 68 N Harrison Rd, Tucson, AZ
I had always heard that there was one of these around here... somewhere off of Ajo Way I think. Nothing surprising here. It's the same as it is in Buffalo. Small, overpriced wings with a big variety of flavors. I had a medium that was average and a Caribbean jerk because I love jerk and didn't know they had that flavor. It was pretty good. I don't know if they have the buy one get one Tuesdays down here like they do in Buffalo, but that's about the only time it's worth shelling out for this place. Still, can't deny them a 4 out of 5.

The categories that I voted in ranked up as follows:
Most Exotic Wings: Risky Business, for their Whiskey wings
Best Decorated Booth: Wing Stop
Friendliest Staff: Bianchi's Italian

My overall impression of the wing fest is that I'm glad that something like this exists in Tucson, but there are a few things that need to change to make it great.
1) Put this place in a larger area. This was held in a room with square footage close to my apartment (about 1600 square feet). 15 restaurants, nearly 600 people...it was chaos. I got there right when the doors opened, so the first hour wasn't bad, but it got worse and worse.
2) If you're going to have a friendliest staff category, that means you have to talk to the staff, which is nearly impossible when you have a live band playing half the time, and then the other half, part of the U of A marching band comes in and starts blaring their crappy fight songs. At least a couple of the pom line girls were cute. Bottom line, get rid of the music.
3) Advertise this event better. I don't have a TV, but I do listen to the local radio a lot, and it took my friend that sorta heard this in passing on a radio station before I found out about it two weeks before the event.
4) This may just be a personal preference, but a more centralized location would be great for this. I'm not saying that I didn't enjoy bicycling more than a marathon today, but I'm probably still not rehydrated.

Hopefully this makes up for me ignoring you guys for such a long time. Until next time, just wing it.

Frog & Firkin

Photo courtesy of Lara Muncaster

Recently I visited Frog & Firkin, an English pub themed restaurant on University Blvd. A stones throw away from the University of Arizona's main campus, this establishment is often packed to capacity and for good reason. Frog & Firkin offers a great variety with their menu, including pizzas, salads, an array of appetizers and burgers that come with the garnish (tomatoes, lettuce, onions, etc.) on the side, so you can build the burger to your own taste. The menu is second only to the beer list, which is extensive and changes often. If you were to visit this place once per week and order a different beer each time, it would take you nearly a year and a half to try every beer that they offer.
The wings that are offered are very unique indeed. The menu advertises them as "hot and spicy barbecue" wings, which you can get as one or two dozen. When I read the words, "hot and spicy barbecue", I assumed that they were simply describing the sauce that would come with the wings. While this was partially true, the whole truth behind these wings surprised me. Instead of being deep fried and then sauced as I've had from countless other restaurants in the past, these wings were actually barbecued on a grill and sauced. This was completely revolutionary for me. The meat takes on a smokey flavor and stays very tender, although one of the wings I had was over cooked and dried out. The wings were a standard Buffalo size as well. The sauce is a pleasantly sweet barbecue sauce, but after you sit for a minute, a distinct, but enjoyable spicy flavor builds up in your mouth. I would like to see a more even saucing, as some wings were drenched while others were practically bare. The sauce seems to be added while the wings are on the grill instead of when they're done, because on some of the wings there were caramelized globs of barbecue sauce that are a real turn off. On the side was a small cup of ranch, which is pretty much useless when eating barbecue wings, and a couple of slices of cucumber instead of celery, which I have no explanation for.
In the search for authentic Buffalo style wings, Frog & Firkin is a dead end, but I have to praise the originality of these wings. I ordered two dozen and ate twenty of them, and the only thing that kept me from eating the last four was the women in my party who wanted to go get dessert. Far be it from me to try and get between a woman and dessert; I am not that brave. I have to give these wings a 4 out of 5 based on their originality. The small details are the only thing between these wings and great wings.

Check out their website here.
http://www.frogandfirkin.com/index.htm
520-623-7507

Also, here's a link for half off the price of an appetizer (which includes wings).
http://www.frogandfirkin.com/coupons.htm

Until next time, just wing it.

1702

Photo courtesy of Lara Muncaster

Last night I visited 1702, a pizza bar in Tucson, AZ. Yes, the address is the name of the restaurant. 1702 is described as Tucson's beer Mecca, with good reason. Sporting a variety of more than 50 beers from major and micro-brewers around the world, if you claim to be a person that doesn't like beer, you can find something that you will enjoy there.
As you may have guessed, they do serve wings there. The wings go for $4.80 for half a pound (6 wings) and come in hot and bbq with a choice of ranch or bleu cheese on the side, but no celery. I went for the hot variety last night.
The wings are a proper size (about 3 inches each) and are prepared in a deep fryer, which is a step up from when they used to pan fry them. The deep fry gives them a proper crisp to the skin instead of the slimy finish that comes from pan frying. Unfortunately, that's pretty much where the compliments stop. These wings get ruined by their sauce. The sauce appears to be a mixture of butter, Tabasco sauce, red pepper flakes, black pepper, some kind of jalapeno sauce and an obscene amount of cayenne pepper. It hits the back of your throat first and then creeps forward to make your lips feel like they're on fire. If you ever need an incentive to want to cut off your lips, eating this sauce could be a great motivation. About half way through the meal it felt like I could start to breathe fire at any moment. This sauce suffers from a classic case of sacrificing flavor to be hot just for the sake of being hot. I love hot wing sauces, but only when there is a flavor that makes me want to come back to the heat. If I'm suffering through heat for no reward, then what's the point? That heat continued for 12 minutes after I finished eating, and I ate my leftover bleu cheese with a spoon to try to get rid of the essence of the sauce. I've never done that in all of the years I've been eating wings.
The final say on these wings is that they should keep the current method of cooking the wings but bring back the old hot sauce, which had flavor and was an enjoyable heat. The wings end up rating a 2 out of 5 for good preparation but poor execution with the sauce. Sticking to the oversize slices of pizza and excellent selection of beer is a better route to take when visiting 1702.

Check them out here.
www.1702az.com 520-325-1702

Until next time, just wing it.

Things to come

So here's how this thing is going to work. I'm going to visit various restaurants in whatever town I happen to find myself in, looking for chicken wings. I'll be critiquing the wings based on how they are prepared, the spices and sauces used and the quality and size of the wing itself. I will rate them on a scale of one to five for my overall impression of the wings, with five being absolutely incredible wings, and one being a crime for having served those wings to a person. I would also be willing to take suggestions for places to try wings at, but don't be surprised if I've already been there before or if I end up trashing their attempts at wings. I'm a very discerning wing connoisseur. I hope to visit at least one restaurant for wings each week, beginning very soon. Until then, just wing it.