The best chicken wings in St. Louis

Top of the Town

It’s a good sign when you can order drummies by the pound. They’re smoked, and three sauces are available, including a sweet Tiger Stripes—but they’re really best when naked. 100 Ash.

EdgeWild Restaurant & Winery

Winner of multiple awards at the annual UCP Heartland Wing Ding competitions, these beauties are still triple dry-rubbed, cherry wood-smoked, and are so sublime, they require no further accoutrements. 550 Chesterfield Ctr., Chesterfield.

Felix’s Pizza Pub

Trashed wings have been a staple at this Dogtown hang out for 19 years. Chef Any Roesch says that “We par fry ours, drench them in Frank’s Red Hot sauce, let them cool, fry them again, hit them with more sauce, and top with a jalapeño ranch drizzle. Done right, the sugar in the sauce crystalizes the second time in the fryer, leaving a juicy wing with a crisp savory taste." 6401 Clayton, Dogtown.

Frailey’s Southtown

Six types of fresh jumbo wings are cooked and sauced to order at the SoCo hangout, where the slogan is “Just Wing It.” Choose from original, grilled, trashed, Caribbean Jerk, breaded Cajun style, or (our preference) a pick-three combination. Frailey’s also serves boneless wings for guests suffering from cartilogenophobia. 4329 Butler Hill, South County.

Gobble Stop Smokehouse

Keeping with tradition, Gobble Stop’s chicken drummettes are dry-rubbed before being slow-smoked. Another not-to-miss item is the smoked turkey “ribs,” marinated, seasoned, smoked, and grilled, these juicy beauties are amazing on their own or glazed in the restaurant’s signature mustard barbecue sauce. 1227 Castillon Arcade Plaza, Creve Coeur.

Jerk Unlimited

If your past experience with jerk chicken involved just a sprinkle of spice blend on some wings, then Jerk Soul will knock your socks off. Marinated, dry-rubbed, smoked, and grilled, this Caribbean Jerk Soul’s wings will give you a true taste of the Caribbean. 3108 Cherokee, South City.

The Midwestern

Go with the choice of dry rub for the poultry pinions, which are smoked and fried to an exquisitely crispy finish. Then try some white Alabama sauce, which puts these babies in the Wings Coop of Fame. 900 Spruce.

O! Wing Plus

This unassuming Overland spot has been serving some of the best wings in town for years. Known for a variety of styles, including a memorable Thai Chili Lime, the must-try is the Original, a wonderfully sticky Korean-inspired version that can be served with traditional wings or strips. 10094 Page, North County.

Salt + Smoke

Besides serving a killer beef brisket, Salt+Smoke offers two versions of trashed wings—“sweet trashed” and “Buffalo trashed.” Executive chef/co-owner Haley Riley says, just like with many of its other menu items, he’d been cooking trashed wings as a secret menu snack before realizing, I bet other people would like to eat this, too, and added them to the menu a little over three years ago. Multiple locations.

Sister Cities Cajun

Dry-rubbed wings are smoked or split, fried, then sparkled with a Hoisin sauce. Even in a restaurant that’s turbocharged with the flavors of Cajun cuisine, these wings stand out. 3550 S. Broadway.

Stacked

The search for the secret ingredients of the “signature hot sauce” continues here, but crumbled Parmesan seems to be one of them. It adds an aromatic tang to the wings, which are juicy and slightly crispy. 7637 Ivory.

Syberg’s

Long known for its fresh, jumbo hormone/antibiotic-free chicken wings tossed in a sharp, mustard sauce, Syberg’s offers six additional sauces, a trashed iteration, and a dry rub made from Red Hot Riplets. Multiple locations.

Three Kings Public House

The chicken’s fried with a generous amount of breading, giving them a distinct fried-chicken taste and texture. They’re among the largest in town—a meaty, well-seasoned snack. 6307 Delmar, The Loop; 11925 Manchester, Des Peres; 40 Ronnie’s Plaza, South County.

Westport Social

Calabrian peppers flavor the buffalo sauce at this Westport game bar. It’s the source of that vinegary spike and pleasant palate tingle. Wings are smoked to a mahogany burnish, dark and luscious. 910 Westport Plaza.

Wheelhouse

Choices can overwhelm: Brined wings come char-grilled or breaded and fried, with six different seasonings. Since this cavernous downtown hangout holds about a million people, arrive with friends and try all of ‘em. 1000 Spruce.

Bar & Grill Wings

Oven-Baked Wings

Trashed Wings

A “trashed wing” is fried once, tossed in a sauce (Buffalo or otherwise), and then fried again to fully cook the wing and caramelize the sauce. The result: a chicken wing that's darker in color and far crispier than its traditionally fried and sauce-tossed cousin. Based on previous research, we believe that trashed wings were most likely invented in St. Louis.

At Billy G’s in Kirkwood, owner Billy Gianino, Jr. says, "My father starting doing trashed wings 30 years ago at one of his restaurants, Frankie G‘s Grill and Bar in Oakville. He named them trashed wings because of the extra 'trashing' the fryer oil took in their preparation. They’re still the No. 1 seller there and have been adopted by all of the Gianino family restaurants since."

Then came a semi-definitive statement: "Nobody was calling them trashed wings—at least in this town—before Frankie G's in Oakville did."

One Billy G's patron reports that the regular hot wings were too spicy for some folks, so either a cook or a bartender suggested that they be dropped back into the oil and refried to cut the heat, which worked, but the process did indeed "trash" the oil.

Chuck Nash, general manager of Fenton Bar & Grill, an establishment that's more than three decades old and calls itself “Home of the Best Trashed Wing,” semi-corroborated Gianino’s story by saying trashed wings “started out as dirty wings, which transformed into 'trashed' due to the addition of a dark-colored signature sauce and frying again.” Nash added that “they’re our No. 1 seller, and certainly our bar was right on the forefront of that invention. The first time people order them, they think, OMG, these guys are serving burnt wings—until they taste them. The secret is using a clean, hot oil and a jumbo-size wing.”

Two more spots with trashed wings worth considering: Garvey’s Grill, The Off Track Saloon, The Original Crusoe’s, and The Village Bar.

Smoked Wings

Spicy Wings

Specialty/Multiple Varieties

And Don't Forget

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