Where you going for chicken wings these days? Al E., St. Louis
Anywhere. Everywhere. All over…
Like potato skins and blackened redfish, fried chicken wings are one of the tastiest foodstuffs that had previously been either ignored or thrown away.
And while I still enjoy the standard, tossed-in-hot-sauce, Buffalo-style wing, I’m a bit like today’s craft beer drinker--a little bored with the basic offering--and therefore willing to seek out different varieties, in this case different preparations and unusual sauces.
And I’m not alone.
Over the last few years, smoked wings have risen in popularity, especially when finished in a deep fryer for some added crunch. In this category, I have my favorites: EdgeWild / WildSmoke (a multiple award winner in the UCP Heartland 2013 Wing Ding); GobbleStop Smokehouse (great wings, great people, a sleeper restaurant, winner of Hottest Wings category at the 2013 Wing Ding); The Shaved Duck (the mango, ginger, and habanero sauce makes theirs special); J. Buck’s / Joe Buck’s (ask for them with hot, blue cheese, and ranch sauces, all homemade).
In the traditional category, you can’t beat the wings at Weber’s Front Row (the “platter” contains 20 pieces); The Shack (a breaded wing, but very good); Schottzie’s (small wing = more skin-and-sauce to meat ratio = a very tasty and crispy wing); Fallon’s (a well-balanced wing); Three Kings Pub (a multiple award winner at the 2013 Wing Ding); Hotshots (they sell a lot of wings, they have it down); and Joey B’s (their Wing Ding includes 5 pounds of wings for $29.95).
It seems that every pizza place with a wood-burning pizza oven is becoming famous for their wings as well: excellent "oven cooked" wings can be found at Pi Pizzeria, Epic Pizza, twinOak, and at Peel, where co-owner Patrick Thirion reports that some customers come only for their wings.
As far as non-traditionally sauced wings go, the folks at O! Wing Plus have a great sweet-hot sauce as well as a memorable Thai Chili Lime; the butter-garlic chicken wings formerly served at the now-shuttered Mi Linh and currently served at Phuc Loi prove that hot sauce is not always the best wing sauce. To wit, Ian Froeb reported in the P-D that these wings "might rank among the best fried chicken wings you’ve ever eaten." He called them "the best in town." (I liked those wings plenty, but thought Mi Linh's calamari was the best in town.)
The straight, fried wings at Annie Gunn’s (like most items at Annie Gunn’s), served with a few Chef Lou Rook III’s dipping sauces, are meaty as well as exemplary.
The king of the wing in this town, however, has to be Bobby Tessler, chef/owner of St. Louis Wing Co. in Rock Hill. At UCP’s 2014 Wing Ding, his team, led by chef Sean Gaither, pulled off a feat that's never been done: they swept all categories--Best Traditional Wing, Best Specialty, Best Dry Rubbed, Hottest, and Judge’s Favorite—except for one, People’s Choice (which they lost by one vote to Hotshots). The Wing Co. currently serves wings several different ways with over 15 different sauces, including Rally Squirrel (yes, it’s that time of year again), coated in a sauce that allegedly contains caramel, nuts, and popcorn, the components of…Cracker Jack.
Editor’s Note: A few years ago, local chilihead and fellow Wing Ding judge Scott Roberts handicapped 19 of Tessler’s sauces here.
