by Rob Brindle
research assistant Chris Dyne
Early this semester, in a Love Rob column, I
mentioned that Erie is perhaps the chicken wing capital of
the world. After the column was published I was inundated
with people asking me where they might obtain these
mythical wings.
Let me first explain that Buffalo-style chicken wings
are a relatively new product. This is not a term paper and I
will not bore you with the history and evolution of this
most perfect of finger foods. I will, however, mention that
there are perhaps thousands of significantly different ways
of making chicken wings. Many of these ways are put
under the heading of Buffalo-Style or Erie-Style. This
basically means hot wings as opposed to BBQ or butter
and garlic or mild or Cajun or screamers or sweet and sour
or southern fried.
Buffalo style wings are usually deep-fat fried and then
covered with a sauce that is generally made of some
tomato base, lots of margarine, some- Tabasco or other
pepper-based sauce and that all important miscellaneous
stuff.
There are probably as many as 200 restaurants and bars
in the Erie area that serve some form of chicken wings. In
this review, I will concentrate on just a few and my
reasons for doing this are simple. I have tried wings from
at least half of these 200 establishments and most of them
are nothing more then deep fried wings covered in some
commercial BBQ sauce. I also depend on other people's
advice when going to new places to try, so if I don't know
the place sells wings and no one suggests it to me then I
can't very well try the wings. I'm sure that there are some
fantastic chicken appendages out there that have slipped
through my greasy fingers. If I've missed any of your
favorites, please send me a note here at The Collegian.
You will notice that my list consists mostly of bars,
taverns and lounges. This is because for some strange
reason bars seem to make a better wing product. I have a
few theories on this. One is that bars want people to drink
and if they make wings hot enough and sell the wings
cheap enough.... Well, you get the picture. My other
theory is that pizza places have yet to take wings
seriously. In Buffalo it is almost difficult to buy wings
and pizza separately. They are quite often mentioned in the
same breath as in "let's go get wings'n'pizza." This will
not happen in Erie until more places like Lucky Man's
and Alfee's open.
The taste of the wing itself is important, but there are
other aspects to winging it. Eating fine wings is a whole
body experience for any true connoisseur. Therefore I
think it is important to rate the entire establishment as
well as the wing itself.
LUCKY 4 N'S
KING of WINGS
ERIE,PA 8381882
Alfee's Pizza - 4516 Peach is a fine example of a pizza
shop that takes wings personally. Their sign says "Best
wings in town" and although I wouldn't say that exactly,
their wings are good and affordable and they have a fine
selection. They have BBQ, mild, medium, hot, suicide,
and butler and garlic and the wings come with celery and
an abundant supply of ranch dip. Because Alfee's is a pizza
shop, the decor is nothing to speak of, but the hot wings
have an honest hot taste to them and they are cooked well.
You wouldn't believe how hard it is to cook wings well.
Both the type and the temperature of the oil has to be
close to perfect and Alfee's wings come close to perfect.
You can get 25 of them for $6.50. Not cheap.
The Best Western Open Hearth Lounge 6467
Sterrettania Rd. (just off of 190 on the Presque Isle exit).
The Open Hearth offers live country music and no cover
charge. They also offer a truly amazing deal on Thursday
nights starting at 10 pm: all the wings you can eat for $2.
Expect to pay $5 a pitcher for Coors, though. They offer
BBQ, B&G, and Cajun as well as hot. The hot can be
good or okay depending on the night. For $1 extra you
can purchase veggies and dip. The sauce is sweet and spicy
and loaded on.
The Brookside Inn is close to campus on 3431 Station.
They make Buffalo/Erie style in hot, medium and mild as
well as B&G. The price is very reasonable at $2.25/dozen
including veggies and dip. They have two specials: 10
cent wings from 7-10 on Monday's and any night you can
get 24 wings and a pitcher of beer for $4.50. The only
problem is that the beer is Meisterbrau. That special
comes with a ton of veggies and gallons of dip and the
wings are really quite tasty.
Fee's Tavern at 2202 E. Lake Rd. serves wings on
Wednesdays and Saturdays between 11 am and 10 pm.
They serve BBQ, B&G and hots. Take outs are $4.50 but
all-you-can-scarf in the bar will only set you back $4 plus
$1 for veggies and dip. The wings aren't terrific, but the
beer is inexpensive. One word of advice; the B&Gs aren't
really worth trying because the last few times I've been
there they have used almost no garlic. The BBQs are
pleasantly sticky and woodsy tasting and the hots are hot
and have some BBQ influence.
The Collegian Wednesday, November 8, 1989
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