Back 9 Bar & Grill in Addison

In Addison, there is a venue tucked away near Belt Line and Midway known as the Back 9 Bar & Grill which has been a place of interest around here for a while.  The reason for the interest has been a pizza on their menu which boasts being so hot that one must sign a waiver before ordering, and if it can be completed in 30 minutes or less then you get a t-shirt or something.  Someday I'd like to take a shot at it since I consider myself to be somewhat of a connoisseur of the spice.   This pizza isn't on their menu online, so don't bother looking.  However, that isn't the reason you're here today being that this blog is dedicated to the finer points of the chicken wing.

We attended Back 9 in Addison to celebrate the recent engagement of the King and the Queen.  In our typical fashion, all serious great life events must be celebrated with the mixing of miniature fried chicken wings with various sauces.  Our initial announcement was made at Buffalo Wild Wings, but this meeting was for a friend who couldn't make it initially.  When the Queen and I arrived, we entered and found him sitting at a table enjoying what appeared to be both a beer and a shot.  We figured he must have been really getting after it since it was happy hour.  However, he was enjoying a beer and the shot glass had a sample of another beer in it.  They have a handful of lesser known brews on tap, so if you're into that kind of thing you might give this place a shot (even though Flying Saucer is just down the street).

The Back 9 has very much a feel of a college bar found not in a college town.  They have a decent happy hour special on drinks, half price appetizers (which we will get into later), allow smoking, have loud music and bar games all over the place for your entertainment.  I'm talking pool tables, old school arcade games, giant Jenga, giant Connect Four, a game where you try and swing a washer on a rope onto a hook, and more I'm sure I'm forgetting.  If you like activities while drinking then you should check it out.

After getting some drinks, we decided on some appetizers.  We got some fried pickles, and of course a dozen wings.  Regularly 9.99 for a dozen, at five bucks during happy hour this is a good deal.  The wings themselves are bone-in naked wings.  They were slightly undersized, but acceptable for being a non-wing-joint.  We got half in lemon pepper and half in their DIABLO SAUCE!!!  The lemon pepper were pretty good, pretty crispy, and pretty generic when it comes to lemon pepper.  The wings are served with a little  bit of celery and ranch (no blue cheese option, so that's too bad).

The Diablo sauce was generously applied to the wings and had a good flavor.  It tasted like somewhat of a traditional buffalo sauce, and had a pretty good kick.  The biggest difference I could find is that this sauce had quite a bit of black pepper in it, which gave it an extra peppery flavor.  I'm not sure I'd say the sauce was worth the label of "Diablo", but it was pretty flavorful and had a decent kick to it.

As another side note, I ordered what I believe was called the Volcano Burger.  This is also not on their website (it appears the menu is not up to date from what I can tell).  I definitely was pleased with this burger, as it actually delivered on its promise of spice.  It had grilled jalapeno slices and some kind of paste or jelly made from freshly pulverized habanero peppers.  Quite tasty and a great heat to it.  This makes me far more interested in the pizza challenge because this burger had legit habanero on it.  Surely the pizza is much more intense.  Anyways, I recommend going to Back 9.  We will definitely go back there for a combination of the wings, the games, the drinks and hopefully the pizza someday.  If I ever attempt the challenge I will do a special post on here to document the success or failure of my attempt, so check back someday to see if I ever get around to it.

Razoos: Firemouth Wings!

Welcome back to the royal court everyone.  Today I will tell you the tale of our recent outing to Razoo's in Plano, which luckily happens to be not too far from our castle.  We decided to take the royal carriage out to Razoo's last Friday evening after the Queen got off of work.  It turns out that they have happy hour from 3-7, Monday to Friday.  It ended up being a pretty good little happy hour, which was an unexpected bonus for our trip.  I enjoyed a nice $2 domestic pint, while the Queen enjoyed a half-price concoction known as a SWAMP THANG (see picture).  This thing is apparently half margarita, half hurricane, with melon and raspberry liqueur.  Pretty big, pretty colorful, pretty tasty, and pretty half priced.  Plus you get to keep the miniature Mardi Gras beads (or we stole them), so its highly recommended to hit up Razoo's during happy hour.  We were looking for some seafood for dinner, but had to get some wings to get this party started.  I'm guessing that's why you're here; not the seafood.

They offer one style of wing as an appetizer on their menu, and I'm always suspicious of the wings at places which are not known as wing joints.  Usually you order an appetizer of wings and it is pretty generic.  Some little naked wings tossed in some generic wing sauce.  I wasn't sure what to expect.  Would it be generic?  Would it be tossed in some kind of Louisiana hot sauce?  Would they be naked or breaded?  Would these Firemouth wings be spicy?  Let us find out.

As the wings arrived I noticed a few things.  They were breaded very heavily.  There were about ten.  They were served with a creamy sauce.  The wings were not tossed in a sauce.  So as we started eating, we were fairly pleased.  They were steaming hot; fresh out of the fryer.  They were very well cooked and very juicy.  They weren't that big, but since appetizers were ALSO HALF PRICED during happy hour it is still a heck of a deal.  The breading was really good on the wings, and seemed like their own secret recipe with a nice blend of spices in it.  The sauce was some type of spicy ranch I think.  The sauce had a little bit of a kick, but I'd hardly call these wings FIREMOUTH WINGS due to the lack of fire in my mouth.

Overall, these were pretty good, and impressive for a non-wing-joint.  I think Razoo's will probably make it into the regular rotation due to that killer happy hour, as well as these wings.  We also enjoy going to Razoo's because it seems like every time we go, we get some type of entertaining waiter.  We still laugh about the time we went last year and when I asked our waiter what the difference between the regular and large catfish baskets was he said "Well are you like really hungry?  Or like really really hungry?  If you're really really hungry then get the large".  Gee thanks.  When we went last Friday, our waitress was training a new waiter.  As I went to pay our check, I held up the check with my credit card, and he just looked at me. I sort of waved it at him to indicate "I'm trying to give you money".  He took it and said "I'll find out what to do with this".  I can probably guess what you do with it, but I hope he found out.  So in conclusion, go to Razoo's, get the wings, make sure you get a funny waiter, and enjoy their happy hour.

Shuck 'n Jive (Richardson)

After a long, bitter and cold winter, the King has come out of hibernation.  Flowers are blooming, birds are singing, temperatures are rising, other things related to spring are happening, and chicken wings are being fried.  For our first mission this year, the Queen and I decided to try out Shuck 'N Jive in Richardson (George Bush and Custer).

As we arrived on a recent Friday evening, I was immediately worried because of the parking situation.  It looked like it was going to be impossible to find a parking spot, and I was worried we would never get a table if we were lucky enough to find somewhere to park our royal carriage.  Upon finding a spot, we walked in and found that it was a pretty big place inside, and quickly found a table (as it is seat yourself).  They had a pretty good little happy hour menu and we got some drinks.  I think they had $2 domestic pints, $3 for the rest, and some kind of deal on mixed drinks (the Queen got a glass of Malibu that allegedly had some Diet Coke in it).  As we looked over the menu, we decided to split a Shuck 'N Jive platter for two.  This ended up being a gigantic plate of food with much more than we needed for the two of us, and it was all quite tasty.  However, I am not the king of Cajun, so let's get down to the business at hand.

For an appetizer, we decided to "split" an order of their buffalo wings.  They weren't hyped up as much of a big deal, and I honestly didn't expect much.  However, I ended up being reasonably impressed by them.  For $6 we got a basket of (I think) eleven wings, which is a heck of a deal compared to lots of other places where one might get wings.  They were good sized; maybe slightly above average.  They had a slightly above average crispiness to them, and a tiny bit of kick with a decent vinegary flavor for me.  They were served with celery and two generous helpings of ranch dressing.  They were somewhat lightly sauced, including a patch or two void of sauce, so that was the biggest negative about them.  Their own website gives these wings a 4.5 out of 5 star rating for whatever that is worth.  Overall, these weren't the best wings on earth, but I think these will probably be in the regular rotation for us in the future.  They are a great value, a little above average in most every way (even though nothing is off the charts), there is a great happy hour to enjoy, and for some of us it is a straight shot down the road just a few short blocks in case happy hour gets a little too jovial.  I'd give these a recommendation, but remember that its a pretty large appetizer, and their main course portions are generous as well.

Rankings

Heat: 5

Overall: 7

Venetian Theater: Spicy Buffalo

So a few weeks ago the Queen and I were sitting around talking about how we hadn't gone to see a movie in forever.  She informed me that a new place called the Venetian Theater was opening a couple blocks away from my castle (in North Dallas at Trinity Mills and Midway).  It is a place styled after the Studio Movie Grill, where one can go, order real food off of a menu, real booze from a bar, and be waited on like in a restaurant.  She also informed me that there was a Groupon deal for some cheap tickets (INCLUDING A FREE SODA), so we thought we'd give it a try.  We arrived and presented our tickets and got our free drinks.  We both ordered Coke Zero, and were promptly given Diet Coke.  The Queen was highly unimpressed with this mistake, as the things she loves in this world are probably ranked in the following order:  Thanksgiving, Guacamole, Coke Zero, Chips and Salsa, Boise State football, back rubs, and Me.

After I calmed the Queen down and talked her off the ledge, we were guided down a long hall of very ornate decoration, some oddly placed Windows where we could see refrigerators and ice cream freezers, past the full bar, and to our theater.  I don't know why I thought this, but the layout was sort of weird or something.  Its hard to put into words.  I just felt unsettled.  Anyways, this place is pretty big, so maybe that's part of it.  The theaters are bigger than Studio Movie Grill, and I really liked it.  We plopped down in our big comfy chairs and started looking over the menu to see what we would have for dinner.

It is a rare occasion as I wander through this world stuffing my face that there is a diamond in the rough to be found.  As I search for the ultimate chicken wings, it is rare to go off the beaten path to find some wings that are truly great.  It happened in Austin at Beale Street Tavern, which are still among the best I've ever had.  Then there's places like Malarkey's Tavern in Dallas where I didn't expect much, and wasn't too impressed.  So when I saw wings on the menu at Venetian Theater, I thought I had a patriotic duty to test these wings and report on the findings.  I didn't have high hopes.  However, I was pleasantly surprised.

We ordered our food well before the movie started (we went to see the House at the End of the Street FYI), and I went with the Spicy Buffalo wings (as opposed to BBQ).  I was hoping it would arrive in time for me to get a picture, but unfortunately the wings did not arrive until the lights were already out and the movie was playing.  I didn't feel the need to incite a riot by whipping out my phone and taking a flash picture of chicken wings in a dark theater, so instead please see the artist rendering below which I think accurately depicts my experience.

The wings finally arrived, and it always takes a minute in the dark theater to get my bearings on things.  There was a plate with the wings, some celery sticks, and two cups of sauce.  One cup was the blue cheese, and the other cup was the buffalo sauce.  The wings were actually served having not been tossed in sauce.  That's a first for me, as I had never had to apply my own Buffalo sauce to chicken wings I have ordered.  Not a big deal, just odd.  However, I really enjoyed these wings once things got started.  They were served naked, and fried to a very crispy deliciousness.  The blue cheese was pretty weak, but the sauce was Buffalo sauce was good.  Good enough that the Queen decided to use it as a sauce for her french fries.  It had a respectable Buffalo flavor, not really that spicy, but good flavor.  There was plenty of sauce to go around, so dunking the wings in didn't become a logistical problem that one might fear.  I guess I could have poured the sauce onto the wings in retrospect.  Whatever.  The only real drawback to the wings were that they were smallish.  I think there were probably 8 or 9 in the order, and for the ten bucks they cost I would expect a little more.  However, a good crisp wing can make up for most any drawback, so this was indeed a diamond in the rough.  If and when we go back, I will be getting wings again for sure.  I recommend checking out the theater too.

Spicy Buffalo

Flavor: 7.5

Heat: 5

Overall: 7.5

Pizza Hut / Wingstreet: Buffalo Burnin' Hot

Welcome back my loyal subjects.  It has been too long.  With football season in full effect, the production department has taken a back seat, with the research and development still fully in action.  The boys down in the lab have been hard at work crunching the numbers and doing scientific experiments and whatever else scientists do to come up with some new data.  Luckily, the Queen and I made a trip for a chicken wing recently to help them out.  They were very grateful I'm sure.

Last Friday night, we were tossing around dinner ideas, and had discussed pizza.  I promised my baby pizza, so I was gonna get my baby some pizza.  Luckily, pizza places also sell chicken wings.  We decided on a Hawaiian style pizza and an order of Buffalo Burnin' Hot wings.  I didn't exactly have the highest of hopes for chicken wings coming from a fast-food-ish type place, especially one that doesn't specialize in chicken of any form.  I didn't have any faith in the flavor, the spice, or the execution.  However, once we got home we were shocked.

These wings were not bad.  In fact, pretty good.  They are naked wings, and pretty large as far as wings go. They were doused in a very thick sauce.  The sauce was pretty impressive.  It had good buffalo flavor, but not completely traditional.  There was something different about them, which the Queen described as tasting "Asian-y".  I think what she meant was that there was a hint of sweetness to them along with the spice.  Building on this theory, the sauce was also very thick as I said, so we believe this was a traditional style buffalo sauce infused with honey.  Its hard to explain, but it sort of had the consistency of honey, but obviously not THAT thick.  I mean that would be ridiculous.... maybe...

So we liked the flavor of the sauce.  It also had a pretty good kick to it.  It wasn't among the hottest you'll find out there, but for a fast-food chain these are some pretty spicy wings.  They fit nicely into the comfort zone as far as my spiciness palette goes.  Having been pleased with these wings, there were a couple of drawbacks.  They were dangerously oversauced, which led to a slight sogginess, but was dealt with swiftly by me dipping pizza crust into it.  And along with this oversauced angle, they weren't really crispy at all.  If you've read my work before, you know there's few things that get me going like a nice crispy chicken wing.  So all in all, I might not make these part of the regular rotation if I'm looking to just get some wings somewhere, but I do think these wings will become a regular feature in my rotation when we order pizza.  Very surprising, so I tip my crown to you Pizza Hut.

Buffalo Burnin' Hot:
Flavor: 7.5
Spice: 6.5
Overall: 7.5

BWW: Lemon Pepper, Spicy Garlic, etc.

So after a long Saturday spent celebrating the kickoff of college football season, the Queen and I decided to relax on Sunday, and meet up with my brother and his ladyfriend to split a chicken wing or 40.  From this point forward, he will be known as Skittles and she will be the A-Train.  They were unaware of my status as wing royalty, so this was quite the treat for them I'm sure.  Or maybe they think I am a complete nerd, but this would be coming from the couple who was rushing dinner because they had a WoW raid to get to.  Whatever, we're cut from the same cloth.  I digress.

So upon meeting Skittles and the A-Train at Buffalo Wild Wings in Lewisville, we discover a few things.  The service is pretty bad, but I get that feeling at every BWW we go to so I am not surprised.  We also sat in a booth next to a window, which had some scratching in the shape of a football on it.  This led to the discovery that I am the only one of our group who has ever used the word "graffito" in conversation.  We also discover the black cherry mojito.  Quite good.

The Queen and I decided to get 18 wings split into four flavors (the waitress seemed not thrilled with us wanting four flavors), and some buffalo chips.  We went with Thai Curry (our favorite, previously reviewed HERE), Spicy Garlic, Lemon Pepper rub, and Wild.  Upon arrival, the wings tossed in Wild sauce were quickly determined to actually be Blazin' Sauce, which I like, but we did not come for.  Due to this error, they will be stricken from the record and never spoken of again.

Our first new flavor is Lemon Pepper.  This is one of their new dry rubs and not a sauce.  I have to say this is the first one of their dry rubs I have tried, and this was hardly impressive.  BWW is a sauce-driven wing establishment and should probably stick to it.  They were pretty crispy as you can see in the photos, but were somewhat dry.  They also had neither the lemon nor the pepper that we would like in a lemon pepper wing.  These won't be in the regular rotation (we only got them because the menu threatened us by saying lemon pepper is here FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY).  If you want a good lemon pepper wing, go to Sauced or Wingstop.


Lemon Pepper rub
Flavor: 5.5
Spice: 0
Overall: 5.5

Our other new flavor tonight was Spicy Garlic.  We weren't really sure what to expect when we ordered these.  Would be be a garlic sauce with some pepper kick for the heat?  Would it be something like the garlic parmesan wings at Wingstop covered in powdered parmesan cheese?  When they came out they looked like they were covered in a buffalo sauce.  I think it might actually be a hybrid sauce like you might find at Pluckers (think spicy ranch at Pluckers). It seemed like a mixture of one of their buffalo style sauces and their garlic parmesan sauce.  It had a decent amount of heat which was pleasing, and had a garlic flavor that I noticed second.  The garlic was still noticeable which is always appreciated since sometimes wings advertised as containing garlic flavor have very little.  There's a good chance these will find their way into the regular rotation at BWW for us.  The Queen definitely liked these more than I did, but that's because she loved them.  I thought maybe she had a new favorite, but confirmed to me that Thai Curry is still her #1.  The only fault I could find is that these are very heavily sauced, which as you know by now can be highly dangerous to pants, shirts, nearby people's faces, and unprotected eyes.  These are still highly recommended so give them a shot.

Spiciy Garlic
Flavor: 8
Heat: 6
Overall: 8

Pluckers: A big ol' pile of wings

So many wings, so little time.  As you can see below, we recently tore into a big ol' pile of wings at Pluckers off 75 in Dallas.  They were delicious.  Bold claims were made about the Fire in the Hole Challenge.  But let me rewind a bit to how we arrived at this point.

Mid-week last week I decided to hit up my old gang of friends to see if they wanted to hang out Friday night.  I hadn't seen them in a while and had kind of fallen out of the loop of things with everyone.  So as we're talking and getting a plan together, it is decided that Gilly, Erik, John, the Queen and myself will meet up for dinner on Friday.  We usually hang out around Macarthur and 635 in Irving because its half-way-between-us-ish, and the normal debate took place.  Buffalo Wild Wings?  Bostons?  7 Salsas?  Hunan?  We typically go to one of those places, so I figured nothing would be different.  It was decided upon Buffalo Wild Wings.  The United Wingdom rejoiced.  Then it was decided to go to Boston's.  The United Wingdom decided that would suffice since I want to try their wings.  Then at the last minute it was decided.  If we are getting some damn hot wings, WE ARE GETTING SOME DAMN HOT WINGS.  PLUCKERS IT IS!  Now we just have to hope we can get a table on a Friday night.

As we arrived, we get lucky and find a parking spot, and get on the list.  There's a group of ultimate bros ahead of us who think they are actually going to get an inside table for 8 on Friday night at Pluckers in Dallas without a long wait.  Good luck bros.  We got our name on the list, and while waiting decided to have a drink.  I get one of my usuals, the 32oz Dos Equis.  The Queen gets what will surely be one of her usuals, the 32oz Psychedelic Frog.  If I recall correctly, the ingredients are the following:  Malibu Rum, pineapple something, and green.  It is quite delicious, and will get you a good buzz.  Recommended.

So as we finally get a table and get settled, my friends ask what the occasion is.  I didn't know there was an occasion, I just wanted to hang out.  The following is a completely true story.  My friends legitimately thought I had invited them out to eat miniature fried chicken wings and drumsticks at a bar on Greenville to announce to them that the Queen and I had gotten engaged.  These are people with masters degrees from prestigious universities and high paying jobs, and they thought this was how I would make such an important announcement.  They were mistaken, but you bet your ass when the time comes to announce the engagement, it will now be done at Pluckers.

Anyways, we look at the menu and decide rather than all get a bunch of separate orders, we could get a big order and split it.  This immediately sent me into an anxiety attack as I try and figure out how many of what sauce I want.  We decide that we are going to get 55 wings.  Ten a piece of Spicy Lemon Pepper, Garlic Parmesan, Buffalo Hot, Hallelujah, Spicy Mandarin, and five Fire in the Hole just to really punctuate the night.  Then there were harps heard playing and the skies parted as the following platter arrived.

The wings are sort of hard to see, so look hard.  It came with celery, ranch, blue cheese, and we got some Lemon Pepper fries, some regular waffle fries, some sweet potato fries.  Oh and we had fried pickles as an appetizer.  I really don't need your judgement.  I have already reviewed Fire in the Hole and Spicy Lemon Pepper HERE so those will not be reviewed again.  ON TO THE WINGS!

Our first flavor was Buffalo Hot.  It claims to be their second hottest sauce on the menu, and since the Fire in the Hole sauce isn't really a buffalo sauce, the Queen and I were very interested to try this.  I've been looking around for a real buffalo sauce that also has some real heat to it.  I will have to keep looking.  The wings themselves are always great at Pluckers, but this sauce was pretty generic.  It didn't have that vinegary kick I like in a buffalo sauce, and didn't have any impressive heat.  My friend Erik, who is well known to not handle spicy foods well, even said they weren't that hot.  The sauce is still good, but there's other places I will have to go if I really want that buffalo flavor.

Buffalo Hot:

Flavor: 7

Heat: 6

Overall: 7

The next flavor was Garlic Parmesan.  I was a little iffy when we ordered these, because the Garlic Parmesan wings we had at Wingstop were pretty unimpressive.  However, where Wingstop fell short Pluckers delivered.  These had a nice crispy finish with a dusting of parmesan cheese on top, but the difference was that they actually had a pretty good garlic flavor too.  I don't always go for wings of the garlic or parmesan variety, but these were some of the better ones I've had.

Garlic Parmesan

Flavor: 8

Heat: 0

Overall: 8

Our third flavor was Spicy Mandarin.  Normally the Queen is not a big fan of Asian-inspired chicken wings, but she was pleasantly surprised with this sauce.  I pretty much agree with her, so I'll let her do the talking here.  She summed them up by saying "Delicious, but not so spicy".  She thought it tasted like a slightly spicy sweet and sour sauce.  They really didn't seem spicy to me, but it was still enjoyable and will border on the regular rotation at Pluckers for me.  Definitely heavily sauced which is always dangerous with me.  All I could ask for is more heat to them.

Spicy Mandarin:

Flavor: 8

Heat: 3

Overall: 8

Our final flavor was one called Hallelujah.  When we ordered this one, our waiter actually said "Now you're finally getting to a real sauce".  Apparently he was a big fan of this sauce.  We had to ask what it was, and it turns out that Hallelujah sauce is basically some type of BBQ sauce kicked up with Serrano peppers.  This had a good sweet BBQ sauce flavor, and actually had a little bit of decent heat to it with those peppers.  You can actually see the pepper seeds on the chicken, which is ALWAYS a good thing.  I personally thought these were spicier than the Buffalo Hot, which were advertised as hotter.  I really enjoyed this sauce, which is surprising because I'm not necessarily a big fan of getting chicken wings in a BBQ sauce.  I like to keep my chicken wings and my BBQ separate, but sometimes I find something unique like Hallelujah sauce which impresses.  These will probably be in the regular rotation for me.

Hallelujah:

Flavor: 8

Heat: 6.5

Overall: 8.25

So all in all, this was a pretty successful evening.  After everyone took a Fire in the Hole wing to finish dinner, someone mentioned going out for a little FroYo, and once ice cream or frozen yogurt has been spoken of, it is too late to avoid it.  So we went across the street to random FroYo place to stuff our faces just a little bit more.  Once again, I'm not on trial here, and I didn't come here for your judgement.