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

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.