Austin: Beale St. Tavern Fire Sauce!

It has been a busy couple of weeks here in the United Wingdom, with lots of exciting activities and goings-on, but not as many wings as one might hope.  Last weekend was the birthday of her royal highness; the Queen.  To celebrate this, we returned to her family's castle on the outskirts of Austin; the residence passed down to her parents through many generations of Dutch royalty.  As we arrived at Maison d'Ailes, plans were made to go out on the lake, gallivant around downtown, and celebrate the birthday of my love.  Luckily, she knows I have royal duties being the King of the Wing, and selected a place on 6th street for dinner known as Beale St. Tavern.


If you haven't been to Beale St. Tavern (I hadn't before this trip), it is a bar and grill themed entirely after another member of royalty:  The King himself; Elvis Presley.  It was dark inside, with a pretty talented guy playing guitar and singing for the patrons.  It was pretty early in the evening for 6th street activity, and wasn't that busy, but I imagine the place gets bumpin' later on at night (or whatever the Elvis equivalent of bumpin' is).  You can get Memphis style pulled poker sandwiches, Heartbreak burgers, and of course fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches.  While that all sounds delicious, I was a man on a mission, and we decided to split an order of 1972 Elvis-Buffalo, NY Wings.  They come in eleven different sauces, and after an order of fried pickles we split an order of 20 with two sauces (they limited an order to two sauces, which did not impress us).  The fried pickles were pretty good, and the cilantro ranch they were served with was really good.  The pickles were better than Hooters and Pluckers, but not as good as Sauced.  Anyways, onto the wings.

When the wings arrived, we were impressed to say the least.  Pluckers claims to serve the biggest wings around, and these were at LEAST as big as Pluckers, if not bigger.  The wings were prepared naked, fried to a crispy goodness, and incredibly moist.  They came with celery sticks and we got both ranch and blue cheese.


Our first flavor was Lemon Pepper.  As you know, we enjoy getting Lemon Pepper because most places have them and it is easy to compare from joint to joint.  These did not disappoint at all.  They were very crispy, very juicy, and very lemony (if that is a word).  I would put the flavor on par with Wingstop's lemon pepper wings, which I enjoy as part of my regular rotation, but the wings were much bigger, so they outrank Wingstop by default.  Sauced is still the best Lemon Pepper wings I've had, but these are a close second.


Lemon Pepper:
Heat: 1
Flavor: 9.25
Overall: 9.25


Our second flavor was their "Fire" sauce.  This was the hottest sauce they had available, so I was very excited.  These wings were also very juicy, somewhat crispy (even with the heavy sauce), but not as hot as I would have hoped for their hottest available.  Being that this isn't a wing joint, I can let it slide.  Another reason I can let it slide is that the flavor was absolutely fantastic.  In the past I have complained about the lack of what I perceive to be real buffalo flavor in various buffalo sauces around town.  These wings finally met the challenge.  They had a very rich buttery, vinegary flavor with a good bit of heat to them.  Of all the wings I have reviewed so far, these were the best buffalo flavor.  The heat wasn't overpowering, and seemed just about right for anyone who likes a little heat but without that good pain associated with hotter wings.  These are a must have if you are on 6th street and find yourself needing some buffalo wings.


Fire:
Heat: 7
Flavor: 9.5
Overall: 9.5


Beale St. Tavern was a diamond in the rough and I am happy to say we got lucky when we chose this place.  The wings were large enough that we only ate 10 or 12 of the twenty we ordered.  This had absolutely nothing to do with the 2 hour happy hour with appetizers at the hotel we were staying at.  But seriously, they wings were big.  We have returned back to the normal action in Dallas, but hopefully some day when we return to Austin we can revisit Beale St. Tavern.  I am proud to say it is the first non-wing establishment reviewed to be bestowed with the "Saucesome" label.