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