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.

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

Buffalo Joe's: Spicy Joe's Buffalo & Lemon Pepper

So for years I have lived in a castle in North Dallas and have passed by a place at Frankford and Marsh Ln called Buffalo Joe's, and every time I pass by it I have said "Hey, we should go there sometime soon!"  However, we never actually made it there until a recent Friday night (at the suggestion of my Queen).  I naturally assumed that a place with Buffalo in the title would likely offer an assortment of world famous Buffalo wings.  So after we were both off work, we decided to make the trek up the street to Buffalo Joe's and find out just what it was all about.

When we arrived, we immediately found the parking lot to be full.  Come to find out, apparently Friday night is free poker night at Buffalo Joe's, so the place was packed.  As someone who once upon a time supported themselves playing poker, I never really understood the appeal of playing cards all night without any real risk or reward coming to the winners and losers.  But that will be a topic for another time, another place, and another blog.  Let's get back to business.  As we walk in and seat ourselves we do take note of a few things.  Everyone is drinking, nobody is eating, lots of people smoking outside, the water dispensary was broken, and it took forever to get a waitress to acknowledge us.  So it looks like we have cheap drinks, questionable food, a rough crowd, and bad service.  In other words, my kind of place.  They have plenty of TVs tuned to all kinds of sports, which is a great feature if you were DVRing the Olympics and didn't want to see spoilers. Once we flagged down a waitress, we ordered some fried pickles while we looked at the menu.  These were really good, and actually unique.  Most places batter and fry their pickles, but these had been breaded instead of battered.  Made for a unique texture, so we were pleased.  We then ordered a dozen wings to split with half Spicy Joe's Buffalo and half Lemon Pepper.

As I always do, I had the boys down in the lab do some preliminary research on the joint before we went.  Their website, www.thebuffalojoes.com, appears to have been built in roughly 1999 with only occasional updates.  However, they do have one key attraction:  cheap wings.  A dozen for ten bucks, two dozen for $16.99, and four dozen for $29.99.  There is no doubt that these prices will someday lead to a ridiculous challenge of some sort being attempted (prompted by a few cocktails) which will certainly be documented on this site.  The wings themselves were a decent size, above average I'd say.  They weren't particularly crispy, but they had a good flavor.  They were served with blue cheese, ranch, celery and carrots.  As you'll see below, they weren't big on presentation.  Onward to the flavors.

Our first flavor is Lemon Pepper.  These were the crispier of the two.  The Queen noted that it tasted more like an actual lemon butter on the wings as opposed to a light tossing in some type of lemon-pepper-buttery-oil concoction.  They were fairly lemony, had no heat, and could have used a little more pepper in my opinion.  If we go back, I'm sure we will get these again.

Lemon Pepper:

Flavor: 7.5

Heat: 0

Overall: 7.5

Our second flavor was their Buffalo sauce.  The waitress asked if we wanted mild, medium, or spicy, so naturally I said SHOW ME WHAT YOU GOT!  When they arrived, they had a good aroma to them.  They were less crispy than the Lemon Pepper, and were oversauced.  Why do I dislike too much sauce on my chicken wings?  Because when wings get oversauced, accidents happen.  Just like this night.  As I was picking apart one flapper, the thing slipped, went flying through the air, and I managed to bat it down while managing to not drop it on the floor, while almost knocking my drink off the table.  Disaster avoided, except that I now have a pair of shorts covered in Buffalo sauce.  Some day a scenario like this will likely lead to a trip to the emergency room where I have to explain how the Queen got a chicken wing stuck in her eye.  Anyways, the sauce itself had a good flavor, more on the buttery side than the vinegary side.  The heat wasn't too much; maybe a little step up from Original Hot at Wingstop.  These too will likely be in the rotation if/when we return to Buffalo Joe's.  

Spicy Joe's Buffalo:

Flavor: 7

Heat: 5.5

Overall: 7

So overall, the food was pretty good.  The atmosphere is about what you might expect from a neighborhood bar.  Probably a pretty good place to go watch the ballgame on TV, have some greasy bar food, and some cheap drinks.  Its great to know I have another place close to home should I need to venture out into the kingdom for some wings.  It wasn't quite Saucesome, but a respectable showing nonetheless.  Below is the ad I grabbed on their website listed under their specials.  If you're like me, there's probably one thing that caught your eye in particular.

Yep.  50 cent wings on Tuesdays.  All day.

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.

Sauced Wings & More: Instant Death, Sweet Thai Chili and more!

Over the weekend the Queen and I decided to get out of the house and run some exciting errands, and in order to fuel ourselves we decided to make a swing through the Wingdom and try something new.  I had heard a rumor of a newer place on the North side of town getting great reviews, and what resulted was nothing short of greatness.  We ventured into Allen, Tx (because I couldn't read a map to go to Plano) to go to Sauced Wings & More, which is a wing joint that offers BOTH wings AND more.  The place itself was nice and clean(there was actually a group that had reserved the party room for a highschool graduation).  They offer a full service side where you could be waited on in restaurant fashion in the bar area, as well as a self-service area where you order at a counter and help yourself.  We opted for the self-service half.  They had TVs around the place with sports on, but could have used a few more.  That's about the only negative I could find.

We started off with an appetizer of a regular order of fried pickles and jalapenos (mixed in together).  The regular order was more than enough for the two of us, and it was absolutely delicious.  The wings themselves were the stuff of legends.  They were above average in size and fairly meaty.  They are naked wings; fried to perfection so that the skin stays crispy even after sauce is applied.  As you can imagine, a place called "Sauced" offers a wide selection of sauces that can please any palette.  There are 19 sauces on the menu, with more combinations possible if you want to "get it with garlic", which we did not.  They offer many of the standard sauces you would find at most places, along with some unique options. During the week they also have a $.66 wing night (the night escapes me at the moment).  Without further adieu, here are the wings.  As usual, we got 20 wings split across four flavors.

The first flavor up for review is Hot Honey Mustard.  These wing were the second spiciest that we ate during this trip, but also had the sweetness one would expect from a honey mustard sauce.  As best we could tell, this sauce was most likely a honey mustard mixed with something like Frank's Red Hot.  It was a light opaque sauce with a slightly pink hint to it.  It is one of the more unique sauces that I've had in recent memory.  The mixture of sweet honey, the tangy mustard, and the hint of spicy buffalo made this one worth trying.  If I had to choose, these were the least favorite of the bunch, but I imagine this decision is like choosing the least favorite of your children.

Hot Honey Mustard:
Heat: 6
Flavor: 8
Overall: 8

Our second flavor was Lemon Pepper.  I like to get Lemon Pepper most everywhere we go because it is a common enough flavor to compare from one place to another.  These did not disappoint.  My favorite lemon pepper wings up to this point have been Wing Stop, but I would say these narrowly beat out Wing Stop for the top Lemon Pepper wing.  These were extra crispy, and seemed to have a light lemon butter sauce on them, then a nice heavy dusting with lemon pepper.  These were heavier on the pepper element than Wing Stop which I enjoyed.  If you like Lemon Pepper wings, this is a must have.

Lemon Pepper:
Heat: 2
Flavor: 9.5
Overall: 9.5

Our third flavor of the day was Sweet Thai Chili.  I expected this sauce to be hotter than it actually was, knowing that Thai chilis can have quite a kick to them.  What it actually turned out to be was that reddish-orange style of chili sauce served with spring rolls found at various Asian eateries.  It was very sweet, and I think this was the Queen's favorite of the bunch.  She described it as almost a sweet and sour sauce.  These were the most heavily sauced wings of the bunch, and I almost lost one trying to pick it apart when it slipped and when flying.  Don't worry, we saved it.  Overall, very tasty and satisfying, and we will likely be getting these again down the line.

Sweet Thai Chili:
Heat: 4
Flavor: 8.5
Overall: 8

The final flavor we tried was the sauce known as INSTANT DEATH!!!!  This is the top of the scale at Sauced when it comes to heat.  The sauce itself was VERY thick, and may have had a dusting of a pepper mixture to finish it off because the skin was almost more dry than slathered in sauce.  As the Queen put it, "a thick, thick, not very saucy sauce".  I guess this might have been a buffalo style sauce originally, but the overpowering flavor was that of the mysterious Ghost Chili.  The Queen was able to quickly identify the Ghost Chili in it because she actually prepared some Ghost Chili enchiladas for me a couple of weeks ago with fresh dried Ghost Chili.  The smoky flavor and the way the heat builds is unmistakable.  You start off with one wing, and the heat seems manageable.  As you keep eating them, it slowly builds from a nice warm sensation, and keeps on building. This is very different from something like the Blazin' sauce at BWW.  The Blazin' sauce is pretty much the same from start to finish.  You eat the first wing, the heat maxes out pretty quickly (sometimes it is more heat than other times), and when you're done you're done.  If you ate just one wing in the Instant Death sauce, you'd probably say its not as hot as Blazin', but again, its that ability for the Ghost Chili to build up that gets you.  I think if you ate a full order of twelve and compared the heat level of the two sauces, the Instant Death would be hotter hands down.  However, another difference between this sauce and Blazin', is that this is a sauce I would like to get again for the flavor of the sauce.  That slight buffalo flavor with the smoky Ghost chili is also very unique and I very much enjoyed it.  HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Instant Death:
Heat: 8
Flavor: Flavor: 8

Overall: 9

Sauced Wings & More has become the #1 wing joint in my book.  There were almost no negatives about this place, and everything was great.  We will be returning there soon, and I will be doing my part to spread the word about Sauced.  Anyone who loves Wings must try it out.  It is officially SAUCESOME!!!

Wingstop: Original Hot, Lemon Pepper

Good afternoon everyone.  We're back today with a little update for you.  I was starving all day at work and didn't get a lunch break, so I decided to give in to the craving and make an unscheduled stop at Wingstop on the way home (the Queen didn't make this trip, she was still at work).  Wingstop happens to be the closest wing joint to my house, so it is frequently in the regular rotation, and I happen to be a big fan as one could imagine.

There's a lot of little pluses at Wingstop that I am a fan of.  They serve beer, which is great since it is more of a fast food joint in my mind than a sit-down restaurant.  They have 50 cent wings on Mondays.  The combos come with a big ol' pile of fries, and their fries are great.  They are fresh cut and fried, and have a blend of seasoning that is slightly sweet.  In the commercials, Troy Aikman says he goes to Wingstop for the fries (not the fat check they write to him apparently) so you know they must be good.  I also love their blue cheese dipping sauce.  I actually use it more for the fries, because the wings themselves are quite tasty and not spicy enough to need the soothing relief of the dip to calm the burn.  The final thing that I love about Wingstop is that I often get lucky at Wingstop (hmm that didn't come out right).  Sometimes I'll get a five-strip combo, and BAM! Six strips!  And if you carefully examine the photos below, you'll see a ten wing combo WITH ELEVEN WINGS!  As we speak, I was telling the Queen the story about the eleventh wing, and she said she went to Wingstop for lunch today too (match made in Heaven obv).  She too got an extra wing.  WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?  I don't know, but this is a great day for all Americans.  On to the wings for today.

The wings themselves are of average size, they are naked, and they are fried.  The first sauce I went with was Original Hot.  It is a buffalo style sauce, but I feel that it lacks that little buffalo punch you can get in sauces at other places.  This is pure speculation but it tastes like it has more buttery flavor in it than the vinegar kick I like in a buffalo sauce.  This is the third spiciest flavor they offer, but is doesn't have much spice at all to me.  The sauce itself is slightly on the thinner side, so they are a bit slippery in texture.  I personally prefer a crispier wing, but to each his own.  This is still a tasty sauce, and my Queen usually gets it when we go to Wingstop.  As a result, Original Hot is a flavor I get to enjoy regularly.

Original Hot

Heat: 5

Flavor: 7.5

Overall ranking: 7.5

The second half of my order was Lemon Pepper.  This is easily my favorite of the flavors at Wingstop.  I'm pretty sure the sauce itself is some type of lemon butter, but there's more to it than the sauce.  These wings come out very crispy (hallelujah!), and after the sauce is applied, I think they sprinkle on a lemon pepper.  These wings have no real heat to speak of, but what do you expect from a lemon pepper wing?  These have a tangy and rich flavor that doesn't leave me asking for more heat like I do on a lot of wings.  The Queen says they are "citrusy and refreshing" and she enjoys dipping her fries in the leftover lemon pepper sauce.  The flavor, the texture, and the seasoning makes this one of my all-time favorites at any wing joint.

Lemon Pepper:

Heat: 1

Flavor: 9

Overall ranking: 9