Memphis Taproom

2331 East Cumberland Street
Philadelphia, PA 19125
(215) 425-4460

Aside from maintaining an already positive reputation for being a rad bar and restaurant in Philly, Memphis Taproom, located at 2331 E Cumberland St, has recently gained a lot of notoriety and publicity with the help of Mr. Guy Fieri on a little show called Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.  The episode, which admittedly I have not seen, aired sometime in January if I’m not mistaken, and has since boosted the Taproom’s profile around town.  Memphis Taproom serves a wide variety of delicious food fares and has a great list of brews on rotation.  With so many good things floating around on their menu, it was hard to focus on our primary goal of just ordering wings, and while I managed to stay strong, others were seduced into straying from the path of wing righteousness, throwing in orders of fried pickles and pulled pork sandwiches.

The Memphis Taproom only offers one kind of wing, the Pilsner-brined Hot wings.  These fancy sounding wings are, as their name implies, brined in Pilser, fried, then tossed in their special blend of hot sauce.  The resulting wings are pretty impressive.  The wing quality was really good, maintaining a fair balance of crispy and juicy, though we encountered a number of wings with brittle bones that snap off in your mouth as you bite into them.  The sauce too was really good, a nice smoky flavor on top of the sting and burn.  Neither too tangy nor spicy, these wings had a good slow burn to them and you could definitely taste the pilsner brine if you got a wing that had extra sauce on it.  Thankfully this was not another Frank’s and butter mix, but rather a hot sauce that’s a couple notches better than Frank’s mixed with butter.  The real standout when it comes to the Memphis Taproom’s wings is the bleu cheese they serve with their wings.  Apparently homemade, this bleu cheese resonates with an awesome garlicky flavor and compliments the wings perfectly.  I’d imagine I could dip anything into that bleu cheese and have it come out tasting like magic.  Sean actually found the bleu cheese to be a bit of a turn off, while Nick and guest judge Graz really liked it.  As far as price is concerned, you can get ten wings for $8 or twenty for $15.  The price, when paired with the quality, makes sense and isn’t that bad at all. 

Pilsner-brined Hot Wings

With all relatively positive reviews, you’d think we’d be gushing about these wings, but the fact of the matter is that the wings, while good and filling, just didn’t stand out that much to us.  Definitely better than the average wing, we found ourselves getting bored with them after about five or six and with no other option than the Pilsner-brined Hot, there wasn’t anywhere else for our taste buds to turn to as far as the wings are concerned.  Though the bleu cheese makes a valiant effort to keep the wings fresh and exciting, it falls just short of doing so.  Overall, the wings were good bordering on very good, but just couldn't make it over the hump to greatness and I feel like with all the other menu options to choose from, next time I’m at Memphis Taproom, I’d most likely order something else.

Wing: 7.5

Sauce: 7.45

Price: 7.25

Overall: 7.4

Review by Tom Kaericher