WINGQUEST IS MAKING A TRIUMPHANT COMEBACK!!! Keep a look out.
We will be planning a big comeback event soon.
Mike Callahan is NOT invited.
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Sweet Lucy's
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| Sweet Lucy's 7500 State Rd Philadelphia, PA 19136 (215) 331-3112 www.sweetlucys.com |
Sweet Lucy’s on State Rd in Northeast Philadelphia is arguably the best BBQ joint in the city and anyone who has eaten there would have a hard time saying otherwise. They have everything that you would expect from a BBQ place; pulled pork, kielbasa, beef brisket, ribs, rotisserie chicken, and more, all hickory-smoked and slow cooked to tender perfection with all sorts of sides and fixin’s to choose from. And if you can bring yourself to stop drooling over the aforementioned menu items, they also have Hot wings.
This being the southern-style BBQ smokehouse, Sweet Lucy’s does wings a little bit differently than most people are used to. Instead of being deep fried, Sweet Lucy’s wings are slow cooked just like all the other meats. An order of wings comes with a note attached letting you know that even though the wings are a little pink on the inside due to being smoked, they’re cooked and completely safe to eat. I would probably have eaten them without the note, but some people are a little more cautious than I when it comes to potential food poisoning, which is to say that it’s a thoughtful gesture on Sweet Lucy’s end.
The wings are served whole, drumsticks and flats attached to one another just as God had intended. All you need to do is rip them apart and eat. The meat is retardedly juicy and tender from the slow cooking and it basically falls right off of the bone. However, there isn’t much of a sauce to speak of. My theory is that the wings are coated with a Hot rub and then slow cooked, allowing the juices and the rub to mix and make a sort of natural sauce. The flavor is there, but it is lacking. When you order Hot wings, you expect them to be a certain way, you know, like hot or something… But these wings just kind of have a salt-and-pepper-sometimes-a-
As for the price, a dozen wings will run you $14.95 and a half-dozen is $8.50. Keep in mind the fact that these are “whole” wings and you really get double what you’ve ordered. So at this price point, the wings are worth checking out if you haven’t already tried the rest of the menu. Otherwise just keep going to Sweet Lucy’s, working your way down the menu until you hit the Hot wings. Or if you come in to Sweet Lucy’s on a Monday, they have a buffet of all their awesome menu items for around $20, and trust us, it’s worth every penny.
Wing - 6.75
Sauce – 5
Price – 6
Overall – 5.9
Review by Tom Kaericher
Review by Tom Kaericher
Wings-To-Go Quick Quest
For lunch today, I decided to go to Wings-to-Go. This happened for a lot of reasons (there’s one by my work, its quick, and you can order online ahead of time (I also really wanted wings and it seemed like the easiest option)). Most people have visited a Wings-to-Go and tried the wings. This was actually my inaugural trip to the franchise and I have to say, to my own surprise (as I was ready to shit all over this place for being all corporate, or whatever…), that I was kind of impressed. Not super impressed, but impressed nonetheless, and to those that know me, I don’t be impressed easily.
The selection of sauces alone at any Wings-to-Go is dizzying. They have all the colors of the hot sauce rainbow, from Mild to Homicide, as well as some of the classic understated sauces like Buffalo Garlic, Garlic Parmesan, Lemon Pepper, etc. And they also have some rarities like Curry, Caribbean Jerk, and Sweet N Sour. I’m kind of on a Buffalo Garlic kick myself, so that’s what I opted for.
The wing quality was much better than expected; average size and cooked fairly well. An order of wings… to go come with a bundle of celery and a neat little foil-sealed tub of bleu cheese, extra of either will cost you $.65. And speaking of cost… Wings-to-Go trudges the line between being not too expensive or too expensive depending on who you ask, but they break the wing denominations down to satisfy any customer; 5 for $4.50, 10 for $7.49, 15 for $10.75, 20 for $13.99, all the way up to 300(!) for an even $150. To me the prices seem okay, like ‘meh’ okay. I’ve paid more for less and vice versa so the price point isn’t an issue for me. All-in-all I’d give Wings-to-Go one and a half thumbs up (we’re doing thumbs up, right?). It’s quick, you can order online, there’s a location pretty much near everyone, and there’s a lot of choices (I know how you kids love options), and it’s not that expensive. Kay, bye.
- Tom Kaericher
Sorry for the delay, we still love you all.
Hey all, sorry for the delay in between Quests. I’m sure you can understand that it’s not always easy to get a group of people together every week, and conflicting schedules have been a huge part of why there haven’t been any updates to this blog recently. But do not fear, we have not given up and still recognize it as our duty to continue eating wings, rating them, and talking shit about them for everyone in Philly and the surrounding areas who care about us eating wings, rating them, and talking shit about them. I know I still care, and I gotta say, my life has been pretty empty without wings to talk shit on.
Monday, June 6, 2011
Double Quest: The Jug Handle/Whistler's Inn
This past Saturday, the WQ boys and I, ventured into the great state of New Jersey for wings. We understand that our tagline says something about finding Philly’s best wings, but Jersey is close enough to us that we can justify going there. And on top of that we decided to visit not one, but two different wing spots; The Jug Handle Inn located at the intersection of Route 73 and Forklanding Road, and Whistler’s Inn at 901 Rt. 130 in Cinnaminson.
The first place we went to was The Jug Handle, a huge bar that ironically enough does not require the use of a jug handle for getting into. First impressions of the Jug Handle were pretty great because they had chickens running around in the parking lot and who doesn’t love chickens running around stuff? So after about an hour or so of playing with the chickens, we decided to go in and order some wings. The Jug Handle has a really good selection of wings at a moderate price point. You can get Mild, Medium, or Hot wings at $6.95 for 10/$12.90 for 20, or you can get Garlic, BBQ, Honey, Honey BBQ, Hot Honey, Extra Hot, Buffalo Garlic, or Bald Eagle wings at $7.60 for 10/$14.20 for 20. One thing I’d like to point out here is that none of these wings come with celery or bleu cheese. You have to pay an extra $.55 for either one, so it’d be $1.10 for both celery and bleu cheese, which I think is stupid, plus you only get four pieces of celery and a really dinky cup of bleu cheese. But anyway, so Sean ordered the Hot, Nick ordered the Buffalo Garlic, our buddy Jim got the Hot Honey, and I ordered the Bald Eagle wings, which upon ordering, our waitress asked me if I’d ever had them before, and I said no. She then proceeded to tell me that they were extremely hot, but being the know-it-all type guy I am, I figured that she was exaggerating and I went ahead with my order.
Our wings come out and they are big and meaty looking; the flats still having their lil wing tips attached. Though slightly breaded, these wings are in no way soggy, in fact, these were unanimously voted as the best cooked wings we’ve had so far on the quest. They’re a super crispy, golden brown on the outside and way juicy and tender on the inside; you don’t know wing perfection until you’ve tried the Jug Handle’s wings. That being said, let’s move on to the sauces. Sean’s Hot wings were anything but. Having little to no heat, but an alright altogether flavor, the Hot wings left Sean mildly unimpressed. Nick’s Buffalo Garlic wings were a step up in flavor as they were dripping with buttery-garlic goodness that really complimented the quality of the wings. And though there wasn’t any taste resembling Buffalo to be found, these were still really great. Jim’s Hot Honey wings followed the trend of things claiming to be hot and then not being hot at all, but still being retardedly tasty. Not too sweet, and not too rich or overwhelming, the Hot Honey wings were arguably the table favorites.
The Bald Eagle wings, my new arch-nemesis, were the fucking hottest things I’ve ever put in or around my mouth. Covered in a fiery red habanero and death sauce, the Bald Eagle wings are a force to be reckoned with. After eating only one of them, I had to take a short break to recuperate and cool down. The heat comes on after a few seconds of delay at such a severe curve that you go from “Oh these wings aren’t that bad”, to “Holy shit, let me gargle some bleu cheese” (something I actually did) in a matter of seconds. In the interim of me cooling down after the first wing, I tried some of the other wings, but the jerk-off Bald Eagle sauce scorched my mouth so much that even something of room temperature would’ve tasted like licking Satan’s butthole. They were so hot, I got dizzy from eating them. All-in-all, I wound up only eating four of them, an accomplishment that won’t seem all that great until you’ve actually tried them for yourself. Everyone at our table will attest to that fact as I insisted that they all try to eat one as well. I believe Nick put it best when he said, “[The] Bald Eagle will give me a bald asshole and colon.”
So, with a fair price point and wings cooked so well as to make up for any shortcomings that the sauces may have, we were all extremely impressed with the Jug Handle’s wings. Next time we go, however, I will definitely order something that doesn’t cause extreme mouth pain.
Wing – 9.5
Sauce – 7.75
Price – 7.63
Overall – 8.3
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The next stop on our wing tour of New Jersey was at Whistler’s Inn, a large bar/restaurant with no chickens running around and whose menu was essentially the same as the Jug Handle’s, with good reason. We learned from our waitress that Whistler’s used to own the Jug Handle, hence the similarities in their wing options. For some reason though, Whistler’s wings were more pricey. Mild, Medium, and Hot were 10 for $7.45/20 for $13.45 and Garlic, BBQ, Honey, Extra Hot, and Bald Eagle were 10 for $7.95/20 for $14.45. A tiny tub of bleu cheese will set you back an extra $.50, and if you want celery, carrots, and bleu cheese, you’re looking
at another $2.00 (!?). I was so upset about this that I actually asked the waitress why they charged so much, and she said that when they included the celery and bleu cheese that people would sometimes not eat them and they would go to waste, to which I replied something like, “Well those assholes should just ask for no celery and bleu cheese.” I wasn’t altogether worried about having spit in my food, but it did cross my mind.
So we order our food, Sean the BBQ, Nick the Garlic, Jim the Honey, and I the Hot. Our food comes to us served on Styrofoam plates, a style foreign to all of us, but to which Jim referred to as “Hospital” style. We were also brought regular plates for our bones, or as I so dumbly called them, our “used wings” (it was a long day, give me a break), which doesn’t make much sense considering most people find it way more pleasant to eat off of a plate like a human being than a Styrofoam rectangle. The wings being almost the same style as the Jug Handle’s, came out extremely overcooked. Sean’s BBQ wings seemed to be the only ones that were
cooked okay. The BBQ had a nice tang to it according to Sean and he seemed to enjoy them just fine. The Hot wings were terrible and had little flavor and zero heat. They tasted like they were just covered in their own fat juices with maybe, just maybe, a drop of Frank’s added. The Garlic wings were just “ehh” according to Nick who said that the sauce tasted like old butter with some garlic sprinkled in. Jim said that his Honey wings were sweet, but had an overall greasy consistency.
Overpriced and overcooked, these wings just could not hack it. The sauces were too bland and the wings could not carry them. In the case of Whistler’s Inn, the student (Jug Handle), has exceeded the teacher in almost every way.
Wing – 5.875
Sauce – 5.875
Price – 5.25
Overall – 5.6
Reviews by Tom Kaericher
The first place we went to was The Jug Handle, a huge bar that ironically enough does not require the use of a jug handle for getting into. First impressions of the Jug Handle were pretty great because they had chickens running around in the parking lot and who doesn’t love chickens running around stuff? So after about an hour or so of playing with the chickens, we decided to go in and order some wings. The Jug Handle has a really good selection of wings at a moderate price point. You can get Mild, Medium, or Hot wings at $6.95 for 10/$12.90 for 20, or you can get Garlic, BBQ, Honey, Honey BBQ, Hot Honey, Extra Hot, Buffalo Garlic, or Bald Eagle wings at $7.60 for 10/$14.20 for 20. One thing I’d like to point out here is that none of these wings come with celery or bleu cheese. You have to pay an extra $.55 for either one, so it’d be $1.10 for both celery and bleu cheese, which I think is stupid, plus you only get four pieces of celery and a really dinky cup of bleu cheese. But anyway, so Sean ordered the Hot, Nick ordered the Buffalo Garlic, our buddy Jim got the Hot Honey, and I ordered the Bald Eagle wings, which upon ordering, our waitress asked me if I’d ever had them before, and I said no. She then proceeded to tell me that they were extremely hot, but being the know-it-all type guy I am, I figured that she was exaggerating and I went ahead with my order.
Our wings come out and they are big and meaty looking; the flats still having their lil wing tips attached. Though slightly breaded, these wings are in no way soggy, in fact, these were unanimously voted as the best cooked wings we’ve had so far on the quest. They’re a super crispy, golden brown on the outside and way juicy and tender on the inside; you don’t know wing perfection until you’ve tried the Jug Handle’s wings. That being said, let’s move on to the sauces. Sean’s Hot wings were anything but. Having little to no heat, but an alright altogether flavor, the Hot wings left Sean mildly unimpressed. Nick’s Buffalo Garlic wings were a step up in flavor as they were dripping with buttery-garlic goodness that really complimented the quality of the wings. And though there wasn’t any taste resembling Buffalo to be found, these were still really great. Jim’s Hot Honey wings followed the trend of things claiming to be hot and then not being hot at all, but still being retardedly tasty. Not too sweet, and not too rich or overwhelming, the Hot Honey wings were arguably the table favorites.
 |
| Hot and Buffalo Garlic |
 |
| Bald Eagle |
 |
| Me trying not to cry. |
Sauce – 7.75
Price – 7.63
Overall – 8.3
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The next stop on our wing tour of New Jersey was at Whistler’s Inn, a large bar/restaurant with no chickens running around and whose menu was essentially the same as the Jug Handle’s, with good reason. We learned from our waitress that Whistler’s used to own the Jug Handle, hence the similarities in their wing options. For some reason though, Whistler’s wings were more pricey. Mild, Medium, and Hot were 10 for $7.45/20 for $13.45 and Garlic, BBQ, Honey, Extra Hot, and Bald Eagle were 10 for $7.95/20 for $14.45. A tiny tub of bleu cheese will set you back an extra $.50, and if you want celery, carrots, and bleu cheese, you’re looking
at another $2.00 (!?). I was so upset about this that I actually asked the waitress why they charged so much, and she said that when they included the celery and bleu cheese that people would sometimes not eat them and they would go to waste, to which I replied something like, “Well those assholes should just ask for no celery and bleu cheese.” I wasn’t altogether worried about having spit in my food, but it did cross my mind.
So we order our food, Sean the BBQ, Nick the Garlic, Jim the Honey, and I the Hot. Our food comes to us served on Styrofoam plates, a style foreign to all of us, but to which Jim referred to as “Hospital” style. We were also brought regular plates for our bones, or as I so dumbly called them, our “used wings” (it was a long day, give me a break), which doesn’t make much sense considering most people find it way more pleasant to eat off of a plate like a human being than a Styrofoam rectangle. The wings being almost the same style as the Jug Handle’s, came out extremely overcooked. Sean’s BBQ wings seemed to be the only ones that were
cooked okay. The BBQ had a nice tang to it according to Sean and he seemed to enjoy them just fine. The Hot wings were terrible and had little flavor and zero heat. They tasted like they were just covered in their own fat juices with maybe, just maybe, a drop of Frank’s added. The Garlic wings were just “ehh” according to Nick who said that the sauce tasted like old butter with some garlic sprinkled in. Jim said that his Honey wings were sweet, but had an overall greasy consistency.
Overpriced and overcooked, these wings just could not hack it. The sauces were too bland and the wings could not carry them. In the case of Whistler’s Inn, the student (Jug Handle), has exceeded the teacher in almost every way.
Wing – 5.875
Sauce – 5.875
Price – 5.25
Overall – 5.6
Reviews by Tom Kaericher
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