pammyt wrote: If anyone knows a good NW burb place for wings-let's hear it!

I've been a big fan of Gator's for years. That being said...the good, bad, and ugly... The good-Their wings are always big and meaty; their garlic and hot sauces are consistently spot on; their garlic wings are the best I've had. The bad-They charge extra for everything($1 for celery, $1 if you want the wings extra hot, etc) and wings run just under $1 per wing; they don't take the little extra time to cut off the tips; they don't travel well and end up a soggy mess. The ugly-One of the owners consistently makes me feel like he's doing me a favor taking my money; I've heard the same owner bad mouth customers the minute they walk out the door, and the service is hit or miss(usually miss). In addition, on my maiden visit, I found out the hard way that there weren't free refills on coke like the waitress said(an extra $10 on the bill that the owner would not remove simply explaining, "oh that waitress is new and she doesn't know"). I haven't been to the Waukegan location so I can't comment on that and there used to be a Wheeling location off Milwaukee that closed a while back.

With all the bad, I still find myself returning occasionally simply cause these are the best wings I've found around. They consistently place well at the annual Wingfest(Best of Fest 2002, 2005 and 2006. Best Exotic Wings 2007). I usually get more than my yearly fill at Wingfest.
FYI-Wingfest is almost here... February 24 at the Bailey Auditorium. I love that you can sample the likes of Buff Joes, Gator's, Wings Around the World, and about 15 other joints under one roof. http://wingfest.net/

http://www.gatorswingshack.com/
GATORS WING SHACK
GRILL AND PIZZERIA
1719 Rand Road
Palatine , IL 60074
847.705.0555

GATORS WING SHACK
1801 Belvidere St.
Waukegan, IL 60085
847.263.3900

I had to laugh today when I drove by a little place on the South side of Chicago Ave. a couple doors West of Cicero Ave. They were advertising 100 wings for $44.99. It made me think of Mr. T's post in the Bulletproof Glass thread about his adventure one night procuring 100 wings for $30 a few years back at Pete's on the S Side.

mkess wrote: they don't take the little extra time to cut off the tips

so i take it they are whole wings then?

gp60004 wrote:

mkess wrote: they don't take the little extra time to cut off the tips

so i take it they are whole wings then?

They cut the drummette from the wing portion. However, they leave the tip on the wing portion which leads to manipulating your mouth to creative angles to get to all the meat. This really isn't a cause for concern since eating wings, for me, is about getting messy and immersing myself in the finger licking delciousness once the wings disappear.

Cogito wrote:I had to laugh today when I drove by a little place on the South side of Chicago Ave. a couple doors West of Cicero Ave. They were advertising 100 wings for $44.99. It made me think of Mr. T's post in the Bulletproof Glass thread about his adventure one night procuring 100 wings for $30 a few years back at Pete's on the S Side.

Chicago and Kedzie? There's a sign like that there.

I guess there's two of them then.

Kendalls and Birdsnest tie, Bw3s and Buff Joes next. I like Twisted Spoke but overated on all their food. BTW, I know wings. The best non buffalo are Leon's with the hot BBQ. My real reason for posting is I moved to Highland Park 7 months ago and can't find a decent wing up here. HELP!!!!!!

toptenmen wrote:Buffalo Joe’s--in Evanston, a local favorite for years now they might be the best ive found.

buffalo joe's has been on the list for a really long time so we finally gave it a shot tonight.

Worst wings, ever. I can't even believe that anyone would even recommend them let alone try to say they're the best in Chicagoland.

Don't be mistaken into thinking you're going to get Buffalo wings here just because they're named after Buffalo.

-They don't have blue cheese. Only ranch.

-They were the tiniest wings I've ever seen. Ever. seriously, we took a picture.... compared to a quarter, and the quarter looks big:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/danebrian/ ... otostream/


-The spicy wings were more sweet than spicey. The sauce was weird. Not anything anyone in buffalo would use. It tasted like ketchup to me... I'm pretty certain their sauce is just ketchup and cayenne or something.

-staffers weren't friendly when i was there.... the girl taking my order acted impatient... when we sat down there was a table on the other side in a screaming match with each other... like almost violent. it was the staff.

-They use those annoying tiny napkins ...for wings this is bad. i used at least 50 of them. At most places something so trivial can be overlooked, but given how bad these wings were i'll leave nothing untouched!

dddane wrote:

toptenmen wrote:Buffalo Joe’s--in Evanston, a local favorite for years now they might be the best ive found.

buffalo joe's has been on the list for a really long time so we finally gave it a shot tonight.

-The spicy wings were more sweet than spicey. The sauce was weird. Not anything anyone in buffalo would use. It tasted like ketchup to me... I'm pretty certain their sauce is just ketchup and cayenne or something.

-staffers weren't friendly when i was there.... the girl taking my order acted impatient... when we sat down there was a table on the other side in a screaming match with each other... like almost violent. it was the staff.

dddane clearly had the same reaction to Buffalo Joes as myself. I have been so confounded by how awful I found Joes relative to all the praise on LTH, that I have been eating wings everywhere I go to try and figure out what I am missing when it comes to wings and more specifically what am I missing about Joes.

My subjectivity aside I have not found the wings at Buffalo Joes to be larger, or even as large in many cases, as the wings from other places. I still believe Joes sauce to be among the sweetest and least spicy sauces and I can't think of another time when I felt more intrusive into a conversation than when I bothered the girls at Joes to place my order.

I don't really have much to add but I wanted to express my consternation with this thread since I have had such fantastic regard for most of the reviews and info gleaned from LTH and I can't really wrap my head around why anyone would feel strongly about Buffalo Joes.

Recent wings from;
Best Western Hillside
Chicken Bowl North Ave Maywood
The Abbey
Wing Stop Harlem Elmwood Park
Whole foods Petersen & Cicero smoked wings
Beef and Burger Montrose Ave Mayfair

Which location did you choose? Not that I think the wings are anything better than reasonable (though IIRC they have a fair burger,) but I've always had reasonabe service on Howard St.

well... we started out in the parking lot of the howard st location.... we scoped it out for a second while debating if some many really highly recommended this place... it looked fairly ghetto inside. then i recalled the thread here was actually about the clark st location... so we went there instead, knowing fellow LTHers claimed them to be good and in an area where there was other stuff to do after... (and even though a small chain, i assume nothing drastically varies across town?)...

i can tolerate bad service if the food is awesome... but when the food sucks there's no reason to tolerate bad service either...

btw, the waffle fries were great though.

from what i gather, the "suicide" wings weren't any hotter than spicy other than they had giardinairre and jalopenos piled on top of them. ... while this sounds like great drunk food, i'm not sure it should be found in any place claiming to make buffalo wings as the hottest wings they have.

and btw, that pic of a small wing (well drumette in this case) was not just a single small one, they were all that size.. wings and drumettes alike.

i challenge someone to find smaller wings in chicago though. i'm not sure it could be done...

I live a couple blocks from the Howard St. Buffalo Joe's; while I don't think the food is really that different store to store (though the Greenbay Rd. location is supposed to specialize in seafood,) but let's just say that the folks on Howard St., while a bit gruff, at least have a work ethic.

BJ's is where we go for wings strictly because we can walk there; the best I can say is they're fine. ddane, if you feel like trying again, PM me - I'll be happy to come with...and most of the neighborhood gang-bangers know and fear me, especially when I roll up in the dented minivan with the AYSO sticker... (I'm just teasing you, now, - but Howard St. does have a rather unfair rep, admittedly due in part to its appearance)

dddane wrote:from what i gather, the "suicide" wings weren't any hotter than spicy other than they had giardinairre and jalopenos piled on top of them. ... while this sounds like great drunk food, i'm not sure it should be found in any place claiming to make buffalo wings as the hottest wings they have.

Our post was in regards to the Clark location in Evanston. And yes the only difference between spicy and suicide sauce is the addition of low quality canned jalapenos.

third coast foodie wrote:Our post was in regards to the Clark location in Evanston. And yes the only difference between spicy and suicide sauce is the addition of low quality canned jalapenos.

We are still talking about Buffalo Joe's, right?

Yea, while I've never ordered suicide (being capsaicin-averse - tho their mild is too mild even for me)- neither I nor the 'spouse remember seeing the addition of chunkies...is this something new?

G Wiv wrote:We are still talking about Buffalo Joe's, right?

yes.

Mhays wrote:if you feel like trying again, PM me - I'll be happy to come with

don't think i'll be PMing you any time soon to try again .... i can roll with gang bangers just fine... but honestly, the wings were so bad it was one of those meals where it was a debate if you wanted to just throw them all away and start fresh elsewhere... i already feel robbed of $17 so i won't be going back any time soon...

BTW, did anyone go to Wing Fest over the weekend? how was that?

Good to see this thread going again. While I still haven't found a great wing here (although I hear good things about 5 Star), I'd suggest that wings should be properly referred to here as "clubs" and "flats" rather than drumettes, etc.

Carry on.

hotsauceandbluecheese wrote:I'd suggest that wings should be properly referred to here as "clubs" and "flats" rather than drumettes, etc.

HSBC,

Club and flat makes sense, though when referring to deep fried chicken wings doused in excessive amounts of hot sauce sense really doesn't come in to play.

I think I'll stick with drumette and fling.

Enjoy,
Gary

I wonder if the term fling is just a combination of flat and wing. In any case, stuff it with french fries and you may call it whatever the hell you like. Wow.

third coast foodie wrote:Our post was in regards to the Clark location in Evanston. And yes the only difference between spicy and suicide sauce is the addition of low quality canned jalapenos.

When I've watched them prepare my suicide sides (and I always order suicide at BJ's for myself), it appears that the preparer also squirts a liberal dose of extra sauce on the pile of wings as well, so there's extra sauce on there, too (though I don't know whether it's hotter than normal). As far as I know, suicide has always had the added jalapeno slices.

Depending on who you get, the help at the Clark-Evanston location can be a bit gruff, though there are always exceptions to the rule. Other than decor, the Howard and Clark locations are fairly similar with their wings, though parking might be a bit easier on the Evanston-Chicago border with the dedicated lot. The complaints about wing size are warranted, however, as different batches tend to produce variable sizes of drumettes in my experience, with smaller versions becoming more common over the last few years. It is a bit sad to see wings with barely any meat on 'em, but as least the orders aren't determined by count but overall size (whatever'll fit in a tray, for instance).

The decision to go with ranch versus blue cheese was supposedly one where the earliest Midwestern customers were turned off by the blue cheese offered at first, so the owner/developer went with ranch dressing exclusively. Blue cheese would be the way to go if you're being authentic, but if ranch means more people can enjoy your wings, I don't see that as necessarily a bad thing. (Offering the option would be nice, however.)

fastfoodsnob wrote:it appears that the preparer also squirts a liberal dose of extra sauce on the pile of wings as well, so there's extra sauce on there, too
...
Blue cheese would be the way to go if you're being authentic, but if ranch means more people can enjoy your wings, I don't see that as necessarily a bad thing. (

hmm, extra sauce does not a hot wing make...

so you ruin authenticity of your wings by only stocking one sauce? it's amazing that so many bars out there somehow find room in their refrigerator for blue cheese... (and i guess carrots are *totally* out of the question at this place too).

Why don't you all just go wingfest and make your call there. It is in a week or two.

http://www.wingfest.net/

davecamaro1994 wrote:Why don't you all just go wingfest and make your call there. It is in a week or two.

http://www.wingfest.net/

great idea for a taste test, too bad(according to the website) it was last Sunday 2/24/2008.

DOH!. Looks like it will have to wait until next year.

davecamaro1994 wrote:DOH!. Looks like it will have to wait until next year.

it was a good idea, and something I would have done. But typical of how some things work for me, sometimes I'm just a few days late.

Hey better for you to be a few days late than your girlfriend.....

davecamaro1994 wrote:Hey better for you to be a few days late than your girlfriend.....

especially since Im married...

dddane wrote:

fastfoodsnob wrote:it appears that the preparer also squirts a liberal dose of extra sauce on the pile of wings as well, so there's extra sauce on there, too
...
Blue cheese would be the way to go if you're being authentic, but if ranch means more people can enjoy your wings, I don't see that as necessarily a bad thing. (

hmm, extra sauce does not a hot wing make...

so you ruin authenticity of your wings by only stocking one sauce? it's amazing that so many bars out there somehow find room in their refrigerator for blue cheese... (and i guess carrots are *totally* out of the question at this place too).

I haven't been to Buffalo Joes in a while, but I grew up in Evanston and ate there all of the time, years back.

My recollection is that they had four distinct sauces: mild, medium, hot, and suicide. The sauces varied in their heat level. It was not the case that you simply got more sauce if you ordered suicide. I also have no recollection of getting jalepenos on the side of a suicide, though I wouldn't be surprised if this was something new.

I have been to Buffalo Joe's a few times, and each time the suicide wings came with jalapenos drizzled over the wings. Serviceable wings.

I used to go to a place out in St. Charles on North Avenue, I think it was called Wings and Rings(I could be off on the name, but they had decent wings).. They were/are located in an old strip mall that used to have the one of my favorite childhood restaurants Tin Cup Pass, which I think is now a chain pizza place.. yuck..