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Southern Sun Pub & Brewery

627 South Broadway Street, Boulder, CO

http://www.mountainsunpub.com/

Southern Sun is a beloved brewery here in Boulder. It is pretty popular on the weekends, it takes forever to get a table. So for this review I decided to go during lunch time, thinking it would be better. Well, I was able to get a table quickly, but it still took a thousand years for me to get my order taken. However, I’ll try not to let service interfere with wing criticism. They offer two favors: BBQ and Hot Sauce. I ordered a half dozen of the Hot Sauce.

The wings were breaded, which helped with a crunch factor. The flavor on the other hand was pretty generic and not very exciting. The heat is near unnoticeable. They did give me a fair amount of veggies and the wings were quite good with Ranch dressing. Shame the wings weren’t that great on their own. Considering the price factor and Southern Sun's other faults, I’d say pass of these. They are in no way terrible, but they aren’t really worthwhile either. For some reason, they only take cash. So plan accordingly.

Brass Tacks:

Price: $6.75 for six, $12 for 12.

Flavor: 3

Heat: 2

Grade: C (73)

Bottom Line: Not really worth it price-wise and there are better wings out there.

#Boulder #C grades

KFC

I’m sure most of you are familiar with the Colonel and his chicken cooking chain, Kentucky Fried Chicken. I am most certain that throughout my life, no matter where I have been, there has been a KFC within a 20 mile radius. Not sure if that is comforting or not, but today I set out to give the Colonel his fair shake in my quest of winging. At different times, when they feel like it, KFC will have some new wing flavor to try out. This was no such time, all they had was Honey BBQ and the regular Hot Wing. I should tell you that the Honey BBQ variety is what began my love of the wing. I was 7 or 8 years old and living in Texas when I first had one and frankly it was love at first bite. However, I am trying to be critical here so I’ll try to shove my bias aside.

I first tried the plain old hot wings. Let’s just say, they live up to the name. The wings are breaded, which means they are crunchy. I have sort of a love/hate relationship with breading on wings. It can be done right, but I guess I’m more of a purest and like them naked. Other than that, the chicken is just fine. There is a very faint spice in the plain ones, but nothing really amazing. They are alright. The Honey BBQ wings are just the Plain wings one sauced out. The sauce is quite thick and, to me, very delicious. There must be a mild form of crack in the sauce because I can’t get enough of it. It is spicier than the Plain obviously, but not by a lot. A vast improvement. Not bad for fast food, I guess.

Brass Tacks:

Price: I got 10 for $6, but I think the prices ranges from place to place and time to time.

Flavor: 3 for Plain, 8 for Honey BQQ

Heat: 1 for Plain, 3 for Honey BBQ

Grade: C(75) for Plain, B(86) for Honey BBQ

Bottom Line: As much as I love them, they are not the greatest wings, but they sure are yummy. Pretty good for chain wings.

#Boulder #chains #B grades #C grades

Beau Jo's Pizza

Boulder, CO

http://www.beaujos.com/

Pizza places, for some reason, often have wings. I guess this is because pizza and buffalo wings are popular sports food. It isn’t unusual to watch the game with a delivery pizza and an order of wings. This food phenomenon made me decided that I should try out a pizza place’s wings. The weather got all crappy last night here in Boulder, so I walked to Beau Jo’s, it being the closest place that wasn’t a national chain. Beau Jo’s is famous for their “Colorado Style Pizza.” Which means big-ass crust. Man vs. Food’s Adam Richman even came out to take a gander at the huge pizzas. They have this big hilarious “official” history on their website. Something about a fur trapper and a turtle. Anyway, I had been there a few times and I will say that their pizza is pretty damn amazing. But this isn’t a pizza blog, it’s a wing blog.

They offer just straight up buffalo wings. They only have the one flavor, which is a pretty typical amongst pizza places. I got the small order, which came out to eight wings. They came out on a pile of tortilla chips and a good amount of veggies. I like it when I get stuff like that. The chicken was fairly crunchy, which I generally don’t get from a pizza place. That was nice. They were sauced well and the chicken itself was pretty good. The sauce itself wasn’t very exciting. It was a fairly typical buffalo sauce, but not as buttery as usual. In a sense they are archetypal, but in another they are boring. Good for a pizza place, I'd say. The wings tasted pretty good in ranch, for what that is worth.

Brass Tacks:

Price: $6.99 for 8, but price varies from place to place. I believe the large order is the better deal with 16 wings. They do have happy hour specials.

Flavor: 6

Heat: 2

Grade: C+ (79)

Bottom Line: The wings with the veggies and chips makes for a pretty good meal. Even if they weren’t the most exciting batch of wings I’ve ever had, I was fairly satiated.

#Boulder #Beau Jo's #Pizza Places #C grades #chains

Boulder Cafe

Boulder, CO

http://www.bouldercafeonpearl.com/

Wild Fire Chicken Wings

The Boulder Café has been around for 19 years or so. They are located on Pearl Street, over where the street performers do their thing. It has a slightly up-scale café atmosphere. Truth be told, I was a little surprised they even had wings. They only have one flavor, “Wild Fire;” which needless to say, pretty much sealed the deal for me. Also their happy hour deals are pretty awesome, so there was no reason to pass up these wings.

I’ll talk about the good things first. The chicken was a good size, not huge but noticeably large. If the wing is of the jumbo variety, they are often not cooked as well as they could be. I don’t mean cooked in an unhealthy manner, just soggy, for lack of a better word. No real crunch basically. These were cooked well, despite their size. That's about it for the good stuff. The sauce, while having different taste than the average wing, was just not that exciting. There was kind of a minestrone taste to it, at least to me. My girlfriend tried one and said that I was crazy. I am pretty sure there was a tomato type taste. Which didn't really go all that well with the Gorgonzola dressing. In addition, the wings weren’t sauced well either. I asked for extra, and that helped, but I shouldn’t have to do that. As for heat, the term “Wild Fire” for them apparently means a tiny flame that can be easily put out. They aren’t very hot. After a while, a good five wings or so, my lips (not my tongue) started to burn a little. This burn wasn’t really anything to write home about. Interestingly though, they are gluten free for those of you who dig that. I realize these wings aren’t the Boulder Café’s specialty, but I think they could use some improvement. I recommend the Café, but try something else other than the wings.

Brass Tacks:

Price: $7.99 for 6 wings, $11.99 for 12. However, there is a 3 to close happy our during the winter so the wings are half off. Nice deal there.

Flavor: 4 ~Unusual flavor, not bad really, but not really exciting either.

Heat: 2

Grade: C (75)

Bottom Line: The bland heat really hurts this wing. The price might be right, but they aren’t anything special.

#C grades #Pearl Street #boulder #Boulder Cafe

Tapatio Hot Suace

http://www.tapatiohotsauce.com/

"Es una salsa... Muy salsa"

Tapatio will turn forty years old this year. I'm sure many of you have encountered it in the past. As one can see from this photo my girlfriend took, it is quite popular among restaurants. No doubt you've seen it nestled against the ketchup somewhere. I got turned on to this sauce by a housemate and his girlfriend who liked to put in on everything. Popcorn being a late night favorite. Tapatio hails from Southern California, but its name comes from the demonym for the people of Guadalajara. It has the usual suspects when it comes to ingredients: peppers, salt, garlic, and some preservatives. It doesn't contain any vinegar though, which is interesting.

The taste is quite peppery. In fact, the peppers are the most dominant flavor. One can taste the garlic, which helps with Tapatio's kick. It has a pretty good heat, that is made all the more obvious by the flavor. This might make someone just taste the heat and not notice the sauce's nuances. Nonetheless, it is the perfect sauce if anyone wants to add some heat without drastically altering the flavor. This is probably because there isn't any vinegar. Anyway, like the motto says, it is a very saucy sauce.

Brass Tacks:

Price: Pretty inexpensive. I think I bought my 10oz bottle for fewer than 2 bucks.

Flavor: 7

Heat: 8

Good for a wing sauce?: I had my doubts here, so I melted some butter and mixed in some of the sauce. It actually made a pretty nice wing sauce. If you added some lime juice to it, it would be quite wonderful.

Is it good on Pizza?: Not an amazing sauce for pizza, but not bad.

Grade: B+ (88)

Bottom Line: I really enjoy this stuff, but I think many might like something a little less peppery.

Buy Some!!

#sauces #B grades

The Dark Horse

http://darkhorsebar.com/

Boulder, CO

"World Famous Buffalo Wings"

The Dark Horse has been a Boulder staple since 1975. Saddled behind a McDonald's, it has a “burger worthy of paradise” according to USA Today. A good burger is nice and all, but how are the wings? The Dark Horse is within walking distance of where I live and I go by it fairly often, so today I went out and winged up. I’m not entirely sure how to describe the place. It has a kind of college/sports bar atmosphere. The Dark Horse is one of those places with random crap on the wall. I mean random by the purest form of the word.

See what I mean? There is even one room that is decorated with old boots. I sat next to a painting of Jane catching Tarzan in bed with a gorilla and an old ice cream ad. It took my waitress awhile to get to me, but that was fine. It gave me more time to go over the menu. The flavors available are: Plain, Hot, Extra Hot, BBQ, Teriyaki, Honey Mustard, and a “Combo Sauce” of Honey Mustard, Hot, and BBQ. As always, I went with the Hot sauce.

They give you the whole 3-joint wing, which was a nice change of pace for me. I ordered one pound, which came out to 7 whole wings or 14 drumlettes and flats. Which is a pretty good deal at $6.99. The chicken was pretty amazing. The meat just came off the bone and it had the crunch that I love so much. The sauce isn’t unlike a sauce you would encounter anywhere. I mean it has all the usual ingredients and everything, but it does however transcend “typical” into a rare place that I will refer to as “classic.” Buttery and hot, it had a pretty ideal flavor. I found myself sucking on that third joint of the wing just to get more sauce. After I had finished, I found myself quite messy. Which can be a sign of a pretty good wing. The sauce had a nice heat, which may have perhaps been a little too subtle for me. Perhaps next time I’ll get the Extra Hot. Anyway, these wings were delicious on many levels.

Brass Tacks:

Price: $6.99 for one pound. They have no wing specials as far as I can tell.

Flavor: 9

Heat: 4

Grade: A- (90)

Bottom Line: I enjoyed these wings something fierce. I can’t wait to go back for some more.

#Dark Horse #Boulder #A grades

Chipotle Tabasco Sauce

When this was introduced when I was in high school, I went batty for this stuff. Seriously it was love at first taste. I put it on everything. The funny thing was, at the time, I wasn’t even that big a fan of the original Tabasco sauce. I know that’s blasphemous, but I have atoned for that sin by now. As you can probably tell, this is my favorite sauce that Tabasco offers. I’ll eat it on crackers just for a snack sometimes. It has a taste that seems different from the other flavors in the Tabasco family. I think it’s because it doesn’t taste as vinegary as the others. This is made from smoked red jalapeno peppers, which means there is a sort of aged taste to it. The sauce has a smoky, almost meaty flavor as well. There might be a hint of the original Tabasco in there, but it isn’t obvious. To me, It has a taste that could go with just about anything. Mashed potatoes, beef, pork, whatever. It has a subtle heat that could sneak up on you. I am really fond of putting it in soup, it spices things up nicely. It is just one great sauce.

Brass Tacks:

Price: Usually $5.30 for 5oz

Flavor: 9

Heat: 6

Good for a wing sauce?: As much as I love it, I’m not so sure here. I have found a number of recipes using just it, but I feel that it is a flavor best mixed with something. Maybe lime or another sauce. I think it wouldn’t be too exciting on its own.

Is it good on Pizza?: Yes. Very much.

Grade: A- (90)

Bottom Line: Although it is probably my favorite sauce, I think it would need a little extra help for wings.

Buy Some!!

#A grades #sauces #Tabasco

Pearl Street Pub

1108 Pearl Street

Boulder, CO

The Pearl Street Pub is obviously located on Pearl Street in Boulder. It is right next door to Old Chicago. I had walked by it dozens of times without really giving it much notice. I was out with some buddies and one of them suggested going there because they had a pretty good menu. It was fairly cramped. It is a very popular place, probably due to its archetypal pub atmosphere. There’s foosball, pool, darts and the like. It is a neat little “hang out” type of place. They were playing my favorite Talking Heads album when I walked in, so extra points for that!

The order is 12 wings for 7 bucks. This made me very excited, not only because I finally found a good deal on wings, but also because I was pretty hungry. The wings came out pretty quickly and I immediately started snacking. The chicken itself was fine, but I like it a little crunchier. I am starting to consider that perhaps I like my wings crunchier than I average person. Anyway, the chicken was fine, it was well cooked and adequate. The sauce was a typical buffalo sauce; the kind you can buy anywhere. It had a taste most wing nuts would find familiar. The heat was a bit on the low side, but that didn’t bother me to much. As far as I can tell there was only one favor, but I could be wrong. All and all, it wasn’t anything too special, but it didn’t really suck either. A fairly average and typical wing. The amount you get for the amount you pay makes up for some of the shortcomings.

Brass Tacks:

Price: $7 for 12 wings

Flavor: 4

Heat: 4

Grade: C+/B- (79.5)

Bottom Line: The fact that you get a good amount helps, but it is a fairly typical wing.

#Boulder #Pearl Street Pub #Pearl Street #C grades #B grades #Cusp Grades

Buffalo Wild Wings

http://www.buffalowildwings.com/

Superior, CO

with locations all over the US

Every so often I’ll try out a chain restaurant for chicken wings. Chains generally have to make food the same way no matter where you are. Basically the wings I eat here will taste the same in Kansas, Ohio, or wherever. Buffalo Wild Wings has been around since 1981. It has over 650 locations, and obviously, it focuses on wings. So it seemed like a perfect candidate for the first chain review. BWs has a sports bar atmosphere, there are so many televisions playing I was kind of amazed that there are that many sports televised at once. They have chicken specials on Tuesdays and Thursdays, Tuesdays being 45 cent wings. I took advantage of this.

I ordered ten wings, which obviously came out to $4.50. This is a pretty good special. You do, however, have to pay for ranch and blue cheese on these days, which is 60 cents. The usual price is $5.19 for 6 wings, which is fair. If you want more than one sauce on regular days, though, different sauces have to be in increments of 6. So you have to order at least 12 wings, which comes to $8.99. Which is still not a bad price. On these special days you can order an arbitrary amount, to which I am a big fan. They offer 14 different sauces (listed in ascending heat): Sweet BBQ, Teriyaki, Mild, Parmesan Garlic sauce, Medium, Honey BBQ, Spicy Garlic, Asian Zing, Caribbean Jerk, Hot BBQ, Hot, Mango Habanero, Wild, and Blazin’. A couple of years ago I did the Blazin’ Challenge. I had to eat 12 of their Blazin’ wings in six minutes. I did it in about 4 minutes and got a t-shirt and my Polaroid on the wall. It wasn’t really worth it. For this review I ordered 5 Hot and 5 Spicy Garlic.

The chicken itself it prepared nicely. There is a good crunch, and it is lightly seasoned. I only have one problem with BWs. It is a pretty big problem when it comes to wings, though. They almost always short you on the sauce. I find this weird because they are very proud of their sauces. You can even buy some to take home with you. This had happened at other locations to me, so I sort of expected it to happen again. There were few people there when I came in for lunch so I felt like I had some hope for adequate sauceness. To my surprise, the Hot wings were sauced well. They were quite yummy with a great heat. It would be a good sauce for newbies. I ordered the Spicy Garlic because it is my favorite sauce they offer. I have bought bottles to use myself at home. So of course, they didn’t sauce these wings as well at all. Because of that the wings tasted mostly of the seasoned chicken, which is good, just not saucy good.The lack of vegetables bummed me out a little too, but there are meals that do offer them. I don't think the special prices apply with meals however.

Brass Tacks:

Price: 45 cents each on Tuesdays, $5.19 for 6 otherwise. There is a boneless wing special on Thursdays as well.

Flavor: Hot: 8, Spicy Garlic: 6 (would be higher if they weren’t stingy on the sauce.)

Heat: Hot: 7, Spicy Garlic: 4

Grades: Hot: B (85), Spicy Garlic: C (75) Overall: B- (80)

Bottom Line: The prices are good and BWs is a great place for people that casually dig the wing. If they ever get around to saucing their wings better, they would be quite awesome.

#Superior #Chains #Buffalo Wild WIngs #B grades

Tabasco Sauce

http://www.tabasco.com/

Hot sauce was my gateway drug. When I was in my early teens I discovered its wonderful world, full of all sorts of varieties. Someday I’ll write about the sauce that began it all, but first I’m going to talk about an American staple of heatness. It is a flavor most of us know. At most diners it sits there right next to the ketchup and mustard. I am, of course, talking about Avery Island’s Tabasco Sauce. Whenever there’s a hurricane in the Gulf I often find myself concerned about those peppers. I know not all of the business happens on that little island, but still, I think of it. To me Tabasco is a symbol of America, like apple pie and Baseball. When the troops are fighting, they’re fighting for Tabasco too.

The varieties include: Original Red, Milder Green (Jalapeno), Habanero, Garlic, Chipotle, and Sweet & Spicy. I’ll get to the other ones in the future, this time I’m going to review the original sauce. As much as I love hot stuff, it did take me a while to warm up to this pepper sauce. I enjoyed the heat, just not the flavor. I actually liked the Chipotle variety before I liked the original. It wasn’t until I was in college that I discovered how yummy the original is on hash browns and it just went from there.

The flagship flavor of Tabasco seems the most potent of all the flavors. It is a taste that sticks around for a bit, but once you get used to it you’ll start to crave it. The flavor is pretty complementary to others with its nice medium heat. It does have a vinegary taste, but I like that. To me, Tabasco’s ingredients are like the Holy Trinity of Hot Sauce: distilled vinegar, peppers, salt. It makes a great addition to any recipe and if you add some melted butter to it, you’d make a fair wing sauce.

Brass Tacks:

Price: It varies, but about $3.99 for 5oz

Flavor: 7

Heat: 6.5

Good for a wing sauce?: Yes, but it might not be that exciting. It would probably be better as a base and mixed with something.

Is it good on Pizza?: Yes. One of the best hot sauces for pizza.

Grade: A (95)

Bottom Line: You can never go wrong with Tabasco, except for maybe ice cream.

Buy Some!!

#Sauces #Tabasco #A grades

The Sink

http://www.thesink.com/Default.aspx

Boulder, CO

"Buff" Wings

The Sink is a really interesting Boulder staple. I learned about it through my job. The Sink is the oldest restaurant in town and it is right across the street from CU on the Hill. It has a pretty cool college bar atmosphere. It also has all sorts of random art on the walls. I just dig the place. I had been meaning to partake of the wings there for sometime, and last night I finally got around to it.

The wings are advertized as jumbo wings. When I’ve seen “jumbo wings” before they were actually thighs, but as you might be able to see from the out of focus picture, they are actually wings. They are slightly bigger than your average wing, but not like mutant chicken big. Sorry about the pic, my camera just couldn’t focus on them for some weird reason. Only one flavor is offered as far as I can tell, but the waitress asked me if I wanted just regular buffalo, so maybe there are other options. They have it set up so that you can order 9, 15, or 20 wings. Pricing for wings is about 99 cents a wing, unless you get 20, which comes to 95 cents a wing. These are pretty normal prices. I’m pretty happy if it’s under a dollar, but the added bonus is that they are bigger wings, so this seems like a good deal. There are happy hour options for wings as well.

As for the actual review, the wings are fairly yummy. The chicken is pretty good, though I would have liked it a little crunchier. I have learned that for some reason, when the wings are bigger they don’t crunch as well. The sauce was a typical sauce that could have been hotter but was still pretty yummy. The size of the wings makes for a filling order. I actually took some home. I’d say these are some good wings that could use a little (not a lot) of improvement.

Brass tacks:

Price: 8.99 for 9

Flavor: 5

Heat: 5

Grade: B (83)

Bottom Line: A pretty typical wing, but the wing's girth makes for a pretty good meal. I’d take advantage of the happy hour menu if you could. It’s from 3 to 6 every weekday and all day Sunday. They also have a pretty fun pub quiz on Sunday nights as well.

#B grades #Sink #Boulder

Harpo’s Sports Grill

www.harpossportsgrill.com

Boulder, CO

For this first posting, I decided to go somewhere within walking distance. I had been to Harpo’s before. I went there to get training for my job, so it seemed a good candidate. Harpo’s has a nice sports bar atmosphere and as it was lunchtime, the place wasn’t too crowded. Looking at the menu, Harpo’s offers these favors:

Traditional Buffalo style

Wicked Hot Tangy BBQ,

BBQ Chipotle

Jamaican Jerk Spice Rubbed

Teriyaki, Spicyaki

Sweet and Spicy Plum

Rasberry Chipotle

Sweet Caribbean

I felt like the best choice for this blog was the traditional, but that BBQ Chipotle was pretty tempting. I just ordered the half dozen, which at $6.59 is a moderate price, I suppose. However a little over a dollar a wing seems a bit steep. Perhaps I’m just cheap. The dozen is a better deal at $9.59. Harpo’s also offers 50 cent wings every Wednesday from 5-11 PM. The chicken itself was fine, and it was cooked nice and crunchy, just the way I like it. An un-crunchy wing is lame and sad, as far as I am concerned. The sauce wasn’t bad but it was kind of boring. It was adequately sauced, just the flavor wasn’t very exciting. All this said I was poised to give it a C, but the fact that there were other vegetables than just celery, put it up to the C+ range.

Brass tacks for those of you too lazy to read:

Price: $6.59 for six

Flavor: 3

Heat: 2

Grade: C+ (78)

Bottom line: These wings weren’t terrible. I think I might go back sometime and try another flavor. Totally worth it if you go on a Wednesday.

#Harpo's #Boulder #C grades

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