Me too! So yummy! And I'm a straight female...I really *do* go there for the wings! ^

Thanks!

I hear ya. It's hard to convince my gf that I only go there for their wings

Non-Traditional Wings:
I really enjoy the wings from Devil's Alley in Philadelphia.

Traditional Wings:
I'm pretty sure this is a chain in Central Ohio, but Jake's in Mt. Vernon, OH serves some amazing HOT wings. Pair that up with a cold adult beverage and you're ready to go!

I can't stand wings from just about any national chain... usually i can find a pretty decent local place (but I'm having a hard time finding good wings here in albany). nothing does compare to the numerous excellent wing choices in buffalo

Wings are popular here. My home base (Jacksonville, AL) is a college town. I think that's at least partially the reason. We have chain options that are ok (Zaxby's) but a number of independents are head and shoulders above the norm. I am not a traditionalist when it comes to wings, so I like Coop DeVille (Strictly takeout) which has about 40 different flavors. Struts is nice because it's a bar too and all the servers are cute college girls. Cooter Browns and Jeffersons are not strictly wings places, but wings are part of a well executed product line at both.

I've always been amused by the cute names some restauarnts give their foods. Wings are a great opportunity to do just that. I don't remember the place, but one restaurant I've eaten at named their hottest wings "Melt your fillings".

Happy Hour price for 12 is $3.50 on the bar side.

Not fried, but marinated then grilled. Fantastic.

Couldn't be for the wings...I'm sure!

I say that having finally tried HOOTERS back in October when I found myself at an airport hotel outside ORD on Sunday evening with the only eating option aside from call-in pizza (no room service or restaurant in the hotel open) for blocks around was the HOOTERS across the parking lot (former Holiday Inn, now Wyndham Garden Inn).

I was quite overwhelmed by what a dump this icon of American food service turned out to be. The design of the restaurant was atrocious: the entry and waiting area was right next to the entry/exit to the kitchen and a high traffic area as waitresses scrambled in and out with their orders...I suppose this was designed purposely to give those waiting for tables a good look-see! But it caused bottlenecks that could have easily been avoided by placing this entry at the other end of the room/bar.

Anyhow, I found the chicken wings mediocre at best and down the chart of what I've tasted around NAmerica. My standard reference is a once yearly visit to the original home of this delight, Buffalo's Anchor Bar, with few friends. Of late, the Mill Street Brewery here in Toronto has just opened a Brewpub/Restaraunt and their wings are the best I've found here in Canada. Of course, it doesn't hurt that on Tuesdays and Saturdays these go for 39� a wing (Canadian cents) and Mill Street brews some of the finest craft beers on the continent too. (Their Tank House Ale is one of the finers true English-style IPAs, though it doesn't go under that category.)

My reference point is not necessarily the seasoning, though that is important, and not just for the "hot". Rather it is the meatiness of the wing and drumlets, and the degree of cookedness.

Anyhow, the only saving grace of HOOTERS was the $12.95 pitcher of Samuel Adams lager. Okay, there were redeeming features about the waitresses, but not enough to compensate for the disappointment of these so-called legendary wings.

BRILLIANT!^

I can't agree more... Here are some clues to making a BAD WING:
1. Not Cripsy Enough
2. Someone Decided To Bread Them
3. Ranch Dressing (Ack!)
4. They are the size of a pigeon wing
5. Mostly two boners on the plate (where did the single boners go?)

So for inside Buffalo, I'd have to say Duff's on Sheridan Drive/Millersport

Outside Buffalo.... Boston Area has Wing Works
And there is a chain in Phonenix that is supposed to be decent.

Usually it requires a native of Buffalo to leave the city and open a restaurant to even get close.

Honorable mention goes to Hooters for covering up bad wings (See criteria above), by uncovering the wait staff. Note, if you tell them to make crispy, unbreaded wings, super hot (the wings that is) with blue cheese, they aren't too bad actually.

Any number of boners on my plates and I'm outa there!

BamaVol Jr #1 was a Hooters cook for a while. The level of pulchritude and hooterosity at his unit was quite low. I would not go there for anything but wings. Lots of men do, though. The stories that always shocked me were the little kids birthday parties. I always wondered how many guys lost custody as a result of that demonstration of poor judgement.

I knew this was coming...

And you know what I mean.

Did you mean to say "We have a weiner!".

Culpepper's, St. Louis, MO. Actually makes my mouth water to think of it. The only reason to go to that town, unless you have a need to go to the Bowling Hall of Fame. Well, Ted Drewe's is anothor reason....but that's it!

Yakzie's in Chicago is pretty good too.

I totally agree... as a native of Western NY also, this is a very accurate assessment.

I went to grad school in the mid 80s in Binghamton... there was a place there who thought wings were boiled and then coated in sauce. I was appalled at this abomination of the Buffalo wing.

For some reason, many places where I'm at now in WV (other than Hoots or Quaker Steak) attempt to serve ranch dressing/dip with wings. Who started this sacrilege of the Buffalo wing? There is no substitute for blue cheese dressing.

I hate ordering wings somewhere and getting a dozen which are the size of my small fingers. Buffalo wings have some meat on their bones, not just some flesh.

I must say I like the term "two boners". I've never heard the non-drumstick portions referred to that way.

On our way back from CLT the other day, I let my son pick where we ate lunch... A Taste of Buffalo or the Quaker Steak & Lube at Concord Mills. He chose the Quaker Steak. I must say, got the first disappointing wings I've ever had at one of those. They didn't have a lot of sauce (ordered the Hot), and I think they put Mild instead of the Hot on them as I didn't even break a sweat. I also think they had been sitting in the back before they were brought out as the cup of cheese sauce for my lube chips had developed a serious skin on the top. (I do recommend the fresh cut lube chips and cheese dipping sauce spiked with Guiness... I almost always order those now.)

Shareholder.

Looking like I'll have to get to Toronto again soon to try this wings. They sound much like Dorien's - thick and meaty.

I too have seen Dads hosting their children's birthday parties at Hooters (most recently one in NYC... a bunch of guys with their sons.. a "male bonding" thing?) The first time I saw it I was shocked then wondered if the wives knew.