You can click on older at the bottom to see how some of our classic posts look so far in this format.

1 part ranch dressing

1 packet ramen noodles

1/2 chicken flavor packet

Make ramen noodles as directed. Add about 1/2 of the powder packet, or to taste. I typically use a tablespoon of sauce and a half tablespoon of ranch. Simple and awesome. I am eating it right now.

- Nate

Now if you have had the various flavors of Doritos, you know that typically the flavors taste nothing like the thing they are trying to emulate (Taco Flavor) but can still be damn good. Case in point with the Blazin’ Buffalo and Ranch. I am not exactly sure how to describe the flavor. Spicy nacho mixed with cooler ranch maybe? Certainly not anything resembling buffalo wings, but they are still pretty decent.

Anyone else have a favorite chip or something “Buffalo Wing” flavored? I would be curious to try them out as I have yet to get an artifical buffalo wing flavor that even vaguely reminds me of the real thing.

- Nate

To improve your Wing adventures in the near future, I have compiled a short list that I have began assembling of places that offer such a kickass deal. I love wings for many reasons; the sweat on my brow when eating some truly ruthless wings, the sweet tang of the sauce, the crispy skin, the succulent meat, and the flavor explosion that comes with each bite of a drenched wing. One thing that is often overlooked is the camaradarie enjoyed over wings, especially when you are sharing a giant tray with your best friends after 18 holes in sweltering heat. That is why, to me, wings are of a higher order of food. Not only are they delicious, but they also are just damn fun to eat, especially with friends. Just figured I would add that in as to reinforce how comically obsessed I am with wings (and have been since I used to order them from Ground Round at family dinners when I was six).

Although this is super cheap and delicious, what tends to happen is that first pitcher turns 3 or 4, so it is an added bonus when pitchers are cheap to keep the good times flowing.

Most of these are on the South Side of town or even *gasp* in Arnold, so bear with me as I try to check out more city joints with this awesome deal.

Here is the list:

Dulany’s – $20.95 http://dulanys.com/

Dylan’s – $22.95 http://www.dylanssportsbar.com/

JB Rey’s Fryhouse – $19.95 http://www.fryhouse.com/

***Fraileys Southtown – $19.99 (is what it says online but I believe it is a few bucks more these days) http://fraileysrestaurant.com/

Legendary to to wingmen with an official review to come, but Frailey’s has the most fantastic wings known to man according to myself, my former co-wingman Matt and many of our friends and family. Also the blue cheese is fantastic and $5 pitchers of Natty???? How can you go wrong.

Peppers Bar and Grill on Gravois – ~$22 but I am not 100% sure.

Schottzies – $23.95 http://www.schottzies.com/home.html

Highway 61 Roadhouse – $17.99 for 3lbs and a pitcher.

Most of these I have tried but a few I have not. I will shortly be putting up a review for Fry House and hope to make it to Schottzies soon as they have truly killer wings and I have not been for years.

Last – I posted this before but Kirin over at StlMealDeals totally rocks and although she offered me a position as her wing authority, I was forced to decline due to school and other responsibility related things. However, she did put together this awesome compilation of wing deals around the city.

http://www.stlmealdeal.com/2009/10/st-louis-wing-deals.html

Until next time

- Nate

Syberg’s

http://www.sybergs.com/

Overview: Popular bar with many locations around St. Louis. Decent food with reasonable prices. Syberg’s claim to fame is their special tangy wing sauce. The strange part is that the popularity of the sauce in addition to the many locations Syberg’s directly or indirectly owns results in a Syberg’s style sauce overload. Therefore, instead of writing a separate review for each Syberg’s owned location I will go ahead and review Syberg’s itself, then list the locations I have been which have identical or nearly identical wings.

You can actually make your own version of this sauce using Durkee’s Famous Sauce, Frank’s Red Hot Sauce and Butter. I will cook up a batch and post the correct proportions further down the line.

Places you can get these wings: All Syberg’s Locations, Helen Fitzgerald’s, Frankie G’s, Cafe Afton,Original Crusoe’s (called Durkee’s), Garvey’s, Pepper’s Bar and Grill (need to double check this).

Meatiness: 8/10

Sauce: Syberg’s Style 7.5/10 (usually sauce coverage is excellent as well)

Crispiness/Juiciness: 6/10 (tend to be a bit dry for some reason at many of the locations)

Service: 7.5/10

Value: 6/10 ($7.50 a lb.)

Overall (not an average): 7/10



I, however, am in law school in St. Louis, and although the academic rigors of law school are not wing related, I always find time for wings and beer. After spending close to nine months perusing the wing scene, I feel that I can no longer contain my opinions on the Stl wing scene and therefore this summer, I vow to began writing reviews for Stl wing joints. Matt was a bit more technical that I, and therefore I will not be using the awesome rubric we created, or really using any system at all. Far less objective, but as a wing veteran, I feel that solely my opinion will be enough to steer wing lovers in the right direction. I have had great wings (The Legendary Fraileys) and some not so great wings (what is up with everywhere having Sybergs Sauce) and will relay all the info via this site for now, at least until I figure out how to work WordPress. Obviously Matt was in charge of that front.

I will probably wait until after finals to write my first review, but due to my penchant for procrastination, I may find time to put off studying and write about wings. Of course I enjoy doing this, and will likely use this site as an excuse follow a round of golf with a 19th hole of beer drinking and wing eating with my buddies, pretending I have some sort of moralistic obligation to do so. I have a feeling this is going to be a pretty good summer.

- Nate

Reviews to Write (Recently had wings at these places)

Fraileys, Growlers, The Post, Cafe Afton, Syberg’s, Helens. Cecil Whittakers, Barcelona, SportZone, Schnuck’s Salad Bar, Dulanys, Peppers, Garveys, Smugalas, Culpepper’s, Buffalo Wild Wings South County/Gravois Bluffs/Wentzville, Rallys, Show-Me’s, Hot Shots, Schottzies.

Some St. Louis Wing Resources:

http://www.stlmealdeal.com/2009/10/st-louis-wing-deals.html – Huge list of wing deals in StL.

http://www.besthotwings.com/missouri.php – List of a few wing reviews..

Truman’s Bar and Grill

3304 Broadway Business Park Ct, Columbia -

This place is already pretty popular, many friends and neighbors regularly go to Trumans, although it is a bit of a hike from the WingCave, I promise that it is worth it. Excellet happy hour everyday from 4-7pm, half off all booze, same thing each week night from 10pm to 12am. How could you go wrong? The wingmen were full of wings and booze for a mere 10 bucks. Cant beat that friends. Reminds me of the early days of Bengals. Alright friends lets get to the MEAT of the review…Cmon….Eh? Meat get it? Love me some puns.

Meatiness: 8/10

Trumans serves some very meaty wings, and makes a point in doing so by mentioning that they wings are “jumbo” on the menu. I would certainly have to agree. They are not the biggest wings I have ever had (I think that award goes to CJs), but they certainly are meaty, as they won the meatiest wing award at Wingding in 2008 (this needs to be verified as I THINK they won meatiest, but may have also won peoples choice.) As I said, as relatively astute wing eater, Matt and I were only able to finish ~15 wings each, along with a few excellent pitchers of Select. I gave it an 8, as these are certainly on the large side, but some places have had meatier wings. If you like really meaty wings, which I know many of you do, youll enjoy Trumans.

Sauce:  This is really hard to rate, and Matt is going to have to help me…

Vampire Mace: 8/10

Buffalo: 6/10

Fire & Smoke: 7/10

Berry Hot: 7/10

Habernero????: 7.5/10 (ok, this is really funny because me and matt were unsure if this was habernero or not, which is what we ordered, as I had eaten them before, they seemed totally different, they were still delicious, but we  even went so far as to have the waitress taste our “berry hot (we think)” and “habernero (we have no idea)” to confirm if they gave us the correct sauce or not. She literally had no clue. It was pretty funny. Either way, the mystery sauce was pretty good, and extremely thick. None of the sauces were extremely hot, which was a point of discussion among the wingmen, and led to the misunderstanding among the sauces as last week Wingmen Nate had Habernero, and they were crazy hot, which was unlike our wings this beautiful evening.

We have more sauces to review, as they have quite a few, but sauce coverage is excellent if you ask for it. There are many sauces to try at Trumans, I believe 12 or so total, so we will be updating as the Wingmen will likely make this a regular Weds night spot.

Crispiness/Juiciness: 7/10

Oddly enough, the crispiness completely depended on the type and amount of sauce put on the wings. Our mystery sauce which may or may not have been habernero was abosolutly swamped, and therefore led to a less crispy wing, as did the buffalo wings. Our Vampire Mace and Berry Hot, were excellently crispy, which is always a plus in the eyes of the wingmen. The other few sauces were not necessarily crispy, but all around the juiciness was excellent.

Service: 8/10

Trumans as a whole offers excellent service. Our waitress was great, and although she couldn’t exactly ID our two mystery sauces, she did go so far as to taste each one halfway through our meal. Also we ended up with a pitcher, (they have chilled glass pitchers and mugs…which is awesome) and it had a huge crack and was leaking all over. They immediately replaced the pitcher as we never were sitting there wanting some service. Kudos to Trumans for hiring good waitresses and staff.

Value: 5/10 normally, 7.5/10 on Weds with$.45 wings.

Alright, Trumans wings are pretty meaty and filling, but normally, they do cost $.65 a wing, which can add up pretty fast. Ones Weds nights however, you can get full and drunk for $10.00, with great service, a great location, and a great setting in general. The Wingmen sure love Trumans, and we are most likely going to make this our Weds night establishment. So come say Hi to the two studly men surrounded by Wings and Pitchers.

Overview:

Meatiness: 8/10

Sauce:

Vampire Mace: 8/10

Buffalo: 6/10

Fire & Smoke: 7/10

Berry Hot: 7/10

Habernero????: 7.5/10

Crispiness/Juiciness: 7/10

Service: 8/10

Value: 5/10 normally, 7.5/10 on Weds with$.45 wings.

Overall (not an average): 7.5/10

Friends, the Wingmen really enjoy Trumans, as a wing joint and as a bar to drink with friends. Tuesday night Karaoke, great happy hour, and an excellent Weds night wing special earns the Wingmen seal of approval. Give it a shot friends.

-Cheers,

Nate

Lastly, many of you know that tragedy has befell one of the best friends of the Wingmen. In the interest of privacy I will not say anything more, but I wanted to express that the thoughts and prayers of the Wingmen, as well as many, many others are with our friend and his family.

Thanks.

Is it the party or the wings that keeps it rockin’?

The Wingmen investigate.

Regular (Hot)

If you’re looking for wings with a lot of meat, look elsewhere.

Willie’s wings are some of the smallest around.

I’m not knocking it, small wings happen to be my favorite.

These wings are the perfect size for snackin’ while drinkin’ and watchin’ the game.

Meatiness – 3/10

The regular wing sauce at Willie’s is top notch.

This in-house sauce has just the right amount of heat, and is slightly sweet.

Unique and very flavorful, every wing lover in Columbia should treat themselves to some Willie’s wings or a “Flaming Penguin” sandwich from Lee Street Deli and try this sauce.

Honey Mustard is the second and newest addition to the Willie’s sauce roster.

Not so hot, but the sweet flavor of the honey and the tanginess of the mustard compliments the breaded wings well.

Hands down the best “non-buffalo” or non-traditional wing sauce we’ve found in Columbia so far.

Sauce – 9.5/10 Regular, 9.3/10 Honey Mustard

Well, I thought it couldn’t be done. In my mind there was no way a breaded wing could be crispy enough for my taste, especially after being smothered in sauce.

Willie’s has proved me wrong. I have long dismissed Willie’s because their wings were breaded and I’m sorry I have.

A thin layer of breading really works well with both sauces they offer, and adds substance to the smaller sized wings.

Honey Mustard

Crispiness/Juiciness – 9/10

While the service at Willie’s isn’t horrible, it isn’t the best either.

It seems that if you’re not a regular the wait staff isn’t that attentive to your party.

High points include receiving a friendly greeting from the bartender upon entering and the fact that they leave a bottle of regular wing sauce on the table, so the customer can add as much sauce as they like to their meal.

Service – 6/10

Willie’s wings at $4.95 for 12 and $7.95 for 24 are pretty much the best non-special deals for wings we’ve found.

The wings are small, but with breading they prove to be quite filling.

I finished 24 and was super full. Nate almost got all 24 down, but had to stop a few wings short.

$7.95 for an extremely full stomach is a pretty good deal in my book.

Value – 8/10

Overview:

Meatiness: 3/10

Sauce: 9.5/10 Regular, 9.3/10 Marty’s

Crispiness/Juiciness: 9/10

Service: 6/10

Value: 8/10

Overall (not an average): 8.6/10

Junk food connoisseur and friend of the Wingmen, Jason “the Beav” Hine has always raved about Willie’s wings and now I see why.

Meatiness-
The size of the wings at Heidelberg were a bit above average. They certainly wernt huge, but big enough to get a nice chunk of chicken in each bite. The meat was good quality as far as we could tell, and seemed fresh. As the wings themselves were good sized, a bit above average, we gave them a 6.

Meatiness- 6/10

Sauce -
I will have to split this up into two sections, as we tried two different types of wings.
Regular “Hot” Wings – The sauce was a very simple buffalo sauce mixture with a nice bright red color. Its always hard to tell what exactly makes up a wing sauce, but if I had to guess I would say it was just some Louisiana hot sauce with little or no butter, and thats it. This isnt necessarily a bad thing, as the sauce was enjoyable, and decently spicy. Sauce coverage was a bit on the weak side, and we didnt end up having a chance to ask for extra sauce, which would have been nice. Its funny how often Matt and I order then wish we would have ordered them with extra sauce to begin with. However, the sauce was good, albeit very simple. Well give it 6.

Marty’s Wings – Ok. So a couple people have suggested these to me so matt and split an order or regular and an order of Martys. I will be frank. The Martys wings were really disappointing. I dont know what we were expecting but they were just wings…fried….with no sauce….and in the place of sauce sprinkled with a mixture that seems to be mostly made of up seasoning salt. They were just like overly salty, sauceless fried chicken wings. I mean hey, maybe some people like this but Matt nor I dug the Martys wings at all. One interesting note is that after the meal, the bartender said we should have asked for a cup of hot sauce to dip the martys wings in, and thats how most people like em. That seems weird as the only difference that we could see in the two types of wings was the lack of sauce/addition of seasoning salt on the Martys…but whatever. Sorry but we have to give the Martys sauceless, salty seasoning a mere 2 (I had to argue Matt out of a 1) on the Wingmen sauce scale.

Sauce – Regular – 6/10, Martys – 2/10

Crispiness/Juiciness
Matt and I both agreed that the strongest point of the Heidelberg wings was the the deliciously crispy skin. They were cooked well and were nice and juicy. The regular wings stayed nice and crispy even when sauced and the Marty’s wings had a beautiful golden brown color and perfectly crispy skin. I guess if thats really what you look for in a wing, maybe the Martys wings are for you. We decided to give the Heidelberg a solid 7 on the crispiness/juiciness scale.

Service-
The service at Heidelberg has always been solid, and usually ranges anywhere from average to really great. We have often come in with huge parties, and the waitresses have been extremely accommodating, keeping our pitchers full and our served has been served in good time. However, when we went in recently to do this review, I would say the service wasnt too hot. We sat at the bar, so we were not too surprised by this. We got our food and beer in good time, but the very busy bartenders didnt really seem to pay any attention to those eating at the bar, and we tried a few times to get her attention for extra sauce to no avail. They totally got some extra points though, as we thought we were being funny and wrote “See how you did at Columbiawingmen.com” on our receipts, expecting to leave, and the bartender to find it afterwords. Well, we were still sitting there when she got the receipts, and reading them sorta of laughed in a what the heck kinda way, and I quickly explained we were from a website that reviewed wings. The extra points come from the fact that she actually recognized us from the article in the paper! Ah its so nice to be a fledgling Columbia celeb. We gave em a 5.

Service – 5/10

Value -
Heidelberg wings come at a decent price, and are served in these fun little metal dish things, like what people will eat off of in the future. Or what a robot would eat off of something. I kinda like em. The wings cost $6.99 for ~10 decently sized wings, which comes in at a bout a 5 on the value scale, but during happy hour, appetizers are B1G1, so they come out to $3.50 each, which earns them a pretty strong 8 on the value scale. This lasts from 3pm to 6pm each weekday. As long as you bring a friend, its a pretty good deal.

Value – 5/10 normally, 8/10 during happy hour.

Heidelberg is a great place to drink a million beers, no one can deny that, but I have to say there are better choices if you are going out strictly for wings.

Overview:

Meatiness: 6/10

Sauce: 6/10 Regular, 2/10 Marty’s

Crispiness/Juiciness: 6/10

Service: 5/10

Value: 5/10 Normally, 8/10 Happy Hour

Overall (not an average):

5.8/10 Regular

3/10 Marty’s