wings

We like buffalo wings a lot.  Probably the best I've ever had were at Jeremiah's in Rochester, New York, where we even bought a couple of mayonnaise jars of their sauce to take home with us.  Out here in SLC, Lumpy's are really good (plus they used have all-you-can-eat on Mondays, although I don't know if they still do that - hope so!) and the Porcupine does a pretty nice job too, but I recommend ordering regular buffalo style and getting their Hellfire sauce on the side.

Friday night we went out to try a new place: the Wing Coop (3971 Wasatch Blvd.).  It had been chilly all day so B got to go with us and wait in the car.  The Wing Coop is located in a shopping plaza, between a bike shop and a pizza place.  It's tiny and not at all fancy, maybe nine tables, with old skis, kayaks and climbing gear on the walls with several flat screen televisions.  What is immediately impressive is their huge sauce variety: twenty-two different options, ranging from sweet to Cajun to habanero-lime to classic buffalo to "Eleven" ("mouth-numbing, panic-inducing, eye-watering, mind-blazing inferno") to Bacon.  H took one look at that tub of sauce and gasped, "Is that liquified bacon?"  The clerk grinned and gave us a taste - decent heat, slightly sweet and full of pulverized bits of bacon.  It was really good.

We ordered 40 "crispy" wings - the wings come "crispy," which are pretty small and you get more of them, or "juicy," which are quite a bit larger and thus cost more - and had half with the classic buffalo sauce and half with the bacon sauce.  The Wing Coop has beers on tap too so we got a pitcher of Uinta Cutthroat.  After about ten or so minutes, our order came out and we devoured them.  The wings were quite tasty (although yes, small) and I was unable to keep H from scraping the plate with a spoon to get the last little bits of the bacon sauce.

The place was full when we left with folks eating in and getting big orders to go.  It's a local place, not a chain, and they've been 2007, 2008 and 2009 National Buffalo Chicken Wing Festival winners.  It's so nice to see local businesses doing well and cranking out good product.  We'll definitely go back.