WV Gourmet

For a few short years, I lived in Pittsburgh.  I have made several trips back up there in the seven years since I moved away, but there are some places that, until recently, I had not been to since 2002.  One such place is Wings Suds & Spuds, located in Moon Township.  On a recent trip, I went there with my old pal Big Mike (a veteran of Wings Suds & Spuds) and Rob (a Wings Suds & Spuds virgin).

Wings Suds & Spuds has pretty much the best Buffalo style wings in the world.  They have other things on the menu,  but I have only ever had two things there: wings and fries. 

A half pound of delicious curly fries.

I will discuss the fries first, since they are brought out as an appetizer.  There is only one size order of fries: a half pound boat of fresh cut curly fries.  You will find two bottles on your table to accompany your fries.  One is a bottle of ketchup, the other is a squeeze bottle of white vinegar.  As usual, I doused my fries with vinegar and salt, put a little ketchup on the side and dug in with my plastic fork and made quick work of my half pound of fries.  Big Mike took it up a level and ordered a side of cheese sauce for his fries, which he also made quick work of.  Rob, being a Wings Suds & Spuds virgin, did not order any fries. 

Then came the wings.  They have many flavors, but for me there are only two: traditional hot and hot garlic.  On this evening, I went with traditional, but there are two modifications available on the menu, which I always make: “extra hot” and “extra wet”.  “Extra hot” is pretty obvious: extra hot sauce is added to the mix.  “Extra wet” means that they are served up in extra sauce.  I love lots of sauce.  The non-extra wet wings come to you swimming in about a quarter inch of sauce, which seems pretty excessive compared to the measly doses of sauce you get at other places.  The extra wet wings come to you in about a half inch of sauce, which makes for an excellent dip if you still have any fries left over.  The wings themselves are big.  I mean really big, not like the sparrow wings you get at some places.  These things may have been pulled off an emu.  They are cooked until the skin is crispy, which is more than I can say for some places.  The sauce has the perfect balance of hot and vinegary.  Big Mike, a native of Buffalo, has proclaimed this his favorite wing place in the Pittsburgh area, and I don’t disagree.

The place is tight and the parking lot is tighter.  I have never been there when it was not crowded, but it is worth the drive out of the city and a little wait.  The beer selection is nothing special.  I think it is pretty much Bud, Bud Light, IC Light, and Yeungling, but you don’t go there for the beer, you go there for the wings.  Another added bonus is that they have a fantastic piece of art on the wall.  Their logo is a chicken in a tracksuit, running while carrying a pitcher of beer and a tray of wings.  They have immortalized this logo in the form of a carpet mural, which hangs on the wall of the dining room.  Regretably, I did not snap a picture of this piece of art.

I used to frequent this place with The Bundick Brothers, who would always invoke the Bundick No Wipe Rule, whereby you could not use a napkin until you were finished eating.  It added a little extra excitement to the consumption of spicy, saucy dead chicken parts.  Upon my most recent visit, there were no Bundicks in attendance so wiping was allowed. 

Behold, the extra hot, extra wet.

I was driving through Kentucky recently to visit some friends and had to stop off and get something to eat, so I went through the McDonalds drive through.  I was planning on getting their rip off Chic-Fil-A sandwich (which isn’t as good as Chic-Fil-A, but a good effort, nonetheless), when I saw that this McDonalds was in the test market for the new McAngus, or whatver they call their “premium” burger, launched to compete with the Hardees Thickburger and the Burger King something something angus burger. 

I had high hopes for this thing, and had wanted to try one ever since I first heard about it.  While everyone else in the fast food business has been launching a higher priced, “premium” burger, McDonalds has seemed to be sitting this one out.  When I heard that they had developed one, I assumed that the folks at the McDonald’s taste labs had been working their balls off to come up with something that would knock the ass off the current champ, the Hardees Small Thickburger.  I don’t include Five Guys in this, because they are higher priced - sort of like comparing Panera and Subway, sure they both sell sandwiches made on bread made in the store, but one costs a little more and tastes really good, and the other is Subway.  Anyhow, back to what I was talking about.  This was a big burger (one third pound), which I’m not that big a fan of.  The quarter pound size is more or less the perfect size for a burger.  Oh well, it looked really good.  The toppings looked good, and hell the onions (which typically suck at Micky D’s) were actually good (I think it was a nice big slice of a red onion, but don’t quote me on that).  This is a burger and no amount of quality condiments can save you from a lackluster piece of beef.  This was not all that great.  It was somewhat more beefy in flavor than the standard McDonalds burger, but the texture was dry there was something somewhat off about the flavor.  I’m not really sure how to describe the off flavor, but there was something a little shitty about it.  In the end, it was kinda good, but kinda shitty.  The fries were excellent, as awlays.

*Adendum: I subsequently learned that the McAngus has been released wide and you can get it at the McDonalds restaurants in Charleston, but I strongly advise against it.