The Original Q Shack – Durham, NC

Barbecued wings are probably the most difficult type of wing to execute well: the cooking process inherently means that there is a good chance of the skin getting rubbery, the meat not being tender, or the whole thing ending up a giant burnt mess. 

However, when it is done right, it results in a wing that is hard to beat.  The Original Q Shack in Durham, NC is one of those places that gets it right.  I had the opportunity to try this place – mainly for the barbecue – on a recent business trip to the Raleigh-Durham area.  The 'que was great, but the wings were downright incredible.  A group of about 10 of us went to dinner that night and the next day at least four of us were still talking about how good they were.

They represent everything that is good about a great barbecued buffalo wing: smokey, tender, juicy, and flavorful.  The layers of flavor that come from smoking the wings makes for a much more interesting flavor: the sauce itself is good, but most of the interesting aspects of it come from picking up the roasted and smokey flavor of the wings.  The sauce provides some fresh pepper flavor and what I consider to be just the right amount of heat for this type of wing: spicy, but able to let the other flavors sing.

If you are: a) a wing fan b) a fan of barbecued wings and c) find yourself in the Durham area, then I would highly recommend going out of your way to get the wings at the Original Q Shack!

RATING: 5 OUT OF 5 STARS!!

Atomic Wings (@ Blue Room) – Upper East Side, NYC

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It's impossible to talk about Buffalo Wings in New York without mentioning Atomic Wings.  Atomic is the only restaurant franchise in the city devoted to chicken wings.  They do a hell of a job…although I disagree strongly with some sentiments expressed on their website:

…to a true
connoisseur it seemed criminal that in a city
that has everything, there was not an authentic
Buffalo Chicken Wing in sight.

This may be true if we only consider a true 'Buffalo Chicken Wing' to be made with chickens raised in Buffalo, NY.  The chain boasts using fresh chickens from upstate.  But does the origin of the chicken really make the wing?  And is Buffalo really the home of the finest chickens?

Atomic Wings has 8 locations in ManhattanAn interesting thing about Atomic is that they're a franchise that has two types of locations.  One type is a restaurant with a fast food atmosphere (small, orange walls, no alcohol), but some locations are situated in the kitchen of an independent bar.  So my visit to Atomic Wings this week brought me to a bar called The Blue Room.  The kitchen is a separate enterprise; I was billed separately for my beer and wings.  Good thing Atomic Wings can boast a surprising level of consistency between all of its 8 Manhattan locations!

The Blue Room is located right at the Manhattan entrance to the 59th St. Bridge to Queens (also right next to the massive ski-lift that brings folks to Roosevelt Island).  The bar is small, a pool table takes up a lot of the standing room, and the place smells like hot wings…mmmmm.

Atomic offers several sauces.  The 'Sane' can enjoy Mild, Medium, Hot, Honey Mustard, BBQ, Jerk BBQ, or Teriyaki.  The 'Insane' (like myself) can try Abusive, Nuclear, or Suicidal.  I've eaten at Atomic many times, and for this review I chose Nuclear, their second-hottest offering.

The wings were all choice, with a lot of meat on each one.  And they were cooked very well, quite crispy…at first.  I was a little disappointed when I saw the amount of sauce the day cooks had put on them.  I knew that pleasant crisp wouldn't last too long; and despite efforts to put a few wings in quarantine on the side of my plate, my last few wings were on the soggy side.

The sauce, however, is very good.  It's an absolute standard Buffalo sauce, without any frills.  The sauce is smooth, light, and perfectly piquant.  It really is a nice blend, even if it lacks any particular personality of it's own.  If the goal is textbook Buffalo (and it is), then the sauce is a major win.

As for heat, it's probably time for me to move up to the Suicidal wing, as the Nuclear just isn't spicy enough anymore.  I hate it when the spiciest offerings still aren't enough…it makes me feel like some sort of spicy-food-mutant, which is a terribly lame superpower.  For those of you who enjoy milder sauces, I'd take this with a grain of salt – I'm sure the lower indexes are fine for you 🙂

Coupled with draught Sierra Nevadas at the bar, friendly staff, and a pre-season Red Sox/Mets game on the tube (the good guys won), it was a great low-key meal.  For a wing tour of NYC, I strongly recommend checking out one of the standard-setting Atomic Wings locations.

RATING: 4 out of 5 stars

…And Be Sure To Add A Second Blogger For Extra Spice

Hot n’ Saucy Wings is about to celebrate it’s 4th Anniversary.  That’s four years following ‘a man’s consuming passion and obsession with chicken wings.’ I’ve been salivating since the first post, enjoying the educated reviews of wings all over the northeast.  Now I’m excited to announce that I’ve been invited to join HSW as an author, reviewer, and all-around online wing commiserator.

I’ll start by mentioning that I’m related to this blog’s founder-and-still-main-author.  Now before you cry ‘Nepotism!’ allow me to attempt to validate myself…besides, screaming ‘Nepotism!’ at a blog is a very silly practice anyway.

As a child growing up in New England, I was under the impression that my favorite food was lobster.  As it so often turns out with that popular crustacean, my fascination with it was more a fascination with clarified butter…which I would later learn is an essential part of a classic Buffalo sauce.

My father opened a chicken wing restaurant about halfway through the presidency of the first George Bush.  He offered about 14 sauces and rubs, and four of the recipes were baked, not fried.  This is where my obsession with wings began.  I spent a lot of time in the kitchen preparing wings: hand-turning baked wings with tongs, frying the others to a timer and shaking them in durable plastic tupperware containers with sauce (two squirts for every 10 wings).  By the time the restaurant closed (bad location…at least the old man broke even!), I was proud to list the chicken wing as my favorite food.

That was years ago.  Now I live in NYC, and enjoy wings several times a week, without fail.  There’s a lot of options here in the city, and I can’t wait to start sharing them with the readers here.  We’ve got tons of bars & restaurants, chains, and foreign options.  The biggest city in the country is about to be shared with the society of wing lovers.

All hail the mighty capsaicin!