LORD of the WINGS (or how I learned to stop worrying and love the suicide): THE MADISON

Wednesday 28 June 2006

THE MADISON - Sean's Goodbye Party

Well, an old friend and former co-worker, "Seanie" is off to McGill soon so a gathering was held for friends to say good by and catch up. Sean chose The Madison Pub as the locale, probably for space reasons, but also probably for the sentimental values.

You see, as an undergrad at the University of Toronto, there are a few haunts that everyone goes to, at least once. The Brunny ("where your parents used to party"), O'Grady's, Ein-Steins, and The Madison. The latter, being the classiest of them all, is the goliath of pubs. It is huge. To get an idea, look at the picture above of the 3 houses. Thats most of the Madison. Its so big, I couldn't find the gathering on the first 3 patios; turns out it was on the 4th patio.

The Maddy is also always packed, thus justifying the need for so much space. What other pub can hold 2000 people? I was late for the gathering, having spent yet another night at school in the editing cell. I was very hungry, and being the "wing whore" as Dude puts it, I was up to review wings again this week.

THE SCORE

SIZE of WINGS: medium, despite being called "huge" and "jumbo"
HEAT: 4/10 for hot, 5/10 for suicide
WET NAP FACTOR: 2/5
PRICE: $8.99 for 8 wings, $15.99 for 16 wings & fries, $48.99 for platter

EXTRAS Info

SAUCE CHOICE: mild/medium/hot/suicide/honey garlic/jerk
SIDES: veggies and blue cheese dip
WETNAP: zero
DEEP FRIED, GRILLED, BATTERED: deep fried
WING NIGHT: Wednesday $0.25 wings 11am-11pm
OTHER: 4 patios, 6 seperate 'pubs', darts, music, tv's, pool tables etc.

Unfortunately for the Maddy, I had been to Wheat Sheaf yesterday, where the wings are very similar, but done better. Yes these were crispy, and a bit juicy, but smaller and not as much flavour as the Sheaf. They might have done better if I had more of a gap between the two, but not by much.

They also broke my cardinal rule on suicide. As identified by Jasper, they add paprika which makes it that peppery taste that I don't like on my wings. A great suicide is the hot flavour, but it should burn like a M-F-er.

Aside from the wings, the veggies were good, the dip was decent, and the company was great. The service wasn't great. In fact, there were no servers on the lower patio; one had to go to the bar inside to order. The bartender was friendly, and he did bring my food out too me, but it was a bit odd. The part I did like about it was that I could pay him individually instead of worrying about a group bill.

Another small rant - I hate the group bill. There's always someone who doesn't pay their share (forgetting tax, tip or just trying to scam the rest) forcing the everyone else to cover them. The worst example of the group bill is when the bill is divied up equally instead of by how much your individual meal cost. If my meal cost $10 and I ate $10 worth of food, why should I pay $30? I was dismayed when I first moved to Toronto when a) Interac almost didn't exist [and in many places still doesn't] and b) serving staff automatically made 1 bill no matter how many people were involved. I understand a family, even couples, but when me and a couple buddies hang out, why would you make payment more difficult??? To be reasonable, I understand a group of 10 or more is difficult for a waitress or waiter to make seperate bills, but their are places that do it.

While the wings slightly dissapointed, the reunion did not. Although I didn't get to spend much time with the Man of the Hour himself, I did get to see former Dons, current Dons, and met a few others while I was at it. Just like old times, the Maddy provided a good night.