MAY 2013
I love my job. One of the big perks of my office is that I have a lot of professional development opportunities. One of these opportunities brought me to one of my associations, OACUHO, who was holding a conference at Queen's University in Kingston.
Most of my office co-workers were also in attendance, and one of them, Kat, went to Queens, so when we arrived and were ready for dinner, she suggested the Copper Penny.
This places name will one day become anachronistic, as we here in Canada are in the process of eliminating the penny from our currency.
Inside, the place does not have a consistent theme. The front kind of looks like a breakfast/tea house, the main bar has blue lights, and the back is in earthy clay tones. It did not seem like a pub, but the menu was very pub-like.
Jo, Kat and Sarah decided they were going to share some plates. I was on my own to have wings (but they did let me do some tasting.
There was an order of their fries ($4.65). The CP is famous for its fries, which are kind of a crinkle cut, but the secret is the seasoning (which is said to be onion soup mix) that make them very good.
Want to up those fries? How about make them Fajita Poutine fries. Tender skillet cooked onions, peppers and chicken, topped with gravy, sour cream and salsa. It might look like a mess, but this Tex-Mex meets Quebecois made for a great and hearty North American summit.
There was also a Brushcetta amking its way to the table. I don't like Brushchetta (its the warm tomatoes - I'll usually scoop that off and eat sepperately) but this was not bad. The cheese was a little skimpy in my opinion, but I think everyone enjoyed.
Wings here come in 'singles' or 'large' which doesn't make any sense to me. Single and Double does, or Small and Large, but not Single and Large. There are about 6 wings in an order and was served with a side of
They are heavily dusted, then deep fried, then tossed in thick, generous amounts of sauce.
The menu says they are "Super Jumbo" chicken wings. Folks, these were not Super Jumbo. They were not jumbo either. They were large - not so much in length, but they were very meaty.
The skin started out crispy, but the skin absorbed a lot of the thick sauce.
My dining companions also ordered a plate of wings, but went with mild or maybe medium sauced wing (I can't remember). I didn't try, but they liked them. It should also be noted that they refer to these sauces as BBQ with "all the heats" - this is very confusing because the above could be BBQ sauce, but my suicide was clearly not BBQ sauce.
Suicide (or was it hot?) was a nice, buttery, rich, thick sauce that had some heat, but was augmented by pickled jalapenos, which gave the wings a bit of a briney tang.
While the wings are very saucy, it was surprising how well they dusting and skin held up to the thick sauce. There was still a crunch when you bit into them. These were some good wings.
FINAL SCORE: The inside of the Copper Penny is a little strange, but the food was good. The wings were solid specimens, homemade in both sauce and preparation. Meaty, crispy and full of flavour. Too bad they don't have a wing night. 6.5/10
The Copper Penny
240 Princess Street, Kingston ON
thecopperpenny.ca
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