DON CHERRY's SPORTS GRILL - Kanata ON

= Don Cherry's is NOW CLOSED - RIP =

Chicken wings and sports go hand in hand. I don't care for sports, so I'm not super excited about that relationship, but I love wings and I appreciate that the success of chicken wings as a main stream food would not exist without sports. So sometimes I have to suck it up and engage with sports to get wings. That led me to Don Cherry's Sports Grill.

If you are not familiar with Don Cherry, you are probably not Canadian. Probably the biggest sports celebrity in the country (Wayne Gretzky aside) not as an athlete, but as the flashy (gotta see his jackets and ties) and very opinionated hockey commentator who for decades has been co-host of Hockey Night in Canada. I don't care much for Don, I don't like his politics, beliefs or his personal opinions, but he's great at his hockey job.

Over 20 years ago he started his own chain of sports bars. Growing up I had never heard of them, and it wasn't until about 2007 when LJ came to Ottawa that I learned about them. There were about 3 in the Ottawa area ... now there is one. It's a chain that I think has had issues and I assumed they had gone almost out of business. There are almost 20 locations around the country, but I question how the franchise is run when I see there is no consistent e-mail for the restaurants. Some of them use Gmail, Rogers, Yahoo and even Hotmail accounts (Hotmail!), some are hotels address ( I assume the sports bars are embedded within the hotels) and one e-mail is even another former restaurant! At the start of March I wasn't even sure if the last location nearby was even still open because the website didn't work (but since last month has relaunched with a redesign). Then I randomly checked Facebook (I rarely go on Facebook anymore) and saw a post on social media:

 I had been curious to try one of the Don Cherry's for years but never made an effort, and had no plan to go there but after seeing the post that they had wing 'night' all day on Mondays, I thought this was the time to check them out. Plus they claimed to have Ottawa's best wings (funny because they are in Kanata, a suburb town of Ottawa, and not claiming to be the best in Kanata. That's a bold claim on many levels!) so lunch was decided for that day.

The one location left in the Ottawa area is in Kanata at the Hazeldean Mall. It's sepperate from the mall itself except it's in the strip mall part of the parking lot. I was expecting the place to be run down and empty, but I was wrong. The place is huge inside, with lots and lots of seating. The place itself looks nice - not the typical dive sports bar. There is still tons of screens, sports memorabilia, and even one or two of Don's famous jackets.

The location was hopping, a mix of folks from seniors to workers, most of which seemed to be doing breakfast (I was going for early lunch). At least 9 or so table worth of people! The sign when entering says 'Please Wait to Be Seated' but the waitress (didn't get her name and shee was seemingly the only one working) said I could sit anywhere I wanted. There were lots of places to choose, but I chose a nice window table, but it, like all the tables around, were dirty. Crumbs etc. Clearly had not been cleared off the night before or in the morning. Not cool. The waitress came by and took my drink order - I asked for Diet Coke (or Pepsi if I have too) and she said Diet Coke, but then I saw in the menu they had Coke Zero (my preferred pop)! Dang it I should have just asked.

I'm always nervous about online advertised wing specials because more than once I've been burned by an outdated website or online post that said wing night and it wasn't. But I was pretty confident after a morning post, but it wasn't until I went to the washroom at the END of my visit that I saw a the above poster. The waitress came to take my order and immediately took my menu, then asked what I would like. I had to ask if they had wings on and she said yes, but didn't explain it.

I said I would get 2lbs, she asked if I was ok with breaded and I said yes. She asked about the sauces; I knew I was going with Buffalo Butter, but I asked about the Don's Ultimate sauce, which she said was just a really sweet BBQ sauce. Hmpf. I wanted a more nuanced flavour, so I went with Smokey BBQ instead. I also asked about the Wacko Pepper if that was a suicide and she said yes and I asked for a side. This was all done without me having the menu because again, she had taken it away. The menu said you had to ask for ranch or blue cheese, but she turned and walked away without asking if I wanted anything else, so I spoke up, then she turned and almost fell because she was going so quick. She came back and I asked for blue cheese.

I didn't wait long and she brought back a big platter. It all looked very impressive and I was excited for my wing feast. She also brought a bone plate, napkins, and a wetnap. I should also mention free refills on the soft drinks.

There were no celery or carrots with the dip. I asked for blue cheese, but at first when I tasted it I thought it might be ranch, but it was blue cheese. There were some cheese chunks, but this wasn't as sour as other blue cheese dips. It was still good, and I needed it for sure for wing dipping.

The wings come by the pound and the menu states upfront that the number of wings vary as the size of the wings vary. In my case, there were 7 wings in each order, making that 14 wings in total.

The wings were in length ranged from small to large; very inconsistent. The wings are also heavily breaded meaning the size was a little puffed up. That was ok, but a number of the wings were broken or had splintered pieces sticking through, which meant you had to be carefull not to stab yourself or take a bite that would splinter in your mouth.

As I said, these wings had a lot of breading on them, forming a crunchy outer shell. If you are a person who doesn't like breading, these wings are not for you. There were times I would take a bite and not even get chicken. It was very crispy/crunchy - so much so you can hear the crunch when you take a bit. That breading did hold up to the sauce well though.

Some of the meat was tender enough; some were ok to tear apart the bones, but others there was difficulty. The wings were from frozen. The Buffalo Butter wings were pretty well sauced, were wet enought but was partly absorbed into the breading.

The other wings were thickly covered in BBQ sauce (the way they should be). It was a mess to eat (the way wings should be). You are going to need your napkins for sure.

I did my usual for wing nights and got two different flavoured wing orders (Butter Buffalo & Smokey BBQ) with a side of suicide Wacko Pepper.

those white things are not chili but garlic pieces

BUTTER BUFFALO

When I see Butter Buffalo on a menu, I make a few assumptions: 1) That it will be Buffalo Sauce (Cayenne Hot Sauce with vinegar and butter) and 2) When they put butter in the title it's there to emphasize to those who don't know what Buffalo means and that it's not just hot sauce but also butter. That should be it. But this is not the first time I have had in Eastern Ontario a 'butter buffalo' sauce that was all about the garlic.

So this sauce does have hot sauce and butter, but what really stands out is the copious amounts of chopped garlic in it. It's good. The garlic goes well with butter, and hot sauce. It's just not what I expect because Buffalo usually doesn't have garlic. Call this Garlic Butter Buffalo and I'm cool with that, but you can't just add a significant ingredient that drastically alters a sauce and keep the old name.

SMOKEY BBQ

This is exactly what I want when I order a Smokey BBQ sauced wing. It's smokey, it's BBQ-y. It's a thick sauce that is savoury and dark, but has more than a hint of smokey. I'd like a little more sweetness to it though.

WACKO PEPPER

This was a familiar flavour to me, like I've had somewhere else before. It had a nice bite, but not brutal or scary as the name suggests. You say Wacko, but do not serve wacko. I like it cause it was peppery, not too thin, not too thick, and just had a nice flavour with the sting. It too was a bit salty though.

No matter the sauce, I found everything pretty salty. And again, that breading was thick and I'm not usually a wing dipper, but I really needed that blue cheese dip to cut through some of the wings. And blue cheese dip is salty, so what does that say?

FINAL SCORE:

Wow, my feelings about this place were all over the map. Waitress was awkward at points and very friendly at others. The place was spacious and nice but the tables were dirty. The wings were small and large, tender and tough. Crunchy breading which was both good and bad. The sauces were good, Butter Buffalo being garlicy was unexpected, the BBQ was dark and smokey, and the Wacko Pepper was peppery good with a bit of bite. I'm in no rush to go back, but I would go back, but only for wings on Monday wing days.

Don Cherry's Sports Grill
320 Eagleson Road, Kanata ON (and other locations)
doncherryssportsgrill.com