WING MACHINE - Cornwall ON

When I first moved to Toronto many years ago, I found a chain of take-out chicken wing joints which was unusual at the time, as only pizza places seemed to do wing take-out then. The chain was called Wing Machine, and the wings were unlike anything I was used to. They were seasoned and baked and they came with a suicide sauce that was just awesome. My future wife and I loved them and would get wings and wedges as a take-out treat. I didn't actually review them until 2007. Now I live in Ottawa and there are no Wing Machines here. But Cornwall has one!

We were staying overnight and had decided to just have a night in at the hotel. We had seen the Wing Machine signs in the past, and now was our time to go down memory lane with some loved wings. What was interesting was that it showed there was a drive-thru! So we pulled in and discovered the drive-thru no longer used. So I pulled up and went inside what was a shared Wing Machine/Double Double pizza/chicken location. In Toronto Wing Machine used to be paired with Pizza Panzerotto, then Gino's Pizza chains. Out here it seems to be with Double Double.

The location has been here for a couple of years I believe, but it looks new and space age in it's colouring. There is a lot more seating inside than I was expecting - the seat are actually big and padded, but I'm pretty sure they came from an older restaurant and are far from new.

Everything on the menu seems to be Double Double focused, so I wondered how this worked or if it really was Wing Machine. The Pizza Dude at the counter was super friendly and willing to explain how it worked. I ordered their Wing Nut Deal (saw online but not in store) and waited about 15 minutes for the food. While I was there, 2 middle aged guys working in Cornwall but not from Cornwall came in and were hilariously floored by all the options; they couldn't get over that they could get ribs or pizza, or wings or burgers or fried chicken or or or!

The Wing Nut Deal ($29.95) is 2lbs of wings (with sauce), fries (we got wedges instead), and 2 595ml drinks (Pepsi products). I also asked for some dip for the wedges which is normally an extra charge, but Pizza Dude was cool and gave it to me for free.

Pizza Dude also asked if I wanted the sauce on the wings or the side and I asked for side, so they came with 3 containers for the 2lbs.

The potato wedges were pretty big but didn't seem like the Wing Machine wedges I've had in the past. These were coated in flour I think and fried, and they were crispy and had a nice pillowy inside. But unlike other Machine wedges, these were quite under-seasoned. LJ found them blah, and they were a bit. Wing Machine's wedges used to be covered in spices, these were not.

As it would turn out, the wings wouldn't be like they used to either ...

It was obvious that these were not the same wings as the old Wing Machine. It's at this point I became very suspicious of what was Wing Machine and what was Double Double. I mean, these wings were breaded and crispy - nothing like Wing Machine.

I was really impressed with the size and amount of wings in the box. There were like 30 golden wings sitting in the box in front of me and I was super psyched.

The wings were a good medium and they were pretty meaty. Just a nice sized wing. They are breaded, but it's a lighter applied breading (as in quantity, in texture it's crispy and hard).

The wings are fried giving them a nice crunchy/crispy skin. It's a great texture. The problem is that the chicken meat is dried out. Fired wings aren't done at Wing Machine, but I did notice after reviewing my photos at the store it does say they can be baked. I ate a few of the wings just like this and they were good. LJ was not as impressed since they weren't super seasoned or taste like Wing Machine. For me though, these were a better wing on it's own.

So would the Suicide sauce be the same as what we remembered? Yes, yes it was. Their suicide is a really peppery sauce that has a great flavour, but a heat that goes after all parts of the mouth. It's thick and holds up to the fried wings. It has a really really good kick which turned out to be too much for LJ. I loved it but had a hard time trying to ration out how much sauce I had. 

We didn't eat all the wings (I think I'm getting old!) and I had a snack and a lunch out of the leftovers. I did ration the sauce well but I just wish I had a litre of the stuff.

FINAL SCORE:

So I don't know if it's just a shift in recipe since I reviewed these wings in 2007 or if it's because they are paired with Double Double, but the wings to me are much better. Bigger, crispier, but still with that thick stinging Suicide sauce. LJ found the wings under seasoned, and we both agreed the wedges were too, but they were still crispy. This is another example of a place I wish we had in Ottawa. 9/14

Wing Machine/Double Double
1610 Brookdale Ave, Cornwall ON
wingmachine.com

SEAWAY ROADHOUSE - Cornwall ON

In November I was back in Cornwall. It was a Tuesday and I had been researching Tuesday wing nights in Cornwall to grab some lunch. Now Cornwall's not that big, so I thought I knew all the places available. But a new place caught my eye; Seaway Roadhouse.

When I hear the term Roadhouse, I can't help but think of that Family Guy episode "Brian's Got a Brand New Bag" (S8e4):



I feel like round-housing my way around town! Anyways, this roadhouse is on the west part of town that seems to be a mix of industrial and residential area. The building has been around for a long time I'm sure, and I'm willing to bet it's been all sorts of businesses over the years. Seaway Roadhouse was just open this past summer, so they had only been open about 4 months.

Social media told me that Tuesday all day was wing 'night' and when I drove by and saw the big sign advertising it as so, I was pleased. I parked, but felt a little trepidation going in. When I think roadhouse, I think wood decor, a big bar, and dudes hanging out playing pool looking for trouble. I dine alone often and I'm cool with it, but a lot of people find it odd or couldn't do it themselves, so that puts me on edge sometimes.

As I walked around I wasn't sure if I had to go in the front door or the side door that leads into the covered porch. There were 3 guys smoking around the door. I felt weird to go in between them, but one guy opened the door and they all said hello to me. Ok, friendly place. Inside was exactly what I expected the roadhouse to look. Well I wasn't expecting all the x-mas decorations, but other than that it was. They were even playing country music.

The bar was packed in the middle of the afternoon; I seemingly was the only one not at the bar. I took a seat by the window and Brennah was my server, who was also the bartender, and after some research is the daughter of the owners of Seaway Roadhouse. She was very friendly, and clearly everyone at the bar knows her as I overheard some teasing and others joking with her. She brought me the menu, which is quite small (half is food and half is drink). My seat had a sign above saying $0.50 wings, so I told her I wanted the wings - I asked how that works and she said I could order as many as I wanted. So I ordered 10 hot. A few moments later she came back with a bone basket and napkins and wetnaps, but she had a question for me:

"Have you been here for wing night before?" I said no. "Ok well the supplier brought the wrong wings. They are really small. I'm really sorry, they are not our usual wings."  I really appreciated that. Clearly there was pride in the wings that they serve that they not only warned me even as a non-regular, but that they wanted my business again to apologize and have me back. A few minutes later, Brennah brought me the wings, apologized again because they were small, and then said that because they were so small they were only charging $0.30 a wing. SWEET DEAL. 10 wings with a drink came to $5. My drink by the way, was Diet Coke, but it didn't taste like a Coke or Pepsi product but more like a no-name brand soda. I drank it anyway but I probably should have said something.

It was really hard to evaluate these wings because these are not their normal chicken product. But I can describe what they did with what they have.

First off, I have no idea how many wings come in a normal order. I have no idea how big they are for sure. Until I go again, no idea. What did come with the wings were some really fresh celery and carrot sticks (nice), and the smallest little paper cup of ranch dressing I've ever seen.

Well Brennah was right, these wings were tiny. I mean these were some of the smallest wings I've ever been served (I have had smaller, but not by much). Sad for sure. The wings were deep fried and the skin was crispy. There was almost no meat on the bones though.

The wings were nice and saucy. The sauce was probably just Frank's or some other cayenne based hot sauce, maybe not, not too sure. 

I have to say, the wings were actually really good. Some people argue that smaller wings are tastier than large or jumbo wings, and on this occasion I'd be willing to agree. I really enjoyed these little suckers.

FINAL SCORE:

I can't officially score these wings, but what I can tell you is they got served with fresh veggies, were sauced well, fried well, and were tasty. I can only imagine that the Seaway Roadhouse does a good job on the normal thing. The service was friendly too. I will have to go back and re-sample when the wings are back to normal.

Roadhouse!

Seaway Roadhouse
830 Second Street West, Cornwall ON
Seaway Roadhouse FACEBOOK

DEKE & SQUEAKs SPORTS BAR & GRILL - Cornwall ON

- RIP - Deke & Squeak's is NOW CLOSED -

Sometimes the stars align just right and things work out in your favour. Recently LJ had business in Cornwall again, and this time it was an overnight trip. This also meant dinner out, and it just so happened I found that one sports bar downtown had wing night that night: Deke & Squeak's.

If the building looks familiar to long time readers of the blog, this place used to be BoJangle's which had just re-opened in 2010 (there had been a Bojangles in that same location almost 30 years ago).  They had pretty decent wings, but they closed down around 2014 or so, with Deke & Squeak's  (D&S) opening in it's place.

D&S's continued the sports bar theme but went with a different colour scheme and decor. We were confused by how to enter; I'm pretty sure I saw some people in the parking lot enter via the back patio, but we went to the front. The main door was closed (now seating) so we moved to the next door, which looked like it might lead to the upstairs instead as there was no signage on it. We kept going but that was the last door. We tried it, and it turned out to be the main door.

As you enter, there was a large table in the window, but the rest of the seating you had to go up some stairs. There was a large dining room on the left, on the right, a bar at the back and a game room off of the very back.

We arrived between 5:30 and 6pm and the place was packed, with more and more people coming. I had read on D&S's social media that it get's busy so come early, and boy were they right. We grabbed a table and our server dropped off the menus. Never caught her name, but she was friendly and great, if not very busy with the crowd.

I scanned the menu for the wings and found a big red panel. Then a smaller wing night menu fell out, then I noticed that LJ had another different wing night menu that described the specialty sauces. They had 25 different sauces and while we went pretty traditional, they had some interesting sauces like Pizza, Poutine, and Chicken Caesar.

To diversify our meal, the Tornado Poutine ($10) caught LJ's eye. This is not your classic poutine! It's made with seasoned curly fries, sprinkled with deep fried cheese curds, then topped with a gravy and Tornado Sauce (tangy-sweet hot sauce) mix. It was a savoury, salty, spicy good dish. Everything is elevated over a regular poutine. We couldn't finish it and I had it cold for lunch the next day and it was good again. LJ really really liked this.

The wings weren't out quick because of the crowd (I saw plate after plate of wings go to tables around us) but that's ok.

Wings here are sold by the pound, which works out according to the menu as about 6-8 wings. One order we had was 6 wings, another 7, so ya, it does range. It's also a good mix of flats and drums.

The wings were a good size, both in length and meatiness. The wings are breaded, but they aren't overly breaded. The breading is crispy, but the wings lost points because they were quite tough and difficult to chew. I don't think they were using wings, but I suspect that the wings might have been cooked earlier in the day and re-fried before serving to deal with the significant number of people ordering wings.

We ordered 3 pounds of wings with a bunch of sauces on the side ($0.50 on wing night). This allowed for lots of sampling.

CHICKEN CAESAR SAUCE

Described as Caesar Dressing and Parmesan sauce, this was very creamy thick sauce. It was, however, super mild in flavour. I mean there was that hint of parm, but you couldn't taste much. But it was nice a creamy.

SMOKED SEA SALT & PEPPER

This was another one that was quite mild in flavour. Just a dry rub, and while you can see the flecks of pepper and salt, you couldn't tell that it was smoked sea salt. Because the wings were so tough, you couldn't enjoy the chicken, which is usually what the seasoning brings out.

BOLD BBQ SAUCE

A commercial sauce that was sweet, but also dark, bold flavour. Slightly thick but still a bit runny. I liked this sauce and would get it again. It would be great if you could up it with spicy heat.

BUFFALO SAUCE

This was a slightly unappetizing looking sauce but it actually tasted good. It's hot sauce with butter and garlic. I think they may just mix garlic butter with the hot sauce. The garlic is pungent but good. I've had this type of Buffalo sauce before, at City Limit's Bar, which coincidentally is in Cornwall too. It's not traditional Buffalo, but it's flavourful.

SUICIDE SAUCE

This was a really great sauce. It might have had a Frank's type base, the built upon from there with chilies and other ingredients. It was thinner than the Deke sauce, but it was good. I would put it just above a hot heat level.

SQUEAK SAUCE

This was another homemade sauce with good flavour. On the menu they call it a 'Spicy Pepper Sauce'. It's base was 3rd Degree, and chilies and other ingredients. The waitress mentioned it might have ghost peppers, but this was not that hot. Tasty, and at least a suicide, but not killer.

FINAL SCORE:
These wings had real potential; good size, tasty sauces, fried crispy. They would have been better if the meat was not so darn tough. Overcooked or cooked twice was the downfall here. I suspect on non-wing nights the wings are better. Maybe it was just our order, because clearly the locals just keep coming back. I'm happy to go back and try again especially on Thursdays. I wouldn't mind trying that Tornado Poutine again either.  8.5/15

Deke & Squeak's Sports Bar & Grill
58 Pitt Street, Cornwall ON
dekeandsqueaksbar.com

#fryday = Kell's Kitchen "Suicide on Ice"

If you are going to have a good #fryday, then Kell's fried wings are a good start.

Well I was back in Cornwall and I was excited to get back to Kell's Kitchen and have their wings again since I was there last. Kell's is just a hole-in-the-wall kind of place, a dive pizzeria that serves really good wings. They really care and they make real efforts to produce some wings like you have never had before.

I wanted to try something different and was scanning over the take-out menu when the same dude I dealt with the first time I went to Kell's greeted me. He asked what could he get me, I said I was there for wings, so he asked what kind of sauce I was looking for? Something spicy? I said spicy - I asked about what the Cool Buffalo flavour. He was like it's Buffalo with Ranch, but it's not just bottled ranch but a homemade sauce that they do with their own spices. Ice Age BBQ was also BBQ with ranch, as was Suicide on Ice. He gave me the lid off a small container with the ranch and it was really good - very fresh, tasted like ranch with other seasonings but also had some green chili heat I think. I liked it a lot but it's clear the food here has a strong Indian influence in the cooking because it was almost like an raita-ranch dip.

I asked about their Honeymoon Sauce and that was mixed with Honey Garlic. He also told me they have a new sauce "Scooby-Doo" which is suicide mixed with sour cream, but he said a really high quality sour cream. But something about the Suicide on Ice was speaking to me. It wasn't long before I had my food to go and I was out the door.

I went down to the River and parked where I had some privacy but also a nice view of the waterway. I pulled the container of 15 wings out, and they looked very good. I both like and dislike this tin container - what I don't like is that it is pretty thin, so it doesn't hold its shape (especially with wings this heavy) so good luck trying to put the lid back on!

First thing, these are big wings, with a heavy breading on them. The container weighs a ton, and so does each wing. Second, the smell. Spices, fried chicken, more spices. It's intoxicating and exotic. Third, I may have gotten some drool in there.

The sauce was their spice filled suicide and their ranch mixed together. It works for sure. The ranch definitely tames the heat of the suicide, because I didn't feel the peppery burn that I had when I had just regular suicide. But it was creamier and the two flavours complimented each other very well.

The breading is crunchy, but holds up reasonably well with that thick sauce on it. It's hard to explain because you still have crunch, but the wings are also softened (in a good way) that gives it a unique texture. The meat was not so tender that the chicken fell off the bone, but wasn't tough either - a happy neutral zone was achieved.

These are a flavor explosion; its got heat, its got spices, its creamy. All the spices and chilies and the ranch - it all just comes together in a way that made my mouth happy. So flavourful and so different.

I can't talk about it anymore because it's making me hungry and my mouth water. Just take in a few more wing porn photos:

Happy #fry-day y'all!

Kell's Kitchen 373 Eleventh Street East, Cornwall ON
https://www.facebook.com/Kells-kitchenn-616850321690879/