CHARLEY RONICK's PUB & RESTAURANT - Whitby ON

#lotwwintercatchup

"Come in and enjoy the most delicious wings you’ve ever had. Everyone loves our wings and this is why we’re known as having the best wings!"

Back in January I had to travel to Whitby and back one weekday. My business was concluded after lunch, so I decided I was going to stop for lunch. It was a Thursday and after doing a quick search of the web for "Thursday Wing Nights Whitby ON"  I found that there was one place that fit the bill, Charley Ronicks.

I had never heard of this place before or even seen it before. I've been in the plaza before but never noticed it. All of the windows are frosted, which I find odd. It looks as if they are closed up or like a medical office. On the inside there's enough light coming in, but you can't see out. This place just doesn't seem that welcoming.

The inside looks like a chain pub/casual restaurant even though it's an independent establishment. The place is quite large on the inside with the restaurant kind of split into two sections; the bar side and the dining side. The bar side was quite busy, but the dining side was less so. I sat on the dining side and was given a two person booth.  Some of the booths have flat screens right in them for sports events I guess.

On their website they state their specials, but I was happy to see them posted not only on wipe boards around the restaurant, but also at your table. Charley's has a LOT of wing specials - basically it sucks if you come on a Wednesday (unless wings are included in the apps, but I don't think they are). Just to be clear, the wing specials are:

• All Day
• With a beverage purchase - no free refills
• No doggy bags
• No take-out
• No Coupons

All fairly reasonable. When I asked my server (Tanya) about this, the only part she mentioned was that I had to get a drink with EACH order of wings (ie if I was ordering 2 pounds of wings, I needed to buy 2 drinks). I later read about the no doggy bags, and I'm glad I did.

Wings are pretty prominent on their menu too taking up 1 page and a bit of another. There are a lot of flavours to choose from (25!) and I had a hard time figuring out what I wanted. I had to ask my waitress what the dealio was with the flavours. She tried to explain but just lacked an ability to explain. For example, I asked about the Mexican Hot and she told me it was "... with Mexican spices". Ok. Then I asked about the heats, and she said "Buffalo was a bit more hot, but the medium is pretty hot". I don't understand their/her heat scale at all.

I ordered two pounds of wings, and while the special comes with fries, she said I could get onion rings. Normally I would not hesitate to switch my fries for onion rings but I was kind of craving fries. Then without missing a beat, she said she could do one order fries and one order of onion rings. Yes please! Thank you Tanya.

 She brought me out my first drink (they have Coke products), as well as a bone bowl, napkins and a wetnap for clean up. Things were off to a good start.

Then after a small wait, my food came out. I was both excited and a little worried - this was going to be a lot more food than I think my stomach was going to handle ... and there were no doggy bags allowed!

Each order came with a large carrot stick and celery stick, but no dip. Normally you can get Blue Cheese, Ranch or even Dill, but not with the wing special. This sucks because I don't really care for eating the veggies without the dip.

The sides were very plentiful. The fries were battered (I don't doubt a frozen product). They were hot and crispy, but pretty meh. I definitely salted & ketch-upped these. The onion rings were pretty big rings, and they were crispy enough, but the inside onion was soft and when you took a small bite, the whole onion came out.

The wings come by the pound, and there were about 8 wings in a pound. They were split pretty evenly between the flats and drums.

The wings were large (when you only get 8 in an order, they have to be bigger). They were long, tall and fairly meaty.

The chicken wings come dusted, then deep fried, giving a crispy skin. That crispy skin held up to the sauce pretty well. They were relatively tender - not super tender, there was a little effort in pulling apart the bones, but not difficult either.

I went with two flavours. I really debated because I knew I wanted a hot/Buffalo type wing, but they also had 4 flavours of BBQ, and I do like a BBQ. Plus they have a dry rub of Roasted Garlic? Or Cajun Ranch? In the end, I went with the Buffalo as well as the Mexican Hot.

The wings came nicely sauced. Not a lot of overflow sauce on the Mexican Hot, but lots on the Buffalo. Each wing was coated well though. I like that.

BUFFALO

My first taste of the Buffalo was that it was good. It was not hot (a medium at best) in spice. I can tell it is a commercial Buffalo hot sauce (not homemade) because there is an artificial taste to it, but as far as artificial (as in not home made hot sauce and butter) Buffalo sauce goes, this was good. It was rich, kind of buttery. It was really good ... until it wasn't. By the end of my meal, it just became too much. I at least could alternate between flavours, but it just got so strong by my last wings I wasn't digging it as much.

MEXICAN HOT

This was a nicely spiced sauce. I've had the flavour of this in a suicide sauce before, no idea what it is, but it was not hot like a suicide. A little more peppery in flavour. If I didn't know it was Mexican Hot I would not necessarily associate these with Mexican (ie I could detect a 'Mexican' spice to it), but it is full of flavour spice.

Also salt. It's a very salty sauce. And like the Buffalo, by the time I got to my last wings, the flavour was just too much. This would have really have been aided with a creamy dip for sure.

FINAL SCORE:

So Charley Ronick's (no idea who this is if anyone real) really brought their wing game to plate. Lots of wing specials to start. Big wings, crispy wings, saucy wings. The flavours are big - nice spicy flavoured Mexican Hot and rich Buffalo wings - that started off really good, but were a bit much by the end. I had to eat them all because of the no doggy bag rule on specials, but I didn't really want to.
 I would go back again to try some of those other flavours too. Too bad I'm not in Whitby that often to try more often.   11/15

Charley Ronick's Pub & Restaurant
3050 Garden Street, Whitby ON
charlieronicks.ca

D'ARCY MCGEE'S RESTAURANT PUB - Ottawa ON

#lotwwintercatchup

So LJ was out at a work dinner, so I decided to grab some grub nearby. There were no particular wing nights or other places in the area, but then I remembered D'Arcy McGee's (or is it Darcy's as the name out front suggests) on Kirkwood Ave. A few years ago I had some D'Arcy McGee's wings in a party platter and they were good, so it seemed like a second time around would be good again.

This location is not like the other D'Arcy's - it's half Darcy's and half East Side Mario's. See originally this location was a Swiss Chalet, but for some reason, it closed. Then in 2017 this hybrid split the building in half and remodeled into a pub/family restaurant mix.

I have actually eaten at the East Side Mario's (ESM) before, and thought it was the smaller half of the two, but after entering Darcy's, ESM is clearly much larger. Not only do these two share an address, they actually share a menu. Well, ok not share exactly, but when I came in my waitress Kelsey offered me a choice of either ESM or Darcy's menu. So you can eat what you want in whatever environment you want.

Darcy's is a really nice pub atmosphere. It's lined with brick and dark wood accents. It's dark inside, but not so dark you can't see what's going on. One end is a beautiful bar, the rest is tables and booths for seating. Kelsey, my friendly and attentive waitress, had given me the option when I came in to sit at the bar, a table, or a booth (I chose booth). She took my drink order - I asked for a water and a diet pop (they serve Pepsi). I never got my water, but I did get my pop. That's ok I like pop better.

I had never seen anything about a wing night at Darcy's, but I took a chance and asked Kelsey about it. While they don't have a wing night, they do have 1/2 price apps Monday to Friday during 'appy hour' which includes wings. I was here after 6, so bollocks.

I was a little disappointed at the menu when I saw the price of the wings - $14.99. Woosh, that's pricey. But I have an addiction to feed.

I asked about the Buffalo Medium, because I was curious if they were really a Buffalo sauce, or just Medium, but Kelsey assured me they were a Buffalo. Wanting flavour over heat, I went with the Buffalo. I did find it interesting that they had Garlic Parmesan wings, as that is an ESM flavour and I don't think it is on other D'Arcy McGee's menus. Also interestingly named is the Sri-Rancha. Get it?

I didn't have to wait long and my wings came out. And I won't lie, I was miffed. But I will get to that.

Wings are not measured on the menu by quantity or weight (you know, 10 wings, or 1 pound). It just says wings. I got 8 wings, 3 carrot sticks, 3 celery sticks, and some blue cheese dip. The wings were evenly split drums and flats.

The veggies were fresh, and the dip had some chunks of blue cheese and was decent enough. At first I thought I had a lot, but in the end, I would have wanted more. Oh I also was given a bone plate and some napkins.

So remember when I said I was miffed? That's because the wings were small. I actually looked at my plate and said WTF. I can deal with tiny wings (I much prefer larger for sure), when you have to have a lot to make up for their size, but all I could think about was how they were $15 for 8 tiny wings. Even with these wings being breaded, they were still small.

The next #wingcrime was that these wings were soggy. They were not crispy at all and they came out hot and fresh. The only redeeming quality of these wings is that they were super tender. I mean the bones just pulled away like nothing. But c'mon, there should be some sort of crunch.

The wings were also not saucy. The sauce was all absorbed into the wings. That sucked. There was no extra sauce lying around either. There also wasn't much flavour to the sauce that was on them. It didn't taste like Buffalo sauce.

It's not that the wings tasted bad, it's just that they didn't taste like much at all. They reminded me of cheap grocery store frozen wings. Sure they are ok if you are desperate for some wings, but I couldn't help coming back to the fact that they were $15.

FINAL SCORE:

These wings were just frustrating. Small wings, soggy breading, lack of sauce, lack of flavour. The only good thing was that the wings were tender meat. But they are just too small and too expensive to warrant having again. I don't know if this is what these wings are like at other locations or this is just due to the East Side Mario's connection. Who knows. 6.5/15

D'Arcy McGee's Restaurant Pub
675 Kirkwood Ave, Ottawa ON
darcymcgees.com

REYNOLD's RESTAURANT - Ottawa ON

It was a gorgeous day outside, and I was in the neighbourhood of Carlingwood getting some work done on my car. The area is heavy on industry, auto-shops and commercial development. There aren't a lot of food options, but one of them is Reynolds Restaurant, and my car appointment happily coincided with lunch.

Reynold's is an old house from a neighbourhood from a time long ago (it's the only house in several blocks now, but I'm willing to bet there used to be more over 50 years ago). Inside it looks like, well a diner in someone's house. The place probably hasn't changed in decades, and I don't think customers care. The clientele is a mix of blue collar workers from the various industries surrounding Reynolds, seniors, occasional guys in suits, and randoms like me. The place was packed on this weekday after 11am and I had noticed that the patio was empty and it was beautiful out.

When I went in, I only saw one waitress and she was HUSTLING. She was serving, taking orders, ringing up bills at the register, cleaning. I actually felt a little bad when I asked if I could sit on the patio, and then she said she'd be out in a minute to clean up. I kind of thought I was going to get spit in my food for unintentionally making her do more work, but she was super friendly and looked after me very well - I don't even think she would spit in someone's food even if they were the worst. She said she had to clean up out there because the road construction nearby kicked up a lot of dust.

I was the only one the entire time on the patio which I thought was crazy because it was so beautiful out; sunny, but not humid, clear skies. Specials are out on the front of the deck (wing day was Tuesday, just missed it by a day! but only after 3pm).

 The menu is all over the place - it's advertised as Canadian Italian with pasta dishes, but I'm pretty sure it's run by Lebanese folks and they have shawarma on the menu (under exotic sandwiches). You can get steaks, burgers, fish and chips, or hot chicken sandwiches and toasted westerns. I mostly see people getting breakfast dishes here or what they are most known for, club sandwiches.

The first time I came here was because I had read they were the best Club Sandwiches in Ottawa. Quick personal story, when we would go on family vacations as a kid, there were 3 things I used to order all the time: wings (obviously), nachos, and club sandwiches. I love a good club sandwich - it's the combination of chicken, crispy bacon, and mayo. Ohhh, so good. Back to Reynolds, I do believe they just might be the best Club's in Ottawa. Fresh ingredients, packed with good chicken and crispy tasty bacon. But I've never had the wings here, so it was time to try.

I didn't trust that the wings would be very big, or enough, so I also ordered a side of onion rings. I also ordered them just to give some diversity to my meal.

These onion rings were perfection. Per-fec-tion. First, I prefer these classic battered onion rings to the large, breaded rings (which are good too, but this is my preference). Second, they were deep fried just right - biting into them they had a crispy snap, you know when you can hear that crunch? The onion also broke when you took a bite, so that it didn't all come out in a single string, I like that. I added some ketchup and I was just pleased as punch with this side.

Would the wings be as good as the rings?

Wings here come in $9.99 for and order of 10 wings but they also come in 20 or 30 wings. Nothing comes with these wings - no dip, no veggies, no sides. Wing night is Tuesdays after 3pm for $0.35 a wing, or Friday is 10 wings and a 20oz draft beer for $9.99, also after 3pm.

I got 11 wings in my 10 wing order by the way - someone likes me!

The wings were a small to small-medium wings. The photos make them look a bit bigger but they were small. They were also not all that meaty but they were pretty tender chicken, despite being frozen chicken.

The wings are deep fried and are pretty crispy. There's a decent amount of sauce on them and they hold up without getting soggy. Several of the wings must have been damaged at some point before frying because a few of the flats had broken bones, and slashes in the skin that created little canyons as you can see in the photo above.

I ordered Hot wings and they were Frank's Red Hot. Simple, nothing special, but it got the job done. Tasty. They were wet, with not too much sauce, but the flavour was good.

FINAL SCORE

Reynold's kills it in the breakfast and club sandwich games. The wings are just simple - Frank's Red Hot on crispy fried wings. They aren't big, they aren't fresh, but when you are waiting for your car to be repaired, they were the right thing to get. The onion rings were awesome. My waitress was great. I'll be back, but I might just stick to the club & rings unless it's wing night. 8/15

Reynold's Restaurant
874 Clyde Ave, Ottawa ON
reynoldsrestaurant.com

MELANIE PRINGLES ~ Whitby ON

Not long ago we were back to the GTA for a family function, but the night before we decided to go out for dinner. We thought we would try someplace I have never been, but my wife did when she was in high school, Melanie Pringles.

I really want to know the history of Melanie Pringles. Who was she? Was she a real person? I have no answers. Why is this retro diner in a strip mall named the way it is?

Here's what I can tell you, this place is like a 50-60's diner. Neon lights, 50's music, jukeboxes at the table. They even have a Star Trek pinball machine (its the 2009 Star Trek, but hey, what can you do?). The restaurant seemed old - I mean retro yes, but old like the carpet is long past when it should have been replaced. A little stale and in needing of a big cleaning.

They have a huge menu - something for everyone. Sandwiches, burgers, pasta; they've got it all. We were there on a Saturday night and they had a rib special on - a full rack for $18 but no vegetables (just the side of potato and coleslaw). That kinda sounded good, but I was pretty sure I was having ribs the next night, so I went with the wings.

Several people had wings that night at various tables. I had a small red flag go off as we were being seated and I saw a customer decline to have her 5 or so uneaten wings packaged to go. Was something wrong with them?

They have a ton of wing flavours - quite a few BBQ sauces and dry rubs. It was a tough choice. I also saw on another part of the menu they had Wings & Caesar Salad. That sounded perfect actually.

The wife and the father-in-law both went with the rib special, but he got the Roasted Garlic & Honey Sauce and she went with the regular BBQ. The ribs were a huge slab and they were well sauced. They were very tender with the meat just falling off the bone. I tried the regular BBQ sauced ribs and the sauce was good (they both preferred the Roasted Garlic & Honey) but the grilled aspect of the ribs tasted like a propane-like 'fire'. They told me the sides were fine.

My food came and I was pretty happy with my choice. I found it interesting that my salad came in a little frying pan.

I liked my Caesar Salad. It was chocked full of real bacon, croutons and grated Parmesan cheese. The dressing was tasty, but it was described on the menu as being creamy and this was a very runny dressing. I was happy there was a lot of dressing, but it was just too watery.

The usual wing order says it comes with celery and carrots as well as house dip, but mine didn't. I'm assuming it's because I got the salad version, and the double veggies would be too much?

The wings come as a pound, which was about 8 wings in my case. You can have Dusted (which I did), Buffalo Style (which I think they mean just naked fried), or boneless.

The wings are about a medium in length, but they are a pretty meaty wing. This is where the 8 wings become a pound because they don't look big until you pick one up.

The wings were relatively crispy, with the dusting and deep frying acting like a barrier to the sauce, which didn't prevent the wings from getting soggy, but creating a slight skin rubbery netting. The meat was pretty tender and the wings were pretty well sauced.

BUFFALO

I ordered the wings as Buffalo sauced, with a side of suicide, but I just noticed that the wings in the above photo are covered in the Suicide sauce. The Buffalo sauce is very orange and tastes like commercial butter/hot sauce. It's not real, but it tastes tasty enough. But it was even better with the suicide.

SUICIDE

The suicide sauce was kind of an upped Buffalo sauce. It had a nice bite to it (more than enough for the regular patron) but it also has a very sour, vinegary kick. I found it paired well with the Buffalo wings.

FINAL SCORE:

I liked the wings but didn't love them. Meaty with some sauces I was on board with. The texture was a bit weird. The salad was good, and a generous portion of ribs. The place is a cool diner, but needs some updating. They've got lots of sauces and lots of specials, so that's a plus. Never did find out who Melanie Pringle is though ... 10/15

Melanie Pringles
80 Thickson Road South, Whitby ON
melaniepringles.com