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

O'NEILL's PUB - Long Sault ON - An Incomplete Review

This is part of my #lotwsummercatchup for 2019 & a Lost Review.

This is actually a pretty problematic review. First, it was kind of on the run (as you will read) and I didn't get a chance to take notes. Now that this was several months ago now, where I usually have a good memory for the wings I eat, I don't remember the flavour of these at all. So I'm still going to post the pics and the story, but unfortunately I don't have specific food review. Bah!

So LJ had work in Cornwall and I tagged along. I dropped her off and went about my business driving away with our vehicle. She didn't know how long she would be but I would be on my own for lunch. After running some errands, I was hungry and decided to get some wings. Now I've tried a number of places for wings in Cornwall over the years, and I have places I like, but I'm always up for something new. So I did some research and a new place came up with apparently good wings: O'Neill's Pub. Only O'Neill's isn't in Cornwall, it's in Long Sault, which is about a 15 minute drive down the road.

I pulled up and saw that it was at the end of a strip mall, complete with big patio. It was grey and rainy, so that patio was empty. I went inside and it was quite large and cavernous inside. It was not full of people, but it was pretty busy considering the size of the joint. The place doesn't have a strong decor identity. There's lots of sports stuff. some Irish pub elements, and just general eatery look.

My waitress was I think the only waitress working, and I think she was the bartender too. She was quite busy. She had a lot of regular customers she was interacting with, and she had a lot of ground to cover. She took my drink order, I asked for Diet Coke or Diet Pepsi, but when she brought it, it tasted like generic pop and wasn't great.

I was really impressed that they have two wing nights, Tuesdays and Saturdays. Saturdays!!! $0.49 wings is not bad, but even the every day wing prices aren't bad either.

There were a bunch of wing flavours available, and I had to ask what the differences were. My memory is a bit sketchy, but I'm pretty sure she said Hot and Frank's was the same thing, Suicide was Frank's X-Tra Hot, and Buffalo was Frank's Buffalo.

I wish I had asked before hand about the Blue Cheese and Sour Cream at the end of the sauce lists: are they actual wing sauces, or are they dips? Or can they be both? Either way I think I ordered the Buffalo with a side of Suicide.

Then it happened. LJ texted me that she was finished early and ready to go. Oh no! So before my wings came I was able to flag down my waitress and ask her if I could get them to go. She said no problem, and was also able to bring me my bill. I paid, got my take-out wings, and then didn't get a chance to eat them until the next day. But I forgot to take notes so I don't remember how they were exactly.

What I can tell you is that they were breaded, they weren't long big, but they were pretty meaty. Because they were served up the next day, I don't know if they were saucy or crispy or mushy or tender.

FINAL SCORE:

???

This is what I can tell you - I liked the wings, I liked the price, and I will for sure go back and check them out again sometime in the future.

Sorry for the poor review!

O'Neill's Pub
Long Sault ON
facebook.com/ONeills-Pub-1410589429235292/

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

Return to SUMMERHAYS GRILL - Ottawa ON

Back in 2008 I checked out Summerhays Grill in Centrepointe part of Ottawa. I liked the wing special but wasn't crazy about the sauces. I went back with a friend a few years after that, but didn't do a return review. Well on a beautiful April night, I figured I'd go check out if they still had their wing deal and how the wings were doing 10 years later.

I was on my own for dinner and I rolled up to Summerhays, which has undergone a reno since I reviewed them 10 years ago. The parking lot was relatively busy, but I noticed the patio was empty.

 It was one of the most beautiful days in April after having an ice storm not too long before, so I decided I was going out there for sure. I couldn't believe that no one was sitting out there. I saw a slow, steady arrival of folks, but it seemed like many were getting take-out.

My server was Caity, who was a great server. She made me feel welcome, was friendly, checked on me frequently, and was doing some training of a new server. She answered a lot of my wing questions, like what the wing special was now or what Dave's sauce or Crazy Paula's sauce (its a suicide/honey garlic and suicide/bbq I think, I wasn't ordering so I missed the exact detail, sorry). There are a lot of sauces to choose from, some are homemade, some coming from a bottle.

I didn't have to wait long and pretty soon I had a big feast of wings while sitting outside.

The wings are described as being seasoned, then baked, then fried. That sounds like quite the process, but I'm not sure that is what they actually do. They just seem fried to me (well seasoned, then fried). Wings come in by the pound, which works out to be about 8-9 wings in an order.

I knew Summerhays' wing special as being something like everyday after 2 or 3pm being like $0.35 a piece. Caity told me that the deal now was everyday (Mon-Sun) half price after 12 noon. That seems crazy because that means they are $6.95 for a pound almost all day except for like 1 hour a day when they are $14 or for take-out.

The chicken was a good medium medium-plus sized wing. They were pretty meaty too, especially the drummettes. The meat was average tenderness.

The skin on the wings was very nice and crispy. Especially the dry rubbed wings, you got a real sense of the crispy texture. The sauced wings lost a bit of crispness but the wings didn't get soggy.

 I went with 2 orders and 4 flavours to maximize my tasting and reviewing. 1lb of Hot, 1lb or dry Cajun, with Suicide & Smoked Sweet Mustard on the side for dipping. They charge $1 a piece for the extra sauce, but they came in giant containers, so I didn't mind.

HOT

It was ok. As I ate it, I thought it was kind of cayenne-y, but also tomato-y which I wasn't crazy about. Near the end of my wings, I found a little sauce deposit at the bottom. I tried just the sauce and it was very buttery, salty, Buffalo-y taste. So where was the tomato flavour coming from? I went back and tried the sauced wing and had that tomato flavour again. I don't know what was going on.

CAJUN

This was a great Cajun dry rubbed wing. Lots of flavour, your garlic, the salt, the herbs. This was a really seasoned wing.

There was a very generous amount of the rub. Look at that big pile of spices and seeds!

SUICIDE

The first couple of wings I dipped in here I really liked. It had a nice peppery kick, it was thick, it was good. But the more I ate it, the more I grew to dislike it. That's because that tomato flavour just seemed to get stronger and stronger. Like cloyingly tomato. I had to put it aside. It wasn't killer heat, it was above a hot, but it wasn't going to make you cry or cough.

SMOKED SWEET MUSTARD

This was my favourite - it's basically a honey mustard with a hint of smoky flavour. According to Caity this is a popular sauce, especially in combination with the suicide. The suicide is homemade, but this is a commercial sauce. I'm not sure I'd want my entire order of wings to be this sauce, but paired with the Cajun, c'est magnifique.

FINAL SCORE:

I'm very torn on these wings. They are a good size, meaty and crispy wing. The sauces are unique, the dry Cajun generously rubbed, but the Hot and the Suicide (or maybe the wing itself) had some tomato flavour that was just not jiving with me. The service was great, the wing deal not bad. I'll be back, but no rush. 10.5/15

Summerhays Grill
1971 Baseline, Ottawa ON
summerhaysgrill.ca