Return to HOOLEY's PUB - Ottawa ON

- RIP - Hooley's is NOW CLOSED -

The year was 2009 and had been reviewing wings in Ottawa for just over a year. I was looking for some cheap wings and I found that this pub called Hooley's had a 1/2 price menu night and figured I'd go check it out. I liked the wings (they ended up being my #3 of the wings I reviewed in Ottawa in 2009), so after hearing that Hooley's had a giant wing menu now, it was time to see how things had changed.

I didn't remember the inside of Hooley's at all and I thought that they had done renovations, but looking back at old photos, nothing seems to have changed, but that wasn't a bad thing. I arrived at around 5pm and the place was already busy. The hostess was super friendly and she took me to what turned out to be the exact table I sat at almost 10 years ago!

The back room was full of booths and long tables that started out empty, but was completely filled by the time I was eating. I felt almost guilty that I had a 4 person table to myself while others were confined to smaller tables, but I was spread out doing some work so I tried to not let it bother me.

The hostess had brought the menu, but also a bunch of wetnaps and napkins. Later she doubled the size of the pile for no particular reason, but I was cool with all the supplies. My server was not as friendly, but she wasn't unfriendly. She did have to answer all my questions about all their wing sauces. I got a Diet Coke to drink, and it was not free refills. At $3.54 it was a pricey standard glass of pop. In the photo above you can see a green drink, but it's just the mason jar that was green, the water inside was clear.

When I was here last, Hooley's had 12 flavours; now, they had over 30. They really had stepped up their sauce game!

The rules to wing night had also changed:

• Wing night is Monday night (they open at 4pm)
• Wings were now $0.49 a piece with the purchase of a drink
• You must order in multiples of 8 which makes a pound for $3.92
• If you are drinking non-alcoholic beverages (like me), you can only get the wing deal for 2 pounds at a time and then must buy another drink if you want a 3rd/4th pound, and then would need a 3rd drink for 5th/6th
• Dips or extra sauce are $1 but you get a good sized container

Well, I was here to do some sampling, and sampling I did. They had some really unique sauces that boggled my mind. For example, I asked about the Pepperoni Pizza wings, which are pizza sauce with cheese shredded on, and the waitress highly encouraged getting the garlic dip and said it was amazing. She didn't say anything about pepperoni though. Hot on the other hand was just Frank's Red Hot, so there was a mix of original, classic, homemade and commercial sauces.

In total, I ordered 3 pounds of wings (each a different flavour) with 3 sauces/dips on the side of each so I could maximize my flavour experience. The wait time was pretty good considering how packed the place was.

I got one dip on the side (the other were wing sauces) and I went with Blue Cheese. It was a good blue cheese - some chunks of cheese, somewhat creamy - I was glad I added this on the side.

On a normal night, you would be paying $14 a pound for about 8 wings. That seems crazy but it also seems to be the trend these days. I'm not sure if they come with any sides on a normal night, but during wing night they do not for sure.

I need to mention that they are super generous with their sauce. These wings come floating in thick sauces. There is no skimping here. I wish I had some bread or something on the side to sop up the extra sauce.

The wings themselves are a medium both in length and meatiness. They are breaded and deep fried which gives them a little bulk. The skin/breading creates a thick enough coating, which is good because it has to hold up to all the sauce.

The wings are frozen (you can tell when you break apart the flats and see the bones are all blackened, which means they were frozen). The meat was not tough but not tender either. They lost points on my scale for this, as well as not tasting like the freshest of wings. They weren't bad, but they were not the best quality meat either.

It was really hard to pick between the 30+ flavours so I went with the flavours that appealed to me the most at the moment. I skipped basic hot because it was Frank's and went with some more interesting sauces. I was still trying 5 flavours, but there are so many more to go.

RED CAJUN

I asked about this and was told it was the dry Cajun seasoning, with a special sauce. That really sounded good to me. It came and was much more red sauce looking than I expected. I'm pretty sure the red sauce is the pizza sauce for the pizza wings because it was a thick tomato-based sauce with I assume was Cajun spices. It was too much for me, the tomato that is. I liked the concept but the sauce wasn't for me, especially when there was so much.

CREAMY DILL

Wow this was a good creamy dill sauce. It reminded me of The Puck in Toronto's creamy dill. What can I tell you, it's creamy, cooling and tastes like dill. Love that sauce.

ULTRA SUICIDE

This was on the side. This was not ULTRA. It had a bite, but not that hot and I expected to be blown away. Clearly a mix of hot sauce, habanero, and chilis. It had a fresh, bright flavour to it. When I started I was really digging it but after about half the container I just had no interest in it anymore.

SALT & VINEGAR

Well they did what they said - they were salty and they were vinegary, just like the potato chip. But the same problem when I've made these wings, the vinegar just destroys any kind of crispiness that existed in these breaded fried wings. The skin is mushy and if there was larger salt granules, they were absorbed into the vinegar. I don't know how you achieve the flavour without losing the texture though.

HOT HONEY MUSTARD

Wow - way too sweet. Yuck. I couldn't eat it. Not hot at all, just sugary sweet. Hard pass.

FINAL SCORE:

People love these wings. The place was jammed packed and they were all getting wings. I was impressed with all the sauces they have, even if I wasn't crazy about the execution of them all. Creamy Dill was the highlight with Hot Honey Mustard as the lowpoint. Decent sized wings, crunchy, not the freshest all of them, but that might be due to the volume of wings being served on wing night. I will try and go again to sample even more sauces. 9/15

Hooley's Pub
292 Elgin Street
hooleyspub.com

LOTW Meme Monday: Dying for Some Wings

I have, like a serious addiction. Original video by @vernbestintheworld #lordofthewingsblog #lordofthewings #wings #chickenwings #buffalowings #lotwmemes #mememonday #mememondays #wingmemes #chickenwingmemes #wingmeme #skeleton #hungry #wingaddiction

A post shared by LORD of the WINGS (@lotw_wingking) on Jul 23, 2018 at 9:59am PDT

St Albert's Cheese Fromagerie - St Albert's ON

Not long ago the wife had business in Cornwall and we stayed over night as it was a two day situation. On day two she was going to be done around noon, so we needed a place to grab some lunch. One of her coworkers had mentioned beforehand we should stop in St Albert`s (famous as they supply like almost all the cheese curds in the Ottawa area for poutine) to go to the cheese factory. This seemed like a perfect opportunity to do so. 

Just to clarify if for some reason you have not had it, or even heard of it, poutine is a French-Canadian dish made up of french fries that are layered with gravy and cheese curds. People add other ingredients like bacon or sausage, but classic poutine is fries, gravy and cheese curds that should be fresh that they squeek when you eat them.

We pulled into the small agricultural town of St Albert in Eastern Ontario. We were immediately reminded that it was a farming community as the smell of freshly laid pig manure dominated the town (it was so strong we could smell it inside the fromagerie itself).

The co-op is a factory, visitor centre, grocery store, ice cream parlour, gift shop, restaurant, and museum all in one.  The place was pretty busy in the middle of the week, but it is summer after all. My goal was to have lunch, have cheese curds, and watch said cheese curds being made. Lunch may or may not include said cheese curds, but cheese curds were going to happen.

St Albert`s is a cheese co-op (one of the oldest in Canada) founded in 1894 by 10 men which is pretty impressive that the operation is still going strong. There was even a fire a few years back, but they are still pumping out all sorts of cheese products.

On the second level is a large observation deck that you can go up and watch the various production facilities at work. They didn't seem to be going full force while we were there, but it was still cool to watch what we did:

We walked around watching the operations, also reading about the educational system of Eastern Ontario for some reason, which made us very hungry. We headed back downstairs to the canteen to get some grub.

The menu is a giant board split into English and French (the founders were French, and a lot of the staff are French too, but all speak English). One section is just specialty poutines some normal like smoked meat (Montreal smoked meat on top) and crazy ones like  Sriracha Pulled Salmon or Sweet Tooth with cinnamon and caramel or chocolate curds on the fries. Crazy!

LJ went with the St Albert Poutine (with ground beef, green pepper and sauteed onion, but she got it without green onion). I splurged on the Crysler Bacon Cheeseburger and upgraded my fries to a classic poutine.

Just before we ordered we saw that they had chicken wings as well. I was forced with a big dilema - do I get wings because I am the Wing King and they have wings and I have an addiction to fill? Or do I go with the bacon cheeseburger with a poutine that I had craved? I went with the latter because I was here for curds and bacon and cheese just sounded too good.

We ordered at the counter and waited for our cafeteria tray - the St Albert Poutine was out quick but mine took a lot longer. They both looked worth the wait ...

LJ's poutine was massive, covered in grilled onions and ground beef with the curds and gravy buried underneath. She was hungry and took most of this down like a pro.

My platter was overwhelming! Big burger, pickle and a lot of poutine. This looked exactly what I was looking for.

The Chrysler burger is grilled on a flattop, as is the strong cheddar cheeese they top it with (you can see the crispy bits above on the bottom part of the cheese, while the top is melted. There are two strips of smoked, thick cut bacon that is that perfect point of crispy but still soft too. It also comes with tomato, lettuce and chopped onion, but any other toppings like ketchup or mayo is available at a condiment dispensing station beside the fountain pop. I just went with mayo to keep it simple.

The burger was good except for the burger. The toppings were fresh, the cheese was great, the bacon was perfect. But the burger patty, well it was tough and over cooked. It was dry and I just didn't feel it. Too bad.

What I really wanted to try was the poutine. Well it didn't disappoint. Crispy fries, and fresh squeaky cheese curds. Yes, they actually squeak when you bite into them. The only thing I wasn't feeling 100% was the gravy, which was actually a little sweet. It was minor and didn't ruin my poutine experience. I couldn't finish it all, so I got a take-out container and had a delicious breakfast the next day.

Over-all, St Alber's Cheese factory was a great experience - it was great to see the free observatory, learn about cheese, and eat some tasty food. We also got some ice cream (Kawartha Dairy!) but the freezers must be not working so well because it was all melty on top. The food was good for the most part - I would pass on the burger and go for a specialty poutine, or wings, next time.

St Albert Cheese
150 St Paul Street, St Albert ON
fromagestalbert.com

YORGO'S GREEK FOOD & PIZZA ~ Ottawa ON

You never know for sure where you are going to find wings.

Take Yorgo's for example; here is a small Greek delivery chain that also serves pizza. They also serve chicken wings. So of course I went to Yorgo`s.

I walked into this eatery and the first thing I noticed was the smell of grilled souvlaki. Amazing. The place was clean and neat inside, and I saw two staff working hard in the back. Other than a few seats at the window counter, this is a take-out/delivery place, with little hints of Greek culture like posters, pictures and statues.

I grabbed a take-out menu to see what they had in the way of wings - the picture made the wings look amazing. But I'm pretty sure its a stock photo. Only time would tell. Also you can tell this is an Ottawa wing place because they have sour cream along the pricing of the wings, but the blue cheese is an after thought that almost looks like it was stamped on after.

The guy running the place gave me the impression he might be in charge of this location because he was hustling and he was super friendly despite working hard in the heat - it showed he cared. When I asked about the wing flavours, he told me that Hot was Frank's, Buffalo was Frank's Buffalo, and Suicide was 3rd Degree (really hot he told me, not realizing he was talking to a #3rdDegreeAddict ). Having had 3rd Degree recently, I went with the Buffalo for a flavour change. He implied that was a good choice because the 3rd Degree is really really spicy.

I was there to get wings, but that smell of the souvlaki was just too intoxicating so I got a wrap as well. The wrap was on a grilled pita, with lettuce, tomato, onions, olives and tzatziki, and chunks of marinated chicken.

The wrap was fresh, but this was one of the more disappointing Greek wraps I've had in a long time. The pita was cooked a little too long, leaving it more crunchy and charred than soft. The chicken was nice and flavourful though. The pita was very light on tomato or olives (thankfully because I don't like olives) or onions. It did have lettuce, and I think it's shredded romaine lettuce, which I found it bitter and overpowering. There was also almost no tzatziki. I ... I wouldn`t get this again.

At least I had wings to recover from my wrap fail.

The wings smelled great even before I opened the container - that was a good sign. I open the styrofoam container and took in all the wings. I noticed 2 things that differed from the menu: 1) they were not breaded 2) they did not look 'amazing' and were not sauced the same - not that they looked bad at all, just not AMAZING. Stock art strikes again!

Wings come in orders of 12, 24, 48, and 72. I just ordered 12 and I got 12 as promised.

These wings were a wide variety of sizes. Some large, some were a medium, but some were like the one in the above photo that was particularly small.  The wings were relatively meaty to their size. The meat was pretty tender too.

Yorgo's gave a fair amount of sauce on these wings, which meant they were pretty wet. The skin might have been crispy when first fried, but it was not so much after absorbing all that sauce. Still, they did have a kind of spongy crispness to them.  They say the wings are breaded and they are not; maybe dusted, but not breaded. If I was going to get these again, I would get sauce on the side.

Note: this is a skin staining sauce, so you are going to need wet-naps (not provided).

I went with the Buffalo, which is Frank's Buffalo sauce. The sauce was pretty tasty as it's kinda buttery kinda spicy kinda sour, but it's no real replacement for authentic home made Buffalo sauce. It's not as hot as Hot is, but it has more flavour levels.

FINAL SCORE:

I was hoping to find a little gem of a Greek and wing joint like I had when I was living in Toronto. I've yet to find that replacement here in Ottawa. The pita was a pass - too few toppings and sauce, slightly overcooked pita. The wings were tasty, but were all over the map in terms of size and were a bit soggy. I'd get them again, but I'd go sauce on the side, and I'd probably get a Buffalo/Suicide sauce mix.

Yorgo's Greek Food & Pizza
1356 Clyde Ave, Ottawa ON
yorgo.ca

They know I love wings ...

#tbt to last weekend & my inlaws having wings at their BBQ for me. Don't mind if I do ... I think these are M&M Food Market's - baked, big, meaty, salty and I think Hot (or medium). Not shown are the 2 kinds of samosas, hot dogs, hamburgers, salad, and meatballs - which was all just the first course. Full on Indian dinner 2 hours later. I brought an empty stomach & did not eat all the wings I could have on purpose (they thought something was wrong with me!) #lordofthewingsblog #lordofthewings #wings #chickenwings #bakedwings #frozenwings #picnicwings #backyardbbq #throwbackthursday #latergram #family #familybbq #inlaws #familywings #mandmfoodmarket

A post shared by LORD of the WINGS (@lotw_wingking) on Jul 19, 2018 at 12:28pm PDT

Found in the Bin - Clubhouse Sriracha Buffalo & Frank's Buffalo Ranch Dip

Found in the discount bin at the grocery stores ... Interesting! #lordofthewingsblog #clubhouse #franksredhot #srirachabuffalowing #buffaloranchdip #dryseasoning #dip #grocerystorefind

A post shared by LORD of the WINGS (@lotw_wingking) on Jul 17, 2018 at 7:13pm PDT

I didn't get the Frank's because I can make Ranch dip with hot sauce no problem. I suppose I can do the same with the Club House, but I was more curious what that seasoning would be like.  It's kind of funny because they were in the reduce to clear bin at the store, but I've never seen them before today!

Orange Sorbet Coca-Cola

My favourite beverage is Coca-Cola products. Coke, Coke Zero, and Cherry Coke/Cherry Coke Zero for the win. In Canada we are pretty limited to our flavours - Classic, Diet and Diet with Lime seem to be the only ones that are available all year round. So it's been a treat this Spring/Summer of 2018 when Cherry Coke and Cherry Coke Zero have been pretty available. Then for the summer, Vanilla Coke came back, along with Raspberry Coke (I tried this, not a big fan but it does taste like Raspberry).

Today I was out running errands and only in one store did I come across Orange Sorbet (which I originally thought was Orange Cream). I didn't even know this was a thing. A quick scan on the Internet gives me very little details on it - even the Coca-Cola Canada website has nothing on it. What is up with that?

Here's what you need to know - it's really good. It has that smooth creamy taste like a Vanilla Coke, but it has a subtle, non-overpowering taste of orange. It's like an orange creamcicle, with some Coke. I was guzzling this stuff down faster than I wanted to. I only wish it came in the Zero format ...

#nonwingsunday = St Albert's Cheese Curd

#nonwingsunday = grinding up cheese curds from @fromageriestalbertcheese cheese factory. Got to stop in and watch them make magic & eat some fresh squeeky curds in a delicious poutine. Review & photos to come. #lordofthewingsblog #lordofthewings #cheesecurds #curdsqueek #cheese #stalbertsalon #fromagerie #itsnotallaboutwings

A post shared by LORD of the WINGS (@lotw_wingking) on Jul 15, 2018 at 4:43pm PDT

This place is pretty cool (and tasty). I will be doing a full review soon so stay posted!

Happiness Happened Here: "Bag'o'Bones"

"Bag'o'Bones"

LOTW Meme Monday: Ketchup + Wings = Vomit

 

Pretty much any chicken product and ketchup. Why? Why I ask?

Happy Fry-Day the 13th!!!

Is it just me or is it Friday the 13th been happening a lot lately?

#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/

#tbt = Ruffles Sweet & Spicy Chip Review

I love chicken wings, and I like potato chips, so it's a pretty safe bet I love me some chicken wing flavoured potato chips and Ruffles is probably my favourite chip brand (love the ridges and usually the bold flavours). Normally they are Hot or Buffalo flavoured, but this past spring Ruffles came out with a Sweet & Spicy chip.

Now just going on the name, you would not connect sweet and spicy to chicken wing. Sweet and spicy isn't a usual flavour of wing, I mean it exists, but when you hear sweet and spicy, wings are not the first thing I think of. But you have those chicken wings on the cover ... so I guess its a wing flavour on these chips.

Even in their description they don't mention chicken wings. It's like they came up with the flavour concept, and at the last moment they needed an image for the bag, so some dude thought to use chicken wings.

That being said, I was still ready to try them.

I just got a small bag, the king under 220g and run about $1.50. Of course, chips make up less than half the bag.

On first inspection, they look like All Dressed Ruffles; that golden, slightly orange look.  Nothing bold or anything that stands out from their other flavoured chips. But what about the flavour?

It's not like any of the other chip flavours. It's sweet, not really spicy but more like a BBQ? More like a sweet mustard? But doesn't taste like BBQ, All Dressed, or Hot wing ... because of the weird sweet flavour. Upon looking at the ingredients, the sweet seems to come from molasses. But there is still a sour tang in there.

Would I get it again? Not really but not because they are bad, but because I prefer their other flavours. It doesn't taste like a chicken wing, its not really spicy (more sour) but it is sweet. It's nice that it's something different, but the uniqueness that is presented here is not something that excites me. All Dressed excites me. Hot Wing excites me. Sweet and Spicy, meh.

Rufles Sweet & Spicy
ruffles.ca/products/ruffles%C2%AE-sweet-spicy