BONNIE & CLYDE - Ottawa ON

#lotwfallcatchup

For the past year, Elgin Street in Ottawa has been under some major reconstruction that severely affected all of the businesses up and down the strip. Hooley's Pub, which I first reviewed back in 2009, and then again in 2018, closed it's doors this summer stating that the construction was to blame. Wing lovers like me were quite sad, as Hooley's had one of the best wing deals in town, and a ton of unique flavours. 

Well you can't keep a motivated team down, and in a short time from the ashes of Hooley's came Bonnie & Clyde. From the same owners, they re-branded, redecorated, but also kept with some things that worked, namely wing night. If you aren't familiar with Bonnie & Clyde the actual people, they were bank robbing lovers that died together on the run from the law.

September was when they re-opened and they reached out to me on my Instagram (@lotw_wingking for those of you not yet following me) to tell me first about their Mango Habanero wings, but then to tell me about a super duper wing night event coming soon:

Well that sounded pretty awesome and it was right before my birthday, so it seemed like the best way to celebrate and try out Bonnie & Clyde (B&C). LJ & I were out of town for the day, but we wanted to get there right at opening to avoid the crowds.

We don't live downtown, so with the still ongoing construction (which actually ended just yesterday!) parking was a bit challenging, but we found some on a side street and made our way. I noticed right away the changes to the exterior with the name Bonnie at the front and Clyde on the side. I had never noticed the alley beside Hooley's back in the day, but there was seating and the big skull mural really stood out.

We got there just before 4pm, but it was locked up. Front door was a no-go and we didn't think we could go in through the side. We hung out for a little bit, and by around 4:10 someone came out and put out the sandwich board. It seemed like they were open on the side and we went in.

We were the first customers of the night, but the hostess sat us immediately next to the front door. I had to ask for us to be moved because even though it was September, it was freezing cold (about 15 degrees) so she moved us to a booth in the middle. We felt bad for all the waitresses who were all dressed in black skimpy outfits - they must have been freezing! There were an army of them out and about, but even at 4:30 there weren't a lot of customers, which I found shocking considering it was $0.20 wings!

B&C has blocked the place into two distinct parts: We were seated in the back park, Clydes. It really didn't look much different than the old Hooleys. Furniture seemed to be the same, decor the same. The front was still being done, but it was definitely done up, with an art deco/speakeasy/1930's feel kind of classy bar, with an amazing mural across the back bar.

I don't know if there is a normal menu, but on wing night they just passed out printed paper menu's. First thing I noticed were that the menu's were quite used being all crumpled all up and stained with food. It was a bit of a turn off and considering the place was newly opened, was also a little disappointing. The menu is pretty limited on a Monday night, aside from the wings. There are fries (regular, sweet potato, tater tots, curly fries) and then there are cheeseburgers, nachos and a salad.

The wing menu is quite extensive with over 30 flavours to choose from. It's a bit smaller than the old Hooley's, but it's still a very impressive list. The way wing night works is that wings are normally $0.59 a wing (although it was $0.20 a wing this night), but you have to order them in groups of 8, so each order is $4.72, with a drink purchase. That's pretty amazing. And this night, it was $1.60 for 8 wings. Incredible!

Our server was ok but she wasn't very warm (as in her friendliness). She took our wing orders, and brought us our drinks, Sangria for LJ (she said it was good) and Diet Coke for me. We didn't have to wait long and our wings came out.

The wings as mentioned above come in orders of 8 at a time. The wings come on a plate, with pretty equal amounts of wings and drums. We had lots of napkins and wetnaps for cleanup.

Nothing comes with the wings (again, don't know if this is the case on say a Tuesday night) but you can get a dip for $1. You can get Blue Cheese, Ranch, or Sour Cream (oh Ottawa). I really like their Blue Cheese, which is creamy and has chunks and I could just drink the stuff.

The wings are large wings, which is surprising considering they are only $0.59 (or $0.20 wings) - they must be taking a loss and making up for in it drinks at that price! The wings are all breaded so there is a little bulking up going on, but they are still a meaty wing. The one wing I took a size photo of above is probably the smallest length-wise wing but you can see it's meaty and breaded.

The skin with the breading is very crunchy. It's deep fried well. The meat on the wings is on the verge of getting tough. I suspect that on wing night they pre-fry a bunch of wings and then just toss them in before serving for a quick heat/crisp job on them, and that dries the meat out a bit? I don't know for sure.

We started off with 3 orders of wings: Kill Dill, Mango Habanero Dry Rub, and Suicide. It seemed like a good balance of flavours. The wings were all well coated in sauce, whether it was the dry rubbed wings completely coated in seasoning, to the creamy, sloppy sauced wings.

SUICIDE

I wanted some heat, so I got an order of Suicide. The sauce was very chunky with lots of red chili's covering the wings. It had a really nice heat to it, and the acid was great in cutting down the other two orders of wings. The blue cheese dip was also good in balancing out these wings. It was a good heat, but I wasn't crazy for this suicide.

MANGO HABANERO

This would not normally be one of my go-to flavours for wings, but B&C's specifically recommended it so I went for it, and boy was I glad I did. The spice powder is caked on and compliments the crispy breaded skin really well. I took a bite and really dug how the sweet mango elevated the habanero spice in my mouth. I just let it sit there in my mouth and enjoyed every bite. No LJ after eating some of her wings tried it and felt she couldn't really get the flavour as it's not super bold, but I thought it was bomb.

KILL DILL

LJ loves a creamy wing, and these definitely fit the bill. The dill sauce is tangy and, well, dilly, and garlic but then you have the Buffalo Blue in there with it's cayenne heat but there are sour little chunks of blue cheese in there too.

 It's quite amazing in my opinion. In fact it was soo good that when we went for a fourth plate of wings, instead of experimenting, we went back for another round of these!

Actually I loved the Mango Habanero & Kill Dill so much the next time I went back that's what I had!

FINAL SCORE:

I love these wings. Hot, crunchy, saucy/rubbed. The flavours are awesome and you cannot beat the price. Well actually, I found out the following Thursday they double downed and had $0.10 wings. TEN CENT WINGS. Amazing. I'll be back for sure ...

Bonnie and Clyde
292 Elgin Street, Ottawa ON
www.facebook.com/bonnieclydeottawa/