Rochester's best chicken wings and other tasty tidbits
Hello friends,
Last week I announced that we had launched a chicken wing poll in honor of the Bills playoff run, and well, we all know what happened on Sunday. My heart is still heavy, to be honest.
But chicken wings know no team affiliation and with that in mind, let's get to what we learned from last week's poll, shall we?
Rochester's best chicken wings
Our 24-hour chicken wing poll received a total of 973 votes, and 187 different locations received votes. Sean Lahman, our data reporter, created the online poll and tabulated the results. And I served as referee and fact-checker.
What was unique about our poll is that we broke it into several categories: Buffalo style, Rochester style, extra spicy, barbecue, Asian, gourmet, soul food and the best wing place nobody knows about.
You'll have to be a subscriber to read the full results, but here are some observations:
• Perennial favorites like Jeremiah’s Tavern, The Distillery and Windjammers all placed in the top 10 for their Buffalo-style wings and extra spicy wings.
• The Tap It Bar & Grill, a five-month-old establishment at 1761 Scottsville Road in Chili, was the top newcomer of the poll, placing second in Buffalo style wings, Rochester style wings, extra spicy wings and gourmet wings. People mentioned its Cajun dry rub and mango habañero wings in the latter category.
• Country Sweet Chicken and Ribs topped Rochester-style wings as well as soul food wings, and is a personal favorite of mine. I was surprised to hear that some people aren't familiar with Rochester-style wings. They are usually lightly breaded and coated in a sticky, sweet-spicy sauce, although several places that placed high in the category simply toss unbreaded wings with Country Sweet sauce.
• Dinosaur Bar-B-Que was tops in the barbecue category — and I do enjoy those wings. But the smoked blue-and-gold wings at Whiskey River Pub, which finished second, also look mighty tasty.
• Strangebird, which opened a year ago at 62 Marshall St. in the former Abundance Food Co-op space, caught my eye in the gourmet category for its black garlic parmesan wings.
• REDD, which is another personal favorite for wings, topped the best Asian wings category.
• Best wing place nobody knows about? JT's Pizza and Plates in East Rochester,
While these polls are never scientific, I hope it gave you new places to try.
Sean's efforts, by the way, really streamlined our polling process. Our fish fry poll, which took place in 2019, took me days and days to complete. Sean turned around the results of the chicken wing poll in just over the hour.
What "best-of" poll do you want to see next? Drop me an email with your ideas!
Tasty tidbits
• Guacamole Authentic Mexican Taqueria has closed at 144 W. Commercial St. in East Rochester, and will move to 1778 Penfield Road in Penfield, where it will be called Guacamole Tacos and Margaritas. BuKu Fusion Kitchen, which launched a food truck last year, will open in its space in East Rochester. Here are the details.
• The second Rochester-area Jersey Mike's Subs restaurant opened at 975 Ridge Road, near the corner of Hard and Ridge roads, in Webster. The first area Jersey Mike's opened last month in Victor.
• Adelita's Mexican Cocina & Tequila is headed to Eastview mall, taking over the space near Macy's that was formerly occupied by the Bonefish Grill. It will become the second Adelita's in the Rochester region; the first opened last summer in Pittsford Plaza.
Event of the week
When I observed Casa Larga's ice wine harvest in 2016, I got a real appreciation for ice wine.
The Perinton winery lets their grapes hang on the vine, and then harvests them as soon as temperatures drop and stay below 17 degrees. The frozen grapes are pressed outdoors to yield concentrated juice to produce sweet, syrupy dessert wines.
Harvesters usually start picking before the sun comes up, and when the temperature dips that low, it's often snowy and windy. While the pickers on the day I visited were in good spirits — and our photographers seem to relish dramatic weather — I was underdressed and uncomfortable!
Some wine producers try to replicate the qualities of ice wines by freezing their grapes, but Casa Larga continues to make theirs the old-fashioned way. They've won many awards for their ice wine, so apparently their hard work pays off.
On Feb. 12 and 13, Casa Larga will hold its 14th annual New York Ice Wine & Culinary Festival. It will include seated wine tastings paired with ice-wine infused food pairings.
To allow for distancing, timed tickets are being sold in tables of 2, 4 or 6: the cost is $130 for tables of 2, $260 for tables of 4 and $390 for tables of 6.
Hope you have a delicious week!
Tracy Schuhmacher, food, drink and culture reporter
Until next week, here's where you can keep up with Rochester's food scene:
My Twitter: @rahchachow
My Instagram: @rahchachow
My Facebook page: facebook.com/RahChaChow
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This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: RocFlavors: Rochester's best chicken wings and other tasty tidbits
