I was out to take paddle board pictures of my wife and my buddy, Andy. Arriving in typical FloridaHillbilly style (late), I only got there in time to see the boards loaded back up. Ah well. Hanging out turned into an offer to go get some lunch to catch up with my friend.
Knowing I have try to stick to a rather strict diet, he asked if there would be anything for me to eat at a local restaurant, Mulligans (in Jensen Beach). I told him I was flexible if I had to be, and off we went to enjoy some food and a drinks while we swapped lies over our recent life adventures….
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Our order was simple enough, a 1/4 pound of peel n eat shrimp, a dozen un-breaded wings (“naked”), Jamaican jerk being the flavor, plus a couple iced teas. My normal order is always “unsweet tea, no lemon”. I do this for three reasons. The first is that I simple don’t like lemon in my tea. The second is that lemons tend to be cross-contaminated more than anything else in a restaurant, other than possibly the menus, so have a high probability to harbor lots of bacteria. The third is rather devious, but alerts me to the type of service we are going to receive. It is a simple request, and if the server follows it, I know they are paying attention to ME, and want to keep me happy. Good service can make a so-so meal into a great evening. We all like to be the center of attention, and by honoring my simple request, I know I have the server’s attention.
The drinks arrive, with lemon. No surprise. I could tell the server was preoccupied. The wings and shrimp arrive shortly after, and we dug in.
Well, these were some mighty fine wings! Fried crispy, not soggy, plus with a jerk seasoning that had a hint of bite to it. We ate the shrimp, but gobbled the wings. As we played paper/rock/scissors for the last one (I won, btw), Andy asked, “Should we order more of those? They were pretty good!”
It was at that moment that the stars aligned, the clouds parted, and a single beam of pure Florida sunshine shown down upon my Cherubic face (with its three day beard), as I replied, “We could. Or, we could cash out, and go down three doors to try their wings. Then go further up the road and try the wings there too. Make an evening out of trying all the wings in Martin County.”
And that’s how a weekend activity was born!
Cashing out, we pondered the meal in front of us. We quickly decided on a 10-point scale. These were some damned-fine wings! After some discussion, we agreed that the Jamaican Jerk “naked” wings were an 8 out of 10. Service was a 6.
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Our next stop was Bourbon Street, a local BBQ joint.
We both had previously had a bad experience, but opted to try them again. The subject even came up when asked if we’d ever been there before. Explaining that we sat down one Friday night, had multiple servers walk past our obviously empty table, and after 25 minutes of no interaction, decided to leave. Knowing we’d previously had a bad experience, we expected a much better one this time.
We ordered their Garlic Parm w/ Thyme wings, again “naked”, and two teas, one with no lemon. Wings were soggy, not crispy, tea looked like flat soda, and tasted nothing like tea. Not sure what it was, in fact. Some things are just too odd to make up. Even after our story to the server, the service was poor at best. The only good thing we could say was they have GREAT celery!
Not even worth rating. Makes the bottom of the scale look good.
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On to Hurricanes, THE local wing place! When you think of wings around here, you think Hurricanes. Well, *I* do.
We ordered ten wings, 5 of them Habanero Lime, the others were Cajun Rub. We ordered unsweet teas with no lemon. We received the lemons 🙁
I’ve had their wings many times, and most times I”m very happy. For whatever reason, these just didn’t cut it, and while they were better than the last stop, for a place with over 20 wing flavors, you’d think they’d have wings down pat. We gave them a 6, though expect a return trip to fare much better.
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After a break, we grabbed my wife and hit Hobe Sound’s famous Scooters. I’d recent;y been there to eat lunch, and had their Hickory Smoked Wings, only wet. They were mighty fine, and coming from Jensen Beach, worth the drive.
By now, it was around 7pm, so we ordered a dozen Hickory Smoked wings, dry, with sauce on the side, two beers (of more than a dozen on tap), and an unsweet tea, no lemon. The drinks arrived correctly(!), and so did the wings. Fantastic!
Smoking wings can be quite the trick. Too much smoke, and they become over-flavored and acrid., too little and they are weak. And on top of that, smoking tends to dry out chicken, so having a properly smoked chicken wing, that is NOT dry, is a fantastic thing.
They nailed it. And the side sauce, a mustard based concoction, was also mighty tasty, but I’m sure non-Paleo. Not much spice on the wings other than smoke, but it still was rated an 8 overall. This was also the best service we received all night.
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We then headed back north, stopping at Duffy’s in south Stuart. There, we ordered beers (two-for-one), unsweet tea, no lemon, and a dozen Garlic-Parmesan naked wings. Drinks arrived properly (it must be a day shift vs night shift thing), as did the wings. The smell pretty good, and you could tell what flavor they were just form the smell, an important thing. They were crispy, and also tasted like garlic and Parmesan cheese, thankfully. Finally a Garlic-Parm done RIGHT! The flavors weren’t quite as bold as we hoped, though, so it got a 7. I did try to lick the plate, that should count for something….
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On to Cowboys! Located in Stuart, I’ve eaten lunch at several of their locations, and have been mostly happy. We wanted wings though, so I was in uncharted waters with them.
Walking in, seeing a server that you know personally is always a great sign. After greetings and seatings, we ordered the evening usual, two beers and the ever-present unsweet tea, no lemon. Drink arrives as requested, no shock, knowing the server as we did. We talked about wing options, looking for a dry rub flavor. The server mentioned that they can use the dry rub for the ribs on unbreaded wings, and while it’s not listed, it is very popular. Taking his word as gospel, we went with that.
And then the fumble! The wing arrived BREADED! ACK!
However, as soon as the plate hit the table, he realized the error, and rushed off another order for us. A few minutes later, we happily started chowing on some mighty fine wings. Crispy, with a nice hint of heat, these were pretty good, and well worth stopping for. These ended up as a 7 on our list. We’ll eat these again.
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By this time, we had consumed roughly 36 wings each, and over a gallon of drinks. I cried “Uncle!” and was ready for a long deserved nap.
So here are the wings we ate in order preference:
1. Mulligans Jamaican Jerk wings
2. Scooters Hickory Smoked wings, with sauce on the side
3. Duffys Garlic and Parmesan wings
4. Cowboys Pig Powder naked wings
5. Hurricanes‘ Habanero Lime and Cajun Spice dry rubbed wings
Notice Bourbon Street didn’t make the list. I won’t be back. Poor service and very sad wings. I’ll be voting with my wallet on that one. Somewhere else.
So we are thinking about doing this again, and want to add in more local restaurants that offer GOOD wings. Right now, we are sticking to Martin County to develop a regular route and routine. We are thinking about doing this as a larger group, it would be a lot of fun.
Any Martin county restaurants you’d suggest? Care to tag along on the next Wing Crawl? Drop me a line or post in the comments below!
Peace,
db
NOTES:
We paid for each stop, this was an informal review, with no compensation from any of the places mentioned.