Smoked Wings RULE OK

I made a BBQ post about an "Extreme" place that didn't quite live up to its name. Well this time around, a lady said she had some American BBQ-based food that would be a whole new experience for me. So who am I to deny someone taking me for something new and exciting? That's my bag, for sure. I went for it.

I'd heard this and that about people smoking chicken wings, and how good they turned out, blah blah blah. Like, c'mon, smoking is what you do to brisket, pork butts, hams, maybe a turkey breast or what have you, but lil' ol' chicken wings? Really? I try to be positive and have an open mind, but I loved fried wings covered in buffalo sauce from Chuck's in Trenton when I lived there, and have had similar fare at plenty of other places, and it suited me fine. I mean, don't fix it if it ain't broken, right? Well, Dog House Saloon in Washington Township, NJ fixed it anyway, and I am not complaining.

So this chick takes me here and it's basically a North (WAY NORTH) Jersey yokel-type bar with a handful of wooden tables off to the side. I prefer this type of bar/atmosphere to fancy bullcrap where people would pretend to be cooler and better-off than they are, and I figured it was the kind of place I could eat wings like a maniac and be just fine. There were some guys and gals drinking American beers at the bar and wearing some camo clothes, so you should get the picture. The menu is small and homemade, full of BBQ items, and creative apetizers that I wanna try when I can tear myself away from wings for an evening. The large BBQ platters I saw on other tables looked AWESOME. We ordered 10 BBQ and 10 Buffalo wings, and some homemade potato chips with BBQ seasoning. The wings came out on a silver tray with their respective sauces drizzled over them generously, but not "tossed" in the sauces and covered entirely. The potato chips were in a small basket, or what have you. I needed to try a chip because they looked good, and they WERE. Then, on to the main event.

The smoked wings have the crispy skin that a fried wing would have. The texture is very similar, minus the grease (clearly the Health Nut's wing of choice). The chick I'm with has the Buffalo side of the platter in front of her, and she goes right to town. I opt for the BBQ first, which she said was an okay choice, but her favorite was imediatley clear. The BBQ sauce here is sweet and chunky (HOMEMADE, MAYBE?!?!) and very tasty. But the thing that got me really excited was the smoked flavor in the meat of the wings. The meat had that pink, smoked color to it, and wasn't dry at all. The skin was crispy and flavorful as well, even under the nice BBQ sauce. I was falling in love. Then I tried the Buffalo. I can taste it even as I type. Best buffalo sauce I've ever had (also slightly chunky and seemingly homemade), on top of the best chicken wing I've ever had. Yup, I'm going there, folks. This is my new favorite wing in the world.

We housed the 20 wings easily, along with the small batch of homemade potato chips. Each and every celery stick also got dipped in that fabulous Buffalo sauce. If they told me I had to kill a real buffalo with my bare hands to eat more of this sauce, I'd do it without hesitation and with clinical precision. We hung out somewhere else and saw a band that night, and all I could think about were the wings. Each subsequent conversation I had with this girl ended up on how good the wings were, so I got her to go again 4 days later. This time I got 10 "honey buffalo" wings, and they were equally good. This place has got me hooked. I saved some leftover wings from the second outing and brought them to work for lunch the next day, and my Fed Ex delivery guy (a SERIOS wing enthusiast) asked me to save him one, so I did. HE was blown away, and after eating one cold, leftover wing, he declared he'd have to make the 2 hour drive from where he lives to try this place out for himself.

Dog House Saloon and Grill, call me the Winginator, because I promise I'll be back.