Wings Bar and Grill in Spout Springs / Cameron

Been quite a while (again) since I've updated. Life happens, and I've given up riding motorcycles, so I've renamed my blog "Will's Restaurant Reviews". I'll still likely be reviewing the same type of places I've been reviewing all along, so not much will change. I'll try to update more often than I have previously as well.

Wings Bar and Grill is located on Highway 87 in Spout Springs (address is actually Cameron if I'm not mistaken), and opened up around 6 to 12 months ago. I've been wanting to try them out for some time now, but never had the chance till yesterday.

A friend of mine and I were in the area, and decided to go check them out for lunch. It's located in a small strip mall, and looks pretty small from the outside, but it's larger than you'd think just from looking at the outside of the place. Like most wing joints, it's pretty much a sports bar. Lots of TV's for you to watch whatever game happens to be on.

Walking in, we were immediately greeted. We arrived for a somewhat late lunch, and there weren't many other patrons at the time, so we grabbed a seat as soon as we walked in. Moments later, our drink orders were taken by our waitress. We looked over the menu, which is fairly small. Wings, chicken fingers, chicken sandwhiches, and I think they had burgers as well.

A couple minutes after that we had our drinks, and gave her our food order. Both of us ordered fried chicken fingers. Typically, when going into a new wing joint for the first time, I get wings. Now that I have grown a beard, I normally stay away from them as I don't feel like wearing sauce on my face all day. I got their hottest sauce as usual, which is called "Backdraft" (the place has a bit of of fireman's theme going on), and Jeremy ordered their second hottest, "Cajun"...both of us ordered sauce on the side, rather than having them dipped in the sauce.

Around 10 minutes later, we had our food. Both of us ordered the 4 piece, though we considered the 7 piece. Boy were we glad we only ordered 4. These things were HUGE! Each piece was about half a breast. Definately not your typical chicken finger. They were cooked perfectly as well. I said they had a small menu, but what they do, they do right.

The sauces...they were good, but they certainly weren't what I'd consider HOT. The cajun sauce that Jeremy got has a very good flavor, but I couldn't detect even a bit of heat in it. The backdraft sauce I had was "warm", but certainly not hot. "Normal" people may think different since I'm a bit of a masochist converning spicy food, but even Jeremy didn't think it was hot. Flavor was pretty good, though it was a bit vinegar-ish. Still, it'll likely be the sauce I get next time I visit the place. The waitress asked me what I thought of backdraft, and I told her it wasn't hot. She said there's another flavor, NOT on the menu, that they'll bring out by request, but they were currently out of it. I may give it a try next time.

Staff was very friendly as well. My drink never ran dry, they took our drink and food order quickly, the food came quickly, etc. When our waitress became busy for a few moments, another waitress asked if we'd like more drink, and asked if we needed anything else. Zero complaints.

For score, I'm going to give this place a 9.5 out of 10. The ONLY thing I can complain about is the sauce really wasn't as hot as I like it. For most people, I suspect this won't be a problem. Service, food, atmosphere, etc...all of it was great! It'll definately be a place I visit on occasion. Were it closer to me, or atleast in an area I frequent, I'd probably visit them once a week! I really do dig the place.

Carolina Brewery, bikers breakfast, and other updates

So it's been a while since I've done any updates. Sold the last bike I was on, bought another, sold that, and bought another. Currently I'm on a 1999 Kawasaki Concours, and I think this bike is a keeper. I PLAN on holding on to it for a little while....certainly longer than 3 weeks like the last bike.

This update is about Carolina Brewery, but first let me step back in time a little bit. Earlier in this blog, I wrote about a place called "Michaels", that did a bikers breakfast every sunday. Not long after I wrote about that place, they went out of business completely, leaving us moto riders, without a place to go. Couple of places tried doing it, and all of them either quit serving sunday breakfast, or went out of business altogether.

Now, Carolina Brewery in Pittsboro NC had started opening Sunday morning at 9am, specifically for the bikers. They've aparently been doing it for 2 months or so now, but I found out about it 3 weeks ago. I'd visited the place before during normal hours, and thought it was a nice place with good food, but didn't consider it a "bikers hangout" type of place.

As the name implies, it is an actual micro brewery. I'm not a fan of beer, so I can't comment on what their beer is like, but it's a pretty cool place to eat dinner at.

For their biker breakfast, their menu is pretty simple. They have pastries, wraps, and sandwiches. On their sandwiches and wraps, you can choose any combination of the following: sausage, bacon, egg, and cheese. That's it. That's all the breakfast they have. I was a little let down my first time in, as I love hashbrowns, and they don't serve them. Not a huge deal though, as the sandwiches and wraps are pretty large. I had a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich, and it was pretty awesome. Much larger than I expected, and pretty filling. A friend that rode up with me had the wrap, which was quite a bit larger than any of us expected to see. After eating it, he commented, "I feel like I just ate a small child". Got a laugh from all of us.

For just a sandwich, I thought it was damn good. Nobody complained about that quality of food, and I think most of us felt the same way about it...pretty darn good.

The staff is extremely friendly to us. They seem to enjoy seeing all the bikes show up. Not just for the money, but because they seem to genuinely like seeing the bikes/bikers come in. On my second visit in, the lady that served me on my first visit, remembered me.

I've never seen more than 30 to 45 bikes there. Not a real large crowd at all, especially comparing it to Michaels when they were in their prime. With that said, this place has the potential to draw in a big crowd. GOOD food, a large parking lot, and wait staff that not only do an excellent job, but are also friendly with the customers.

I'll definately be heading back, and make it my new Sunday morning breakfast spot!

Buffalo Wings and Rings

Location: Morrisville, NC

Stopped here with the wife probably 1.5 years ago.

I'm tired of writing today, and gonna skip to the "meat" of it all. ;)

Quickly seated, fairly quick on the drink, appetizer, and food orders, with overall above average service.

I ordered wings....the hottest of course...and they weren't. On my heat scale, I'd say these were about a 6. A decent flavor, but not one of my favorites. I ordered 10 wings, and when the waiter brought them to me, he said "Sorry these are so small sir, I've got 6 more coming out for you to make up for the small size of these". The manager also came by and apologized for the smallness of them! I gotta say, I was impressed with that. While I didn't want more than 10 (and told them that after they offered me more), they brought them anyway! Now that's some damn service!

The quality of the wings, even the "small" ones, were pretty good. Not over cooked, tender, and pretty meaty.

We also ordered a basket of fried okra...something I RARELY see in a resturaunt of this type. The okra was pretty good. Not great, but definately above average.

I haven't been back to this place, simply because I didn't care for the wings here. I hear their burgers are good, but I've got other places that I'd rather get a burger from.

I'm going to rate this place at a 8. Not the best food in the world, but pretty damn awesome service. I definately recomend others to try it out.

Sticky Fingers BBQ

Location: Concord NC and Myrtle Beach SC

I first stopped by the SF in Concord. Was at Bass Pro Shop, and was going to go to my old favorite, Quaker Steak and Lube. We decided to try something different, and my buddy suggested SF telling me how good the place was. I'm not normally one for BBQ joints, or BBQ in general, but I decided to give the place a shot.

Seated quickly, ordered drinks quickly, and ordered food quickly. Why can't every place be like this?

I ordered smoked wings. The first time I tried this place was a year or so before I tried Sparks, and was also the first place I've had smoked wings from. If every places had smoked wings like this place did, I'd quit eating normal fried wings, These wings, while nothing like normal wings, are quite possibly the absolute best wings I've ever had anywhere in my entire life! Absolutely amazing! I just had wings for lunch today, and my mouth is watering for more wings....smoked wings from SF! They're not spicey at all, and only have the sauce they were cooked in on them. I ate a few of them like that, and also tried a few with the SF sauces they have at the table. Either way, these wings are GREAT!

I also ordered a bbq chicken sandwich. I'm a plain kinda guy usually, and only put a little sauce from the table on this sandwich. Nothing really special about the sandwich, and it was a little dry. Not terrible, but not the best bbq chicken sandwich I've had either. The fries that came with this, also did not impress me. They're kind of like the fries you get at Burger King.

As not good as the fries were (I don't want to say "bad", because they weren't, they just weren't great), the wings more than made up for it, as did the service.

The location in Myrtle Beach SC, was a very similar experience. Service not quite as great, but still good, and the wings were equally as good.

Overall, I'm rating this place a 9.5. Great wings, good other food, good to great service. I'll definately be going back!

Buffalo's Cafe

Location: Creedmore NC

Stopped in this establishment after a bike ride with my buddy Tony. It's located in a strip mall, but a fairly big place with a patio. Us smokers love patio's now, since NC has banned smoking inside resturaunts. What a crock of horse dung.

Anyway, I'd read a lot of review on this place. Everything from saying it sucked, to it's the best place in the entire universe to eat anything at.

Tony and I rolled up about 12:15 on a Sunday afternoon, and walked in. We were seated as soon as we walked inside, and drink orders were taken minutes after. A few minutes later, our food orders were taken. This is one of the few places that have a "wing combo". I really wish more places would do that. Ordering an order of wings, and a order of fries usually ends up costing more than I want it to.



The combo comes with 8 wings, fries, grilled corn on the cob, and a piece of garlic bread. Quite the combo for only $7.99!

After taking the pic, we dug in (Tony had his own plate ;) ). Garlic bread? Great! Grilled corn? Awesome! Fries? Good. Wings? Well....I'd have to call them average.

Once again, I got the hottest wings available. They weren't the hottest I've had by any means. Probably around a 7 to 7.5 on the hottness scale. The sauce taste was average. A fair amount of heat, but a little more vinegary than I normally care for. The wings themselves were slightly overcooked. Neither was terribly, and I'd definately go back again, but based on the wings alone, this will not replace Wild Wing Cafe in Brier Creek as my weekly place to eat. I'd definately like to go back and try some of their other stuff. They have a pretty good looking menu, with lots of stuff I'd like to try!

The service here was average. Waitress was on top of stuff, until we got our food. She'd come by about every 10 minutes to check on us, but each and every time I'd have to ASK for a refill. I hate ASKING for refills. I shouldn't have to in my opinion. She should notice when she walks up that I'm out, or nearly out of drink, and offer to refill it. Running out of drink is a pet peeve of mine. Letting my drink run dry repeatedly is a sure way to get NO tip. She did come by and check on us as I said though, so I can't be too hard on the girl.

The other thing she did was bring my back only a 5 dollar bill for my change. No one dollar bills. It kinda annoyed me, and had Tony not had a few ones he loaned me, she probably would have just got the loose change she brought back (maybe 40 cents). Does she really think I was going to leave her a 5 dollar bill? It seems as a lot of waiters and waitresses hope that will happen by only bringing back larger bills for change. Sorry, but not with this guy! I'll tip very well if the service is very good. Average service however, will get an average tip.

Overall, I'm rating this place around a 8.5. Average wings with average service. If the rest of the menu didn't look so promising, I'd rate them a little lower, but it looks so good. :D

Sparks Wings & Ribs

Location: Apex, NC

I've been on the hunt for some new wing places in the area, and stumbled across this place on the local new channels website. Went to the Sparks website, and the place has a pretty decent menu. Looked promising.

So after a NCS (NCSportbikes.com) meet and greet at the Raleigh Fairgrounds, a few of us decided to head over to Sparks. It's a small resturaunt and sports bar in a strip mall in Apex. Pretty cool feeling place, and I dug the atmosphere of the place.

We sat ourselves, and within a few minutes our drink orders were taken. It took a while for the waitress to take our food order, but to her defense, not all of us showed up at the same time. About the time she was ready to take our food order, 2 more people would show up and she'd have to get their drink order instead....then 2 more would show up.

I ordered wings....smoked wings actually. The taste of these are quite a bit different than normal (fried....or even baked or grilled) wings. Very good in taste and fairly tender as well! These wings don't come with sauce on them, but you get sauce on the side instead. As always, I got the hottest sauce. The sauce, while pretty spicy, was no where near being in the top 5 of hottest sauces I've had. On a scale from 1 (coldest) to 10 (hottest), I'd rate these around a 6...maybe 7.

The service at this place was average....maybe slightly above average. I can't really complain too much about it. The food came out in a timely manner, and orders were taken in a timely manner as well. Drinks did run dry on occasion, but I never had to wait any ungodly amount of time for a refill. The one big complaint I have is one of the guys paid with cash, and the waitress didn't bring him any one dollar bills with his change...only a 5. Only when he asked her to make change for the 5 did he get it. When service is only marginal to begin with (I'm not saying it was this time), it's a good way for *ME* to not leave any tip at all. If they're not smart enough to bring ones, they get nothing. Luckily, service was better than marginal (as I said, slightly above average), and his attitude may not be the same as mine. ;)

Now, there is something to note about this place. 2 of the 6 of us got sick after eating at this place. One guy puked up everything a couple hours later, and the other guy said he couldn't get off the toilet all night. The other 4 of us were perfectly fine. The 2 that got sick, that could have been purely coincidental, but it sure is a hell of a coincidence. Neither of them ate the same thing though, and neither of their food shared anything in common. Different sauces, one had wings and the other didn't, 2 different kinds of fries, etc. Maybe one cook that had something on him touched those 2 plates and another cook touched the other 4. Who knows. May have not even been related to the place, but I feel it's note worthy. Both of the guys said they would go back to try it again though, and both said the food was VERY good.

Overall, I'd rate the place around a 8.5. Fair service, great food (as long as it doesn't make you sick), and a pretty good atmosphere! If no one gets sick the next time we go, and the service and food is the same, I'll bump this place up to a 9 or so, but I probably won't make another post about it. If someone does get sick again, I'll be rating it a 1, and will surely post it up.

East Coast Wings

It's been a while guys. Since I last posted, I've sold my bike, bought a boat, sold it and bought another bike, sold it and bought a quad, and finally back on a bike again. Back on another 2007 SV1000S actually. Not setup exactly like my old one, but close enough for now.

Anyway, I at at ECW on 2 different occasions, at 2 different locations.

ECW #1:
Location: Winston Salem, march-ish 2009

This place was pretty darn good. It was located in a strip mall in Winston Salem, and appeared to be a fairly new location.

I got there with my wife, and a few friends. We were promptly seated, gave our drink orders, and I then ordered up some wings (as an appetizer), and a burger. As always, I ordered the hottest wings they have....Insanity I think they're called. This was another one of those "You have to sign a waiver" kinda deals. I've had to do that before at Quaker Steak and Lube, but I always thought it was just a novelty kind of thing. NOT at this place. I've never had wings so hot I couldn't eat half a dozen of them with ease. Absolutely not the case here. These wings were PAINFULLY hot. All I could do was 3 of them. After those 3, I went outside in the cold trying to make my mouth cool down, splashed cold water on my face, drank everything the waitress would bring me, etc. Nothing helped. On top of that, it had my stomach in knots the rest of the day. FInally! A place that makes wings so hot that *I* couldn't eat them!!! I was impressed! :D Aside from being extremely hot, they were actually very good. Had a good flavor, and weren't overcooked!

Onto the burger I ordered. This was quite possibly one of the best burgers I've ever had in my life! Very tasty! Cooked how I wanted it (well done), but not burnt at all!

The service here was pretty good as well. Waitress was prompt seating us, taking our drink order, taking our food orders, and never let my drink run empty! I thought I had found a new favorite wing joint, until...

ECW #2 - Winston Salem, July 2010

This ECW, as I said earlier, was a different ECW than the one above. Complete opposite experience from the one above as well.

We pull up to this old looking building that looked a little run down on the outside. We walk in, and while it doesn't look run down on the inside, the place is tiny. There might have been 15 tables to sit at.

Once we get inside, we wait for a hostess to seat us like the last ECW did. When some of the staff looked at us like we were stupid for standing there, we sat ourselves. Keep in mind, this place was dead when we got there. There was one other person eating when we got there, and maybe 3 or so employee's that I saw out front.

Several minutes later, a waitress gives us menus and takes a drink order. Several minutes after that (10ish?) we get our drinks and she takes our food order. Probably 25 minutes later, we get our food. In the mean time, another group of people have been seated, ordered and received their food, finished eating, and left about 5 minutes after we got out food.

The food. Ugh. I forgot how my wife liked hers, but mine was pretty....eh. I ordered a steak & cheese sandwhich and fries. The bread was stale, the meat was dry, and the half a slice of cheese wasn't enough. At best, I'd call the food below average. I can't really say anything good about it.

The service....well, it was below average as well. I can't remember the exact location of this one, but I can assure you I'll never stop by it again. Absolutely nothing good about this place. Food sucked, service sucked, atmosphere sucked....it all sucked!

ECW #1, I'd rate at around a 9.5. ECW #2 gets a rating of about 3. Only reason I'm rating #2 that high is because it didn't make me sick, and I did actually recieve food and a drink.