Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Wings and Beer! In Toronto!

I just moved to Toronto! I am living in the same building with one of my closest friends Christina (well known as @walkinsauce - follow her on twitter - she's really funny). In fact, I live with a few friends in the same building. It's like "Friends" but more disfunctional.

My first month of living in Toronto involved A LOT of wings and beer with Christina. It was a lot of fun and A LOT of fun calories! Most fun involves A LOT of calories. So, ok, I am into it.

The three places we frequented were 1)The Pourhouse, 2)The Crown and Dragon and 3) The Rebel House.

I had heard a lot about the Crown and Dragon's wings. They have a lot of different flavours. 24 regular (fried) and 5 baked. The selection is exceptional on its own.

Here is a picture of the menu. Look at all the flavours!



I tried was the Dragons Breath (fried). Excellent! The sauce is a hot, peppery sauce. I like that they have the option of baked or fried. Let's be honest, wings are not the healthiest choice, but to have an option of not deep fried is nice and refreshing. I had Foghorn Leghorn as my baked choice and they were good but I have to say I really like my wings crispy and it's hard to make baked wings crispy. Having said all of that, they were very good. They were especially good because they were cheap - it was wing night! And the beer was cheap. You know what's better than wings and beer? CHEAP WINGS AND BEER!!!

Here is a picture of the wings at The Crown and Dragon. It's the messiest shot I've ever taken. We were hungry and I remembered to take a pic when we had already had a few (beer and wings) so forgive the hot mess that is this photo.



Christina then brought me to The Rebel House. I liked the place immediately. It's small and quaint with an interesting menu and local, different beers on tap. I had the "Barking Squirrel" lager. It was really good and brewed in Brampton Ontario so I like it even more because it's local. The wings only come baked which, again were not crispy but were very good. We got a Scotch Bonnet sauce on the side that they make in house and it was a great, spicy compliment to the wings. You can tell a lot about a place when they make their own sauces. I was talking to a professional chef recently and he said that at his restaurant it's slowly turning into the kind of place where you have to be good at using scissors more than anything else because he is opening a lot of plastic bags of sauces that come in already prepared to save time and money. Cutting corners is always noticeable. The Rebel House seems to go the distance. The highlight of the dish for me were the homemade chips they served with the wings and the chive sour cream. Yummy!

Here is a photo of the Rebel House wings!



Xtina then brought me to the Pourhouse - which I've been to many times before and am quickly becoming a regular. Yikes. Pretty soon they'll be saying my name when I go in there. I can see why people become barfly's. The local pub is a form of a community. A drunk community.
The Pourhouse has their wing special on Wednesday. They are 40 cents each and they are great. Wings are all about the sauce for me and their suicide sauce is addictive! I don't know if they make it in house but nonetheless, very very good and I crave it. It is spicy but just enough that it burns but just the right amount. I want some just talking about it. Out of all three places I would never have expected The Pourhouse to be my favourite but so far they are. It might be because I am more familiar with them... being a regular and all... but I really like them!

Here are The Pourhouse Wings in all their glory.





I wish more places had organic chicken wings. I wish the world was more organic in general. I don't know if any of these places get their wings locally or more ethically then the next. But on taste alone I would have to choose The Pourhouse. Maybe I'll do another blog in 6 months or a year from now and update my opinion but for now, it's my #1 choice for wings out of the 3.

There you have it. Post comments on wings you think are better than these three places in Toronto. Or in general. I'd love to try them.

I've been super busy lately and might have rushed through this blog a bit but hey, I'm just winging it guys. Get it? I'm a comic. I can't help but leave you on a joke. Even if it is corny.

2 comments:

Edee said...

hhhmmmm...I used to like having wings and beer with you, and living in the same building as you. I have been replaced. I miss your beautiful self! xoxoo

Jen Grant Comedian said...

Aww! Edee! Miss u. XO