Monk's Train Wreck Wings Had Many Survivors

Laura spotted on the menu at Monk's that they had wings for an appetizer, with a small selection of flavors that were surprisingly unique and varied, but among them "Train Wreck" jumped out at her. It was described as "a fiery collision in your mouth". As usual we were very skeptical, but then again, the Idareya wings lived up to their promise. We decided to challenge ourselves to this as well, having already survived that.

Before we move on, in case you haven't heard about it, Monk's is a little bar and grill on Tharpe St. near High Rd. that is very popular with the college and grad student crowd. For a small place, it's always packed at nights, and there's not much for parking. Pretty much everything they make there is homemade, as much from scratch as possible, a lot of novelty items, and they have a wide selection of beer. They are best known for their hamburgers, including their feature to build your own from a huge list of strange ingredients. One of my friends concocted what he calls the "Heart Attack Waiting To Happen", you won't see it on the menu since he made it up like you could too. But basically it was the burger, bacon, a fried egg (you heard me), mayo, cheese, BBQ sauce, and probably some other stuff, and nothing healthy on it. But you can make whatever you want, including pineapple and avocado or whatever. Also for entertainment, their back porch is kinda nice, and includes a cornhole court.

So, we were curious what a hipster hamburger hut could offer for hot wings, and especially after our last adventure, how hot could they really get? Concerned about size as an appetizer, we asked the waitress about the wing dishes, and were delighted to hear they are in fact 10 piece wing baskets with celery and ranch or blue cheese dressing. That sounded like a meal a piece for us! So we ordered two baskets, one with Train Wreck and one with "Sweet Heat", another of their specialties, just in case we did get burned by the Train Wreck.

We were surprised at both of these flavors, they were both absolutely delectable. First off, the Train Wreck is not scary. It's hot, but maybe as hot as plain hot from Beef O'Brady's, not even the extra hot stuff. If you like hot food, you won't be afraid of these. But to its merit, it's a very complex wing flavor, we couldn't even tell what all was in there. The sauce has a very mealy texture, a thick gravy like sauce, it looked like minced garlic filled it for the most part, but didn't taste heavily of garlic, surprisingly, just a touch. Also mixed in there might have been honey, might have been caramelized jalapeños, maybe some chipotle or cayenne in there. The real shock was that while it was definitely a bit on the spicy side, it was also so sweet, but the more we paid attention to it, it was also smoky, and just rich in so many flavors. I would recommend this to anyone who can handle a little spice, a very good wing sauce. Plus the meat itself was cooked well, tender chicken.

The Sweet Heat was also a pleasant surprise. The first thing we both noticed immediately was the texture of the chicken, unlike the Train Wreck, Sweet Heat's chicken seemed crisp. The outside of the wings was singed and delicate, almost like a salmon skin sushi, very satisfying crunch without going through a crusty layer. The sauce was thinner and a bit runny, about the consistency of a teriyaki sauce, which this tasted a little similar to, but probably had honey in it as well. It was more sweet than hot, yellowish brown in color, with a few little bits of some pepper of some kind in there, probably again the caramelized jalapeños. They were almost like bits of jelly in there. After chewing on them a while, I couldn't help but feel like I was eating fish or something Asian somehow, for some reason it really reminded me of eating barbecued eel sushi, but in chicken wing form. I couldn't place that one either, but it was really good, especially for your wimpy friends. :P

So in short, I definitely recommend the wings at Monk's (apparently also known as Wells Brothers, but you'll see "Monk's" on the sign and the building and the menu and everywhere but the website...?). Of course, if you're looking for a fancy delicious burger, or a place to grab an import or microbrew beer with a couple folks at a slightly quieter place, you should also check the place out for that. Since, you know, they're more famous for... all that, and not the wings.