Buffalo Wild Wings

To all of you that are coming back for another awesome post by this awesome negro, Welcome Back! For all you visiting my little home on the web for the first time, I'm glad you stopped by. Kick off your shoes, put your feet up and relax. We got all the time in the world, so there's no need to rush anything. I'm gonna start this thing off with a famous hip hop quote: "Relax your mind and let your conscious be free."

This week, my journeys landed me at Buffalo Wild Wings at The Outlets at Orange (Formerly The Block at Orange). From talking with the bartender, I learned that they had only been open for maybe a month. And to be honest, it was easy to tell. Every server had a newbie shadowing them. You could the see the deer-in-the-headlights look on their faces as they tried to ring up an order. Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking the place for training it's staff. That's a good thing. It's just seeing that nervousness in them makes me think of when I first started my job. I was scared shit-less that I was gonna burn something and be fired on the spot! Luckily, they don't fire you for that. They just take you out back and beat you with a water hose.

For this adventure, I had the lovely Michelle with me. We go way back and she's always up for trying a new restaurant. There's no pic of her up here because I forgot to ask if it was gonna be ok to do that. So you are gonna have to wait to see her. :)

After getting the drinks, out came the appetizer. Fried mushrooms.

It came with a mildly spiced aioli as a dip. To be honest, I could have eaten 3 orders of those things on my own. We tore through those 'shrooms within' a few minutes. Very tasty and went perfectly with the beer I had (Stella Artois). I strongly recommend these to start your meal.

Now for the main course. It was an easy choice to pick the wings with the bone in. What took some thinking was what kind of sauce for the wings. This place offers a big variety of sauces and levels of heat to please almost everyone. Me, I wanted to go for the heat. Michelle doesn't do heat, so we came to a compromise and split up a larger order 3 ways. This way we get to try more flavors and I still get to have some really hot wings.

The top picture is of the wings I had for myself, mango-habanero. The name alone gives you a clue to the taste. A little sweet, a little spicy. And yes, it was spicy. Not to the point of screaming "Get me the fucking milk! NOW!!", but it does get you sweating a little. But even with the heat, it had a really good flavor. The wings were very tender. Overall, a good sauce to go with.

Next up are the honey bbq wings.

This one was pretty standard. Nothing that's gonna knock your socks off. It tasted alright, but you quickly think to yourself "been there, done that".

Finally, the garlic-parmesan wings.

Before I tried these, I already had written these off as being more of the same thing at every other wing joint. Many places will cook their wings first, then toss them in garlic and herbs. When they do that, the flavor is really just on the outside. With these, the flavor was deeper. The whole wing tasted like garlic and parmesan, not just that first initial bite. My guess is a marinade. In any case, it was a good wing.

We also got some fries which were average at best. No need to really focus on those.

Overall, the experience was a good one. Our first bartender was kind of a tool, but he left half way through the meal. Loud music and tons of TV's for sporting events make this a nice spot for gameday. But there was one feature that caught my eye. One that not everyone gets to see.

Yes, they have TV's right above the urinals! Now you don't have to miss a second of the Superbowl or women's golf to use the bathroom! What a glorious time we live in!

Sadly, there are no TV's in the crapper. I know that day will come soon, my friends. Very soon....

Honestly, I got very lucky that no one was in there with me when I took that picture. There was NO FUCKING WAY I was gonna take a pic of some stranger taking a piss. That just says all the wrong things. And if someone had walked in while I was taking the picture, I'm not sure how I was gonna explain that either. But, like they say, timing is everything.

That's it for this episode. Hope you enjoyed what I had to offer this time around. Check back often to see what's going on this corner of the internet.

J. Miller