Top Brgr: Wings – The Bite
THE BITE: Frequent readers may have noticed that I have a thing for fried chicken and Buffalo wings in particular, so today The Bite brings you yet another fried chicken review. Frequent readers may have also noticed that The Bite tries hard to seek out the unexpected items from the restaurants it visits. So today it’s wings from Top Brgr (2267 Emmons Avenue), the Kobe beef-based burger joint down on the water.
Top Brgr is currently offering four “After School Specials.” For $7.95, you have your choice of a “standard” burger, Kobe hot dog, chicken/vegetable or turkey burger or six pieces of chicken wings. Each meal comes with a small fries and a medium soft drink. The after school special is a pretty good deal. The chicken wings by themselves are usaully sold for $7.95.
My ultimate fried chicken wing is a true Buffalo wing; naked, without breading or flour, fried crispy and tossed in a sauce of Frank’s red hot sauce and butter, served with blue cheese dressing and celery sticks. But that’s not what Top Brgr is offering up – notice the menu never mentions “Buffalo wings.” Here it’s “wings” served Top Brgr style.
Top Brgr serves up its chicken wings dry, mild, spicy or with a sweet chili sauce. For the after school special, I was served six large wing portions alongside a good portion of French fries. The wings are served breaded and were in a spicy sauce that left the breading sticky.
Putting aside my Buffalo wing snobbery, I take these wings on as unique items of their own. I’ve ordered the spicy wings, so the only thing I can honestly expect is spice and heat. The wings are not tossed in the traditional manner, instead the sauce is poured over the wings leaving some spots un-coated by the sauce and others saturated. This wasn’t a problem for me, as I rolled my wings around in the sauce that pooled in the bottom of the container.
Biting in, the chicken was cooked nicely and the mildly crispy exterior burst with flavor from the sauce. I could feel the heat on my lips, but the flavors of the pepper, tomatoes and chili could all be detected in the sauce. To be honest, I was a little disappointed in the heat level of the sauce at first – I like things to be kicking hot – but by the end of my meal I was breaking a sweat. Me likey.
Top Brgr, 2267 Emmons Avenue, (718) 646-BRGR.
The Bite is Sheepshead Bites’ weekly column where we explore the foodstuffs of Sheepshead Bay. Each week we check out a different offering from one of the many restaurants, delis, food carts, bakeries, butchers, fish mongers, or grocers in our neighborhood. If it’s edible, we’ll take a bite.
