Bourbon City

Basic Information:

• Bourbon City – more like Bourbon Planet - 03/07/23
  Overall Rating: 80

  Lynch Serniak

  Lynch's Rating: 39 out of 50

  Environment: 7
  

  If you’re in tune with any part of the NEPA wing scene, then you’ve likely heard of Bourbon City by now. Due to the large amounts of praise we’ve been seeing about their wings, we knew we had to make a stop. We arrived around 6, and the place was already pretty busy. They have a good amount of seating, including a long, community-like table in the middle. People were spaced in such a way where it would have been awkward for us to join, so we opted for a table a bit off to the side in the back room. This back room was interesting in that it seemed like it had a lot of potential to seat plenty of people, but it was pretty bare with only a pool table and two tables for eating. Our waitress was very friendly and answered any questions we had about wing flavors and how wing night works. There was either a misunderstanding on our part or on hers in regards to ordering wings for the wing night price. We thought as long as we got 6, we could split orders of 6. So we both got 3 orders of 6 for a total of 18 wings, but only got the wing night price for 12 of the wings and the normal price for 6 of the wings. Perhaps a bit pedantic, but I wish it was explained a little better, or perhaps when we were placing the order we were warned that would happen, or even a heads up that we would be better combining our last split order to get the wing night price. I was also charged for tap water, but I have a feeling they just incorrectly charged me for soda. While the wings did take a bit to come out, I attribute that to how packed they were, so it was not unexpected.

  
  Wing Size: 8
  

  The wings here are a good size and the 18 I ordered definitely filled me up. In fact, I didn’t even have all 18, but I do think a part of that is because I ordered the Inferno and was more than OK only eating three of those wings. Wings are normally $14 for a dozen, but Bourbon City sells their wings for $9 a dozen on their Tuesday Wing Night.

  
  Wing Flavors: 6
  

  You won’t find a huge variety of wing sauces here. They carry most of your classics like Mild and Hot, offer a amped up Hot called Inferno, and do throw some interesting sauces into the mix like Asian, Cajun, and Bourbon City. Be sure to see if they have any specials or any sauces not on the menu because that was exactly the case during our visit, which included General Tso and a Garlic Parm sauce. I do hope they expand options because the wings I did order were all delicious.

  
  Wing Taste (x2): 9
  

  In the past, one of the Wing Men would order the typical Hot, and the other would sometimes offer the amped up version. I decided to relive that tradition and ordered the Inferno. These were definitely lived up to their name. They had a good hot sauce based that had a very strong spiciness and a cayenne pepper flavor that really lingers. If you enjoy very spicy wings, these are the wings for you, but they are certainly not for the faint of heart. I also ordered the General Tso. This was an interesting sweet sauce with a slight spicy kick, although very subtle. It is a thicker, sticky sauce with an enjoyable flavor. Finally, my favorite of the bunch was the Red Garlic. These wings had plenty of sauce on them that I just wanted to keep dipping the wing into because it was that delicious. It had a really good hot sauce based, tons of garlic, and a very perfect balance between the two. I highly recommend these wings. In fact, I recommend all the wings because they were all flavorful and perfectly encapsulated what they were going for. Plus, all the wings were cooked nicely with a good amount of crisp.

  Serniak's Rating: 41 out of 50

  Environment: 8
  

  We couldn’t just sit here and not show up at Bourbon City, which is located in Swoyersville. We’ve seen and heard too much talk and hype on several Facebook groups talking this place up like they’re the next big thing, Brock Lesnar. We needed to take matters into our own hands, show up, and eat chicken wings. And that’s exactly what we did.

  I must say I was very excited about heading to Bourbon City. The legend of this place has had me feeling like I was Howard Carter exploring the Egyptian Pyramids. Hopefully, I don’t get cursed as he and the rest of his crew did. I suppose the jury is still out on that.

  Right off the bat, I like how Bourbon City is located in the middle of a residential area. I like seeing house, house, house, cool bar, house, and house. Makes me think how fun that must be to live next to. At least, I think it would be a lot of fun.

  Inside, there is a bar to the right and a bunch of tables along the wall, and in the middle are two long tables where folks post up. I like that concept.

  We, on direction from Lynch, sat on an off-shoot area past the bar. We were the only ones there and it certainly felt like we were Stephen Glansburg eating lunch by himself. There is a pool table over there but we isolated ourselves away from everyone. Lynch did eventually say that we should have sat where everyone else was. Credit to him for admitting that.

  It was most definitely a lively crowd with a solid atmosphere over in the main area. There are TVs all through out the main dining area.

  Our server was nice and knowledgeable about the wings. She even let us know about two flavors that weren’t on the main menu.

  
  Wing Size: 8
  

  At Bourbon City on their wing night, it’s $9 a dozen. And let me tell you, the wings are large and in charge. The MPB(that’s meat per bite) is high with each wing.

  I think Lynch and I found a glitch in the Matrix or something because we were able to split sauces with each order. I’m not sure if that’s the way it’s supposed to go down, but that’s the way it happened. You might want to confirm that with your server that you can actually do that before assuming you can.

   

  
  Wing Flavors: 7
  

  There are 9 flavors on the menu and there were two that were mentioned to us from our very diligent server. Those off-menu flavors were garlic parmasean and General Tso. I don’t know if they rotate different off-menu flavors every week. That be neat if they did do that.

  The other flavors you can get at Bourbon City are mild, hot, Inferno, Bourbon City, hot honey garlic, butter garlic, red garlic, Asian, and Cajun.

  It’s a good variety of flavors that touch all the taste buds. I do wish that ranch was incorprated into their wing sauce lexicon. I say it all the time, but ranch is one of the more universally liked substances on the planet. It brings everyone together. It makes sense to infuse as often as possible.

  
  Wing Taste (x2): 9
  

  The hype is real at Bourbon City. Like when Sports Illustrated put LeBron James on the cover when he was in highschool and they were showing his highschool games on ESPN. The hype was real and warranted then and the hype for Bourbon City is also warranted. Will Bourbon City by the all times points scorer in NBA history and be a first ballot hall of famer? That remains to be seen. But, they will doll out really good wings.

  Let’s talk about crispiness shall we? They’re decently crispy. With the kind of plumpness the wings have, it’s certainly a chore to get them real crispy. Is there room for more crispiness? There always is. I’ve seen folks say, in those wing streets, to simply say extra crispy when ordering. My advice is to just go ahead and do that if you think you have too.

  Also, all the wings are covered in parsely, bazil or some sort of green herb. I’m a complete sucker for topings on wings such as parm cheese or in this case herbs. To me, it just makes them stand out more than already do. Especially, the wings here at Bourbon City that had a very sharp, orange color them. The herbs on them really illuminated the mind and dazzled the eye.

  I got 18 and I was plenty full when I walked away from the table. The first flavor I tried were the hot. As a general rule, I always get the hot at a place that I’ve never been too. The hot at Bourbon City had an old school Buffalo flavor to them. I would even say that they had a creaminess to them that I wasn’t expecting. They were hot but they weren’t anything that made me sweat or anything like that. It was everything I wanted out of a classic hot flavor.

  Next were the garlic parmasean. When I tell you that these wings had an avalanche of garlic and parm cheese on them I for sure are underselling just how much garlic and parm cheese were on them. They were completely covered with garlic and parm cheese, which sent me to a very specific part of heaven that is slotted for folks who only want to eat garlic parm wings. There also was a bit of a garlic parm sauce mixed in them as well. Top to bottom, this was an unstoppable, terrifc rendition of garlic parm. It’s a must get.

  Finally, I had the Cajun. They were cooked very well and had all the cajun seasonings you would expect. They did the Cajun wing genre well. They were solid in every way and even though I think I liked the hot and garlic parm wings better, I would love to have the Cajun wings again. Coming in 3rd here is no slight.