Lace Works Tap & Grill

Basic Information:

• Checking out Lace Works - 09/26/18
  Overall Rating: 67

  Lynch Serniak

  Lynch's Rating: 33 out of 50

  Environment: 7
  

  Lace Works Tap & Grill is the newest wing joint at the 524 Court Street address. Previously, the place hosted Jilly’s and Court Street Tavern, which both went the way of the dinosaur. Lace Works may have a bit more staying power though it has the same ownership as Parker House, which itself has recently closed. Walking into Lace Works will definitely bring back members of Court Street and Jilly. We entered through the bar, which is the same setup of a large square bar with plenty of seating around it. They have a nice print of the Laceworks tower on the roof about the bar, which I think is a cool touch. They also had a sign in the corner paying homage to Parker house. Parker House is also referenced in their wing sauces, if you haven’t noticed that yet. It seems like Laceworks made slight modifications to modernize the bar area. Also, we heard the sounds of a pool table in the dining section, but I never saw it for myself. I actually didn’t get a good look at the dining section as a whole, but if it’s the same as it was for Court Street and Jilly’s, it’s a large room with lots of tables for sit-down dining. You can also find an outdoor patio section around back. For some reason, we never took advantage of this on any of our visits. Our service at first was a bit slow. It took a while for our orders to get taken. This may have been a combination of being newly opened. Plus the bartender was dealing with some issues regarding the drafts lines. Once our orders were placed, it didn’t take long at all to get our wings. If you enjoyed your previous visits to Jilly’s and/or Court Street Tavern, expect much of the same for Lace Works.

  
  Wing Size: 6
  

  Lace Works offers 10 “Party Size” wings for $9 or the same order for $6 on Wednesday, their wing night. Just to be clear, these wings are your typical hot wings. They may be slightly above average, so don’t expect something enormous with the term Party Size. Lace Works does allow you to split orders, meaning you can get two different sauces in an order of ten. Not too bad if you’re looking for variety.

  
  Wing Flavors: 6
  

  You get a good mix of wing sauces at Lace Works. It seems they stuck with tradition regarding the Parker Mild and Parker Hot. They also offer other classic like Barbeque and Honey Mustard. I like the addition of more exotic flavors like the Spicy Peanut Butter and Spicy Teriyaki, which takes a rare flavor and gives them a bit more heat.

  
  Wing Taste (x2): 7
  

  We each got a good variety of wings at Lace Works, so let’s break it down. If you ever got a Peanut Butter sauce before for wings, expect more of the same peanut buttery goodness except with a slight kick from what looked like red pepper flakes. The Spicy Teriyaki was a thinner Teriyaki sauce with a good level of saltiness that I like. Similar to the Spicy PB, they had a slight heat kick due to red pepper flakes being added. The Parker Hot was not super spicy. In fact, it had a bit of sweetness to it. I did enjoy the flavor of the Hot. Right along with that was the Garlic Parm. It was like a thinner hot sauce that had a similar sweetness of the Hot with minced garlic and grated parmesan cheese.

  Serniak's Rating: 34 out of 50

  Environment: 7
  

  Lace Works is a new bar and grill in the Scranton area, but it has ties to an oldy but goody on two different levels. The building it now occupies was formerly Court St. Tavern, which was formerly Jilly’s and the folks that now operate Lace Works are the same people who operated The Parker House. It’s called the Lace Works because their paying homage to the once might, but slowly shrinking Scranton Lace Company that is only a 3 wood lengths away. Though the place is new, the inside was tremendously clean. Great bar setup, TVs to watch competitions like The Wheel, a dinning area that seemed like has gotten just a hair smaller since it was Court St., which also houses a pool table. There’s an outside area to experience as well as long with, an area I had no idea about until someone else told me about it, an upstairs bar that includes a porch. I wish I knew about that because I would of loved to see it. Next time. Our server was pleasant although it seemed like she was new due to someone explaining some procedures. The service was a bit slower but nothing to get in a twist about. I never worked as a server so if I was new to a place I’m sure I’d need to be straightened out as well. A cool feature was on the ceiling was a dynamite painting of the actual Scranton Lace Works Company. Cool spot to put it and very well crafted. The vibe of the place was one of a place that be clutch to go to after a hard or not so hard day of work, or a place you can take a date for a chill evening.

  

   

  
  Wing Size: 7
  

  Wednesday is wing night at the Lace Works and they’re $6 for 10 wings. Taking a few minutes to do the math, that comes out to be 60 cents a wing. That puts them right around the, what I believe the new average for wings on a wing night NEPA wide. They’re also a decent size. There’s bigger wings out there and and there’s also smaller ones as well. At Lace Works, they let you order in orders of 5 so that you can try more flavors. I ordered my standard 20 and walked away full.

  
  Wing Flavors: 6
  

  

  The Lace Works is a new venue meaning they have a lot of time to get things exactly where they want them to be. I hope one of the areas they decide to enhance is their flavor selection. If they’re cool with 10 wing flavors, that’s fine with me. It’s their place and they can do whatever they want. But if they’re looking to highlight their wings, a few more flavors I think would help. They have all the standard ones you can find any where like you BBQ and honey mustard and they even have two called Parker Mild and Parker Hot. That’s a nice tribute to the old country. They also have two dry rubs in Cajun and old bay along with non-dry rubs in spicy peanut butter and spicy teriyaki. Like I’ve written many times when it comes to flavors, some can’t miss flavors are anything that involves ranch, blue cheese or sriracha. You can increase your flavor list by at least 6 if not more depending on how creative you want to get.

  
  Wing Taste (x2): 7
  

  

  The wings at Lace Works were not as crispy as I prefer. Next time I’ll be more proactive and order them to be extra crispy. The first one I had was the honey mustard. They were fine. Nothing that jumped out at me but they represented the flavor well. A honey mustard that I’ve had numerous times at other places. Next was the old bay dry rub. Another solid representation of the flavor. They were seasoned well leaving not one centimeter of wing unseasoned. Same goes for the Cajun wings I had. They were intensely coated with Cajun seasoning. I liked that. It’s tough to over season anything to me and these wings certainly pushed the limit of that stance. Lastly and the wing to get were the Parker Hot. They weren’t just a plain old hot. If they were, I would of given them a 6 instead of a 7. Something else is going on there and I’m pleased that they brought the recipe from the Parker House to this side of the river. I think there’s  blend of spices going in there that  makes it a very tasty non-boring sauce.