The Bar and Company

Basic Information:

• To the Bar and Company - 03/21/24
  Overall Rating: 75

  Lynch Serniak

  Lynch's Rating: 36 out of 50

  Environment: 4
  

  The Bar and Company is located in what I would consider the heart of Olyphant. We lucked out with some street parking pretty close to the restaurant, but if the street is filled up, they do have a parking lot, which can be difficult to find if it’s your first visit. Once you enter you’ll find yourself at the end o the large bar, which includes plenty of seats at the bar itself as well as bar-height tables in the bar area. If you walk to the back, there is a pretty good-sized dining room. For those familiar with the previous bar here – The Stone Elephant – they still have the stage in the back that looks like it is used on weekend. Be sure to check out their Facebook if you wanted to go for some entertainment. I wish it was warmer when we went because they do have some outdoor seating and a garage door that they open up on those nice days. The Bar and Company is fully set up for a good time, but the speed of service and food is not drags it down. In our bartender/waitresses defense, it seemed she was in charge of the whole bar section, and it was pretty packed when we arrived. Apparently a party was in the dining area as well, which impacted the food. She was friendly even though she was working her ass off. It did take a while for us to even get out drink and food order taken. Then, it took another good while for the food to come out. I want to imagine it was a fluke, but the previous time I was here a similar situation occurred. I also placed an order for four different flavors, but only 3 came out. Given how long it took to receive the wings, I wasn’t going to push it, plus I ultimately wasn’t charged for missing items, so no harm there. It was very packed when we got there at 6:30 PM, but we were some of the last ones there by the time we left after 8:00 PM.

  
  Wing Size: 10
  

  On any other night but Thursday, The Bar and Company offers their wings at $14 an order, which is pretty par for the course. What is really impressive though is their wing night price. On Thursdays, wings are only 25 cents a wing. That is unheard of anymore! With that price, I fully expected some really tiny wings, but it seems these are the wings they serve on any other night. And even then, they are still above average in size. They do allow orders of 5, which I’m always a fan of. They do not allow takeout on their wing night, which makes sense to me because people would definitely take advantage of that great wing price. You’ll be hard pressed to find a better deal than this.

  
  Wing Flavors: 6
  

  While they don’t have huge selection of wing flavors, they do have some interesting options for those who like to walk on the path less travelled. They have most of your classics like Mild, Hot, and BBQ, so you’ll be set if that is your cup of tea. If you like to venture on the wild side, they have some interesting flavors on their menu like Caesar and Hot Honey Buffalo. They also offer some options off the menu. I’m not sure if this is always true, but on our trip, they had additional flavors like Honey Sriracha and Hot Thai Chili.

  
  Wing Taste (x2): 8
  

  Since this was our first time visiting Bar and Company as The Wing Men, I had to try the Hot. I will say that it was a very solid Hot. It was very flavorful and had a nice spice to it, but not too much so. The wing itself was well cooked as well. This is true for all the wings. They had a nice crisp to them. They seemed to be very lightly breaded, possibly just coated in some flour and spice, but not to the point where it was overwhelming. I personally enjoyed that bit of the wings as well. My next flavor was Buffalo Caesar. Again, a very good wing. It had that tasty Hot sauce base with a good hit of Caesar. I enjoyed the balance. Finally, I got the Asian wing. It reminded be of a thicker, stickier Teriyaki sauce, which I really enjoyed. It had that great balance of salty and slightly sweet. Again, another solid wing sauce. I think the Bar and Company does a lot of things right. If they get a better handle on large crowds and add some more wing options, I can easily see this place entering the rotation.

  Serniak's Rating: 39 out of 50

  Environment: 8
  

  If you fancy yourself a journey to Olyphant, I recommend stopping into the Bar and Company. I can’t guarantee you what the company part is all about but the bar part is quite good.

  I’m pretty sure there is a parking lot, specifically, for the Bar and Company and I think it’s slightly around the corner if the place is on your right.

  We went on a Thursday, which is their wing night. Bar and Company go real throwback with their wing night because wings are 25 cents a wing. I know right? You should be thinking to yourself; “Where do I sign?” due to that wild price. More on that later.

  The entity that is now the Bar and Company is located where a former bar used to be. I bring it up because it was a bar that was one of the first bars I was in when I was 21, which was many moons ago. That place was called The Stone Elephant. At the time, there was no place better. Good times were had at the Stone Elephant.

  Bar and Company looks nothing like its predecessor. There’s wonderful woodwork throughout the bar area and I think they’re going for some kind of Pirate theme due to all the skulls around. I could be wrong on that but that’s what I got out of it.

  Bar and Company has a very nice draft list. There were some good choices if you’re looking for some suds.

  One feature that was a real winner for me was they had one of the old-timey ladders connected to the shelf where they kept bottles of alcohol. That’s always fun to see. If I worked there, I’d find an excuse to have to use the ladder. I imagine it gets old after a quick while, but I’d still want to scale that ladder a few times.

  What also was nice was that on this particular Thursday, it was the opening night of the NCAA basketball tournament. They had it on multiple TVs and some of the other patrons, along with myself, were highly invested. I was happy that they catered to folks who care about sports.

  Our server was very nice and man alive was she working. I think she was the only one working the entire bar area, which was packed when we got there, and the back area where there were two 12-top(that’s some real industry lingo right there) tables. That’s a lot of ground to cover and she put in solid effort attending to everyone.

  Things got backed up here and there for us, but she apologized multiple times, explained to us why it was happening, and did us a solid by giving us a free shot. She didn’t have to but she did. Those little acts of understanding go a long way with me.

   

  
  Wing Size: 10
  

  Bar and Company gets a 10 for this category. Maybe I’m becoming more lenient as I get older. Maybe I’m becoming a judge for the NBA All-Star Game who just gives out 50s for everything.

  I don’t think that’s what I’m doing here.

  25 cents a wing, what year is this, 2003? You’re lucky if you get wings at 65 cents a wing on wing nights at numerous places in the greater NEPA area. I’m not knocking places that have prices like that. I understand the reality of society but when you see 25 cents a wing you have to jump all over it.

  And the size of the wings was very good. There have been bigger but they weren’t tiny or anything close to that.

  Two other points about the ordering of the wings and Bar and Company; you can’t take any wings home with you on their wing night at that price. That’s something that was explained to us at the R-Bar the last time me and Lynch were out on business. Maybe that’s going to be happening more and more.

  Secondly, I like how they said we have wing night until all the wings are gone. That was told to us and I appreciated that.

  
  Wing Flavors: 7
  

  It’s interesting with the amount of wing flavors at Bar and Company. On their menu, you get in the place that looks like this:

  

  You see the flavors they have there. Nothing to out of the ordinary. The classics are represented.

  Then online they have this menu:

  

  There are a few duplicates and I’m not entirely sure if Asian and Sweet Thai Chili are actually the same thing or what. Perhaps they’re not.

  However I assure you, whatever menu you use, they will honor it because we used a combination of both and it was no problem at all.

  Bar and Company is another place that, in my opinion, can do well with incorporating ranch into many of their base flavors. I think I need to have a telethon or do a speaking tour on the power of ranch in the kitchen.

  
  Wing Taste (x2): 7
  

  Right out of the gate, the wings at Bar and Company are breaded. I’ve seen some folks in some circles that I do not partake in have issues with breaded wings. I’m in the belief that if it tastes good, who gives a rip but that’s just me.

  Bar and Company do a good job with that style.

  Starting with the traditional hot I say they were solid. They had some heat and could have been a bit hotter nothing crazy but slightly hotter if that makes sense. They had good flavor throughout each bite.

  Next was the Sweet Thai Chili. Again like the hot, the flavors were well represented. They had exactly what you’d expect with sweetness and chili notes. You will be happy with this sauce but nothing life-changing. Just good sauce, which is the bottom line.

  On to the Buffalo Caesar and to me these were the Bell of the ball. I really like the amount of Caesar they had. Many times you simply don’t get enough. This wasn’t one of those times. The creamy sweetness was bolstered by the buffalo sauce in every bite. If you’re a Caesar fan, you need to get this.

  Finally, I had the honey sriracha. They were good. Like the hot I mentioned earlier, I feel they could use more sriracha to give them even more heat. I don’t want to burn my face off and have an internal problem but when I have sriracha I want to know I’m having sriracha. I want to feel it on my forehead.

  Overall, very solid.