Thirsty Elephant

Basic Information:

• A Return to The Thirsty Elephant - 09/11/25
  Overall Rating: 78

  Lynch Serniak

  Lynch's Rating: 38 out of 50

  Environment: 7
  

  We’ve finally made our return to the Thirsty Elephant. I remember really enjoying their wings in our first pass and was looking forward to a revisit. Located along Wyoming Ave in Scranton, Thirsty Elephant has been open a couple years now, establishing itself as a solid bar in the area. We arrived early in the evening and it seemed like they were still getting set-up for the night as it was dimly lit when we first entered. Thankfully, they did brighten up the place, but that may have coincided when they started to really pump the music. Man, maybe I am getting too old, but the music was so loud it made it difficult to have a conversation, which was an interesting vibe for 6 PM on a Thursday. The place features a big square bar upon entering, a good number of sit down tables, and a big open area next to the bar, which I assumed was for live music and dancing. It’s also an Eagles bar based on a number of banners and signs around the place, so if you’re looking for an Eagles hangout, give this place a try. It also has a large pool table area and some cornhole boards for outdoor activities when the weather permits. Our orders were taken pretty quick, but I think due to separate checks, there was a long wait between the first order arriving and another person’s batch. Serniak is a true gentleman, so he waited until everyone had food, but his wings were cold as a result.

  
  Wing Size: 8
  

  Thirsty Elephant offers two wing nights during the week: Tuesday and Thursday. And at 80 cents a wing, it’s not too bad of an offer. You definitely get a good sized wing for the price, while also being well cooked with plenty of crisp. I’m also a fan that you can group in orders of 6 in case you’re into more variety.

  
  Wing Flavors: 7
  

  Thirsty Elephant offers a good mix of flavors, including some new flavors since our last visit. If you’re a classic person, they’ve got you covered with Mild, Hot, Garlic Parmesan, and the like. For those who are more adventurous, they have some interesting options like Ginger Teriyaki, Garbage (a mix of a number of sauces), and Thai Chili Crisp, which is a mayo based sauced.

  
  Wing Taste (x2): 8
  

  I was excited to kick things off with Creamy Buffalo, but they were out during our visit unfortunately. As a resulted, I opted for the traditional Hot, and I’m happy I did because it is a really solid Hot sauce. It’s a thinner, red sauce, which is not usually my favorite type of hot, but it had a really good, peppery flavor with the right amount of spice. It’s a great offering for those who want to stick to your usuals. I also ordered Thai Chili Crisp. I’m becoming a huge fan of putting chili crisp on everything at home, so was excited to give this sauce a try. I thought it was interesting they when the mayo route with these, and pairing that with chili crisp gave it more of a boom boom sauce sort of flavor with a slightly sneaky spice. They were enjoyable; I just wish there was more sauce on the wings. The Signature sauce is spicy garlic ranch, which was a white, creamy sauce. This was another sneakily spicy wing, but was well balanced as to not be overwhelming. The ranch was slightly subdued on these wings, but that may be because these wings were also a bit lacking in sauce. I wonder if dunking these bad boys in more sauce would have brought out more of the overall intended flavor.

  Serniak's Rating: 40 out of 50

  Environment: 8
  

  A return trip to The Thirsty Elephant was in order, so we made it happen. Located on Wyoming Ave in Scranton, The Thirsty Elephant has been going strong for a little more than three years now. When we first were here years ago, I didn’t know what to expect. I was, however, pleasantly surprised by how nice our experience there was.

  Parking could be a little tricky but here at NEPA Wingmen we think you’ll figure it out.

  Inside, you’ll see that the place has just about everything every well-to-do-bar needs to be successful. It has TVs to watch the games, it has pool table, darts, an area to sport your dance moves when the mood strikes, and the place is very clean.

  We got there around when they were opening, so things were not popping off, but you can just tell that as the evening progresses that it starts to get active.

  Our server was very attentive to us as we sat at the bar coming by frequently to check on us.

  I wrote in the first review we did of The Thirsty Elephant that biggest vibe I get about the place is that it is a perfect to go after a day of work. I still stand by this. It just gives that Cheers feel to it.

   

  
  Wing Size: 9
  

  I don’t know how and I will tell you that I am the worst person to ask about the finances of bars and how much stuff bars and restaurnats buy cost, but wings are 80 cents a wing on wing night, which is Thursday and also Tuesday according to Facebook.

  It’s relevant to bring up because when we were here in 2022, wings were a dollar a wing. My people are telling me that’s a 20% decrease in price. I think that’s something in 2025.

  And the wings are a very good size with an excellent MPB ratio(that’s meat per bites for you normies). Get your regualr amount and you want walk away feeling unfilfilled.

  
  Wing Flavors: 7
  

  13 flavors is the amount you can get at The Thirsty Elephant. You can get all the standard ones that any self-respecting wing joing has but they also have some unique ones such as Sahara Gold, Thai Chili Crisp, and Garbage. I kind of wonder if they were influenced by the Peanut Bar with that last one.

  They also do a wing flavor of the week which is rotated out. This week was spicy garlic ranch.

   

  
  Wing Taste (x2): 8
  

  Like the first time we were here, these wings were wondeful.

  First off, though they are large they are equipped with solid crisp. Another note is that all the wings were thoroughly sauced.

  Orders come in 6s so we got 24.

  The hot garlic parm were as advertised. Honestly, besides of the wall flavors, hot garlic parm might be go-to wing choice where ever I’m at. They had sufficent heat paired with a good amount of garlic and the creaminess of the parm cheese is perfect accent to both those flavors. I wouldn’t even mind if they cranked the heat up on them a bit more.

  Next were the Sahara Gold. I love names like these. I go for them all the time. Cool adjectives for sauces get me hooked becuase who knows how they’re going to be? It’s a liek mystery box but it’s a wing sauce. The Sahara Gold didnt’ dissapoint. They were a bit lighter in flavor comapred to the hot garlic parm, but still was enjoybable. I think there ight have been a honey mustard twang going on with them because there was a sweetness going on there.

  We went with a dry rub of the Old Bay. I like Old Bay and they give you a good amount of it so it taste very good. If you like Old Bay or want to feel like you’re in Fish Tales in Ocean City, get these wings.

  Finally, we got those Garbage wings. Garbage wings, if you are uninitiated, are combination of a bunch of their flavors into one ultimate flavor. Which flavors are pooled together, I cannot say with certainty. But, it was an excellent concoction that I highly recommend. I feel there was vinegary twang to the Garbage wings that just delivered on every bite.

  
  
• Thirsty Elephant is Perfect for Hungry People - 08/18/22
  Overall Rating: 74

  Lynch Serniak

  Lynch's Rating: 36 out of 50

  Environment: 8
  

  Thirsty Elephant is a new wing joint in Scranton established in 2022. When you arrive, you may luck out with a parking spot in the lot next to the building, but you’ll likely end up parking on a side street due to the limited parking. The entrance is a rather nondescript door, which is a slight pet peeve of mine. I wish places put up a small sign indicating the entrance, although this is really not a problem if you’ve been to the place more than once. Either way, once you enter, you’ll know you’re in the right place. The place has a large square bar, which is where we took our seat. They also have plenty of sit-down tables as well as bar-height tables. The bartender on our visit was very nice and there to answer any questions we had about the wing night or if we needed more details on the sauces. We did end up waiting a small bit for our wings to arrive, which is surprising as it was not super packed. They do have plenty of TVs, a TouchTunes, and a pool table to help pass the time.

  
  Wing Size: 5
  

  The wings were slightly above average in size, but very much above average for wing price. On a normal night, they charge $12 for 8 wings. On Thursday, which is their wing night, they charge $1 per wing. From what I’m seeing from other places, we are mostly past the wing shortage and many places are returning to traditional wing prices. I’m even seeing wing night prices back around 60 to 65 cent range. Perhaps Thirsty Elephant needs to revisit their wing prices because even when we posted our visit on Facebook, people commented at how high the price was.

  
  Wing Flavors: 7
  

  There is a good selection of wing sauce flavors at Thirsty Elephant, including a mix of your classic flavors along with more unique flavors that may catch your fancy such as thai chili crisp, ginger teriyaki, and a spicy garlic ranch. It’s also nice that they have a feature wing sauce of the week that appears to be limited to that week. For example, on our visit, the feature wing was a bacon jalapeño cheddar ranch, which sounded awesome. I’m setting the score at a 7 because, in my opinion, the available flavors warrant that score for our visit, but based on their Facebook activity, it already seems they have added more flavors as always-available options. I can see this score increasing in a future visit if they keep adding more flavors, especially flavors like dill pickle ranch (they had this on a recent Facebook post and it’s really tempting to give this one a try sooner rather than later)

  
  Wing Taste (x2): 8
  

  Since they require minimum orders of 6, I placed an order of 24 in order to try four different sauces. If given the choice between a traditional buffalo or a creamy buffalo, i’m going to pick the creamy buffalo every time, and I’m definitely happy I did. The sauce had a nice, orange color and it lived up to its name since it was a creamier sauce. The spice was on the milder side, but it definitely had that typical buffalo wing flavor. These were really good and probably my favorite of the bunch – I highly recommend. The Garlic caesar on the other hand were my least favorite of the bunch, but it was still pretty tasty, which is saying a lot about how good all the wings were. The garlic caesar had a stronger caesar flavor with a hint of garlic, which I was totally OK with it. It was a milder wing with a white, creamy sauce. Another white sauce was their Signature sauce, which is described as a spicy garlic ranch on the menu. It did bring more spice than the garlic caesar, and the overall mix of sauces was very enjoyable. Finally, I ordered the ginger teriyaki. If you’ve read our reviews in the past, you may have picked up that I’m a sucker for good teriyaki sauce, and Thirsty Elephant did a good job on their teriyaki. It is a sticky, glaze-like brown sauce with a hefty amount of ginger. It also has that salty, teriyaki flavor that I look forward to in a teriyaki wing. If you enjoy teriyaki wings, you will not be disappointed here.

  Serniak's Rating: 38 out of 50

  Environment: 7
  

  Our not-as-active journey for the best wings in NEPA took us to Scranton to a place called The Thirsty Elephant. The Thirsty Elephant is a rather new establishment only existing for a few months. A bar called Pour Boys used to be where the Elephant now resides.

  The Thirsty Elephant got on my radar from a picture I saw of their wings that was posted on the internet. Love that internet. I knew when I saw them that I must have them. Lynch agreed.

  You’ll find when you get to the Thirsty Elephant that parking in the parking lot might be a hair tricky. You can park on the road on the side of the building if you need to.

  Inside, you’ll fine a very clean bar that has multiple tables surrounding it. There’s a pool table, darts, and course games of chance machines. I feel like at this point every structure in NEPA is required by law to have at least one video poker machine. Pretty sure I saw one at the courthouse.

  If you’re into watching sports or even The Wheel, the Thirsty Elephant has you covered. There are multiple TVs throughout the bar. We sat at the bar and even got to view the first 15 minutes of The Wheel. That’s always nice.

  The atmosphere of the place gave me the feeling of the kind of place where you go to after work and you’re looking to relax after a day of work and perhaps talk about how you don’t like your job as the bartender is already opening a beer for you before you even sit down.

  Our server, who was also the bartender, was very attentive to us and explained all of the questions we had about their wings. She was quick to make sure weren’t ever thirsty, which I expect is a high priority at the Thirsty Elephant.

   

   

  
  Wing Size: 8
  

  Wings are a dollar a wing on their wing night which is on Thursdays. I realize that the big news that came out this week is that wing prices are lower than they have been in years even before the pandemic started. I understand that a dollar a wing may seem high to some. To those people, I say that even though the wings are down that doesn’t mean that fry oil is. That stuff is still crazy expensive so don’t start thinking we’re going to see wing night prices back to 40 cents a week. That’s not going to happen probably ever.

  The wings come in orders of six which makes it easy to get multiple flavors.

  The size of the wings were a very solid size. They weren’t too massive where it’s difficult to get crispy but they also weren’t so small that you felt that you didn’t get your money’s worth. They were right in that goldilocks zone meaning they were just right.

  The wings came out with decent crispiness and were equipped with quality meat.

  
  Wing Flavors: 7
  

  There are 13 total flavors that you can get at the Thirsty Elephant but there are only 12 on their menu. That’s because every week they have a featured wing flavor. I love when places do stuff like that. It keeps me interested and it keeps them always thinking of new flavors. Maybe if one does really well they would eventually add it to the permanent list. I mainly just want an infinite amount of flavors to choose from.

  You can get the standard mild, hot, honey mustard, honey BBQ that you see at most places. But they also have one on the menu called Signature Spicy Garlic Ranch. You put the word signature in front of anything and I’m going to get it. That’s just a fact of life for me.

  There’s also Thai Chili and one called Thai Chili Crisp. Our splendid bartender/server explained that the word crisp means spicier. Sign me up.

  

  
  Wing Taste (x2): 8
  

  The wings at the Thirsty Elephant were excellent. My expectations going in based on the picture I saw on the net, were high and they exceeded my expectations.

  I got 18 instead of what I usually get when the circumstances are that they come in orders of six, which was 24. I don’t know, I feel like as I’ve gotten older the idea of getting 20 or more is simply something I don’t think I can handle as often as I did when I was a younger man and I held nothing back.18 of these wings was the right call.

  Let me tell you, the display of these wings before I devoured them was heavenly. I feel like every color in the color spectrum was represented. I’d be alright with a painting of this picture hanging up in every room of my house.

  

  As you can see every wing was heavily sauced, which is the right way to go.

  I’ll start with the feature which on this particular day was cheddar, jalapeno, and bacon. They were wonderful. Every flavor in the description was well represented. They didn’t use actual pieces of bacon, which you get at some places, but the bacon flavor was there. The jalapenos were very finely cut which didn’t overpower the other flavors or make them too hot. They had a real creaminess to them that slapped. They were just right.

  Next was the signature spicy garlic ranch. As I said, I’m powerless when I see a wing flavor with the word signature in it. They used, I think, their hot sauce to represent the spicy portion of the flavor. Honestly, I think they could have been hotter. They were tasty with garlic and the ranch but like the cheddar-bacon-jalapeno, they were quite creamy which neutralized a good amount of the spiciness. Were they tasty? You betcha. Just needed a bit more heat.

  Finally, I got the Thai Chili Crisp. I’m not saying that the word crispt is a menu buzzword for me like words such as smoked and spicy are, but when our server said it means hotter, I was all in. Right off the bat, I loved the amount of parsley on them. They stood out on the pristine dark color of the wings. The chili notes were present and there was decent heat due to the “crisp” portion of it. Again, I could have used more heat but it wasn’t anything that held the flavor back. The Asian stickiness that comes with Thai Chili sauce mixed well with the “crisp” portion of the wing. The sauce was thicker than I thought but it worked out great.