Voodoo Brewing Co.

Basic Information:

• The Wing Men do Voodoo - 01/11/23
  Overall Rating: 57

  Lynch Serniak

  Lynch's Rating: 29 out of 50

  Environment: 8
  

  Voodoo Brewing Co. has made their way into the Scranton scene by opening a location on the outskirts of downtown. The city is definitely lacking in breweries, so it’s great to get a new craft beer joint with some good food selection. We arrived at roughly 5:30 on a Wednesday and had no issue getting a table. They do offer a good amount of seats around the bar, and lots of bar-height and traditional dining tables, so you should have no issues just stopping in and getting a spot. It did fill in quite a bit during out time there, but not to the point where it was too crowded. I love that they offer QR menus and ordering directly from your seat. Honestly, it seems like there is hardly any interaction with a bartender or waitress if you go the QR route. Plus, you can choose your food and place your order at your leisure. Some people may see this as a downside, especially if they have questions or want more detail on a certain type of food such as what a certain dry rub is like, but I’m a huge fan of this approach. This could also pose problems if you’re not as tech savvy. In fact, even though I’m pretty proficient with navigating websites and placing orders through this method, I still ran into issues with placing an order of wings. The ordering page required that you choose an option in all the categories (such as sauce, sides, and dressing), even if the field was listed as optional. Eventually, we were able to get the order to submit and once placed, the food was super fast, As for the craft beer selection, I think Voodoo does offer options that will be attractive to most of the population. And while I understand that craft beer is pricier compared to your usual domestics, I felt as though the beer was a little overpriced for what you were getting.

  
  Wing Size: 4
  

  Voodoo offers 3 wings for $9 and 6 wings for $17. At first glance, that price seems outrageously high, but Voodoo serves “Whole Wings”, meaning you’re actually getting the Drum, Flat, and tip in a single wing. Personally, I feel like the tip is useless, so really when they say you get 3 wings for $9, it’s really 6 wings. Either way, I still feel like the price is a bit high. Also, it’s not possible to order the 6 wings for $17 option and split the order across two sauces – well, at least it wasn’t apparent through the QR ordering option. Also, the whole wings approach makes it different for me to eat my wings one-handed, as is my usual method. Regardless, I persevered.

  
  Wing Flavors: 3
  

  During our visit, Voodoo offered 5 options for wings sauces – three wet sauces (Good Vibes BBQ, Buffalo Hot, and Garlic Buffalo) and two dry rubs (Cajun Rub and Voodoo Rub). This seems to be the typical offering for many of the independently owned Voodoo Brewing Company locations. I prefer a much more stacked wing sauce selection with some more unique flavors. I hope they offer special sauces or expand the menu in the future.

  
  Wing Taste (x2): 7
  

  Whenever we visit a new location, I always need to try the classic Buffalo, which is exactly what I did on this trip. The Buffalo is a red sauce with a good amount of spice. As you take down more of the wings, the spice is definitely present and willing to hang out. This is surprising since they don’t offer a mild or hot option, but I prefer my wings spicier, so I thought these were good as a spicier buffalo sauce. I also ordered the Voodoo Rub. I couldn’t quite place my finder on the flavor profile of these dry rub rings. They definitely had a sort of cool ranch flavor to them with a good amount of sweetness from what I assume was brown sugar. They had an interesting flavor that I did enjoy. As for the smoked flavor, they didn’t come through very strong in my wings. Honestly, I was struggling to find the smoke flavor in my wings. When I tried some of Serniak’s wings though, the smokiness definitely came through. I guess your mileage will vary when it comes to the intensity of the smoke for the wings.

  Serniak's Rating: 28 out of 50

  Environment: 7
  

  It’s an interesting thing over at Voodoo Brewing Company. Oh, you didn’t hear? Scranton now has a brewery, sort of, in its midst. They don’t actually do the brewing in Scranton so it’s sort of an outpost kind of like how Breaker Brewery has an outpost on the Wildcat in Sturgis(Eynon for the non-regulars).

  Scranton has, desperately, needed a place like this, and now they have a hip, cool, lit AF place where the young go-hards can go and crush IPA as they discuss the pressing matters facing the world.

  Inside Voodoo Brewery, you’ll notice that it’s one big, wide-open area with tons of seating. They have some individual tables but they also have those long tables where you might just be sitting next to some awesome people or you might be sitting next to someone who might be living in that John Wick world where everyone is an assassin or works for assassins. Who knows right? You can always get on their good side by playing one of a number of board games that they offer.

  It’s definitely an upbeat vibe inside Voodoo Brewery which is a bit surprising because they’re not even playing Godsmack’s Voodoo on repeat. I was shocked by this but it’s not my brewery.

  The service is a little tricky to navigate especially if you’re an oldhead. You don’t exactly have a server. What you do is scan the QR code on the table and order all your drinks and food on their online menu. A real live human server brings out your items so it’s not totally a post-apocalyptic Terminator situation so don’t worry about that. But it does take some getting used to. Lynch and I were having some trouble ordering our wings, like a couple of 90s kids trying to figure out Windows 95, because you had to make sure you clicked on everything such as whether or not you wanted blue cheese and celery because if you don’t your order won’t go through.

  Other things seem like blind spots as well. Like if you want ice in your water, which you get at one of the two water spouts that’s located in the wall, how do you do that?

  The beer was pretty good as well. There wasn’t anything making me give thanks to the Sumerians but I would definitely have a bunch more of it.

  Overall, I dig what’s happening at Voodoo Brewery and I think as they get more notches under their belt, they’ll only get better and better.

   

  
  Wing Size: 5
  

  Voodoo Brewery goes the extra mile, I suppose, in their style of wings. If you’re the type of person that likes to rip apart your wings into pieces, this is the place for you. These are actually whole wings that are still attached. So the battle between drums or flats might be mute because they’re part of the same whole. I think that idea might have a more macro, more uniting feel to it.

  I feel like whole wings are the crab legs of the poultry world. Part of the fun is the grind of getting them apart. Honestly, it wasn’t too difficult separating the drum from the flat so let’s not act like you’re training for the Olympics when you’re doing it.

  The price of the whole wings is 3 whole wings for $9 or 6 whole wings for $17. I get that fryer oil prices are high(notice I didn’t say wing prices are high) but I still think those prices are a hair high but as I said, I don’t own a restaurant, brewery, or anything like that. The wings, after they’re separated are a decent size but I think most will want a bit more.

   

  
  Wing Flavors: 4
  

  There are only 5 flavors to be had at Voodoo Brewery. I know, I wish there were more as well but the flavors they do have are interesting. They have Cajun Rub, Voodoo Rub, Good Vibes BBQ, Smooth Garlic Buffalo, and Buffalo Hot.

  I’m not sure what the rules are for Voodoo Brewery of Scranton and if they’re allowed to make their own sauces or if that has to be messaged to HQ back in Meadville PA. I think incorporating some ranch and honey mustard can double the number of sauces and I would imagine those are ingredients that are already there. Just a suggestion.

  
  Wing Taste (x2): 6
  

  The wings are smoked at Voodoo Brewery and I thought that the smokey taste was prominent with each bite.

  I got the Cajun Run and the Smooth Garlic Buffalo. The Cajun Rub had a very solid amount of seasoning on them. I thought they had the cajun spice to them but they also had a sweetness that I wasn’t prepared for. It was a very well crafted dry-rub.

  The Smooth Buffalo Garlic was their hot Buffalo with garlic. It was a flavorful Buffalo sauce. Not too weak, not too overpowering. I could have used more garlic in there but overall it was a solid sauce.