Whiskey Business

Basic Information:

Location: 87 Wood St., Wilkes-Barre, PA, 18702
Phone Number: (570) 829-4567
Wing Night: Monday
Wing Night Price: $4 for 12 Wings
Wing Flavors:

Hot, Mild, Butter and Garlic, BBQ, Taco, Honey Mustard, Cajun, Old Bay, Honey BBQ, Hot Honey, Madness, Jamaican Jerk, Hot or Mild Bleu Cheese Mix, Maui Maui, Chipotle Ranch, Sweet Jack, Smokey Southwest, Soprano, Slumdog

Links: Facebook
Notes:

Wing To Get: Chipotle

  • Whiskey Business

    Overall Rating: 80

    Lynch Serniak

    Lynch's Rating: 38 out of 50

    Environment: 4

    Whiskey Business, located in Wilkes Barre, has been suggested to me a number of times by a couple people. Once I saw in the Weekender they were voted having the the second best wings in NEPA, I definitely had to check it out. This place has a couple things going for it as well as a couple things going against it. The place just reopened after being closed for about two years. They received a lot of media attention for having a dress code, which I thought was a bit odd, especially since one of us broke one of the rules. They didn’t say anything about it, so maybe it’s only enforced on the weekends. It is pretty nice inside with plenty of dining seats and a decent amount of spots at the bar. There are two pool tables and two old-school dart boards that we utilized while we were there. The reason we took advantage of both is because they have a weird rule where the wing night starts at 7:00. I didn’t see this posted anywhere online or in the bar. I made it a point to get there early to beat the rush too, so we had a bit of time to kill. The bartender/waitress was very nice though, and after a bit of waiting, we asked if there was any way we could get the wings a bit earlier. The bartender/waitress did allow us to get them slightly ahead of schedule. It is a cash only joint, but they do have an ATM. Also, the wings are $4.00 for a dozen. That’s not a bad deal at all, but they don’t allow you to split orders, which I am a big fan of in order to get as many different flavors as possible. As a result, we didn’t get to have that much of a variety. I’m surprised though because there wasn’t that huge of a rush while we were there. I expected more people due to the fact that they were voted second best wings.


    Wing Size: 9

    I will give Whiskey Business a high score for size because these wings were a pretty big size. A dozen wings at four dollars equates to about 33 cents a wings, which is a great deal for this day in age. It is one of the lower places in NEPA, and like I said, you certainly won’t leave this place feeling hungry.


    Wing Flavors: 9

    Whiskey Business does offer quite the variety of wings. They have your typical flavors and a couple of choices out of left field. I was excited to try a bunch of them, but again, due to the fact that you can’t split orders, I couldn’t get to them all. The Soprano was explained to us as an Italian sort of wing. The Slumdog is a hot wing sauce with some Indian spices mixed in. They may offer some other interesting ones in the future, so be sure to ask because we were lucky to stumble upon the Soprano and Slumdog at a random table while killing time.


    Wing Taste (x2): 8

    We split an order of four different wings. We had the Hot, Chipotle Ranch, Smokey Southwest, and Cajun. I was a huge fan of their regular hot sauce. It is a slightly thicker hot sauce with a nice reddish, orange color to it. They had a great balance of butter, vinegar, and spice. It was a hotter hot sauce then most places serve, but it wasn’t overwhelming by any means. The Chipotle Ranch were fantastic. It was the best of the bunch. The seasoning of the Chipotle really came through without being overpowered by the Ranch. I highly recommend these wings. I was a bit let down by the Smokey Southwest and Cajun. They were still decent wings, but I had such high hopes for it. The Smokey Southwest was similar to the Hot with more of a vinegary taste to them. They had some spices to it that enhanced the flavor it bit. The Cajun were also pretty similar to the Hot with more of a saltiness to them. I imagine this came from the Cajun seasoning. The Cajun spice only added saltiness to it, in my opinion, and not much of that Cajun taste. I will give them points for making it a saucy Cajun wing as opposed to most places that serve the Cajun as a dry rub. I was a bit let down because I wish I had the option of splitting orders so I could try more of those interesting flavors. If you order the Hot and Chipotle Ranch though, you will leave there a happy camper.

    Serniak's Rating: 42 out of 50

    Environment: 7

    Whiskey Business, which took a bit of a hiatus from operating in the last year or so, is located in animal that is Wilkes Barre. It’s a very unassuming place on the outside but the inside was quite neat. They had your bar area and also had separate tables on the outside of it. Equipped with free pool on their wing night on their two tables and an interesting setup to their darts, you can certainly pass the time waiting for your food. And passed the time we had to. I would have scored Whiskey Business higher in this area but Lynch and I got there at 5:45 and we were told we couldn’t order until 7. I found this to be a bizarre way to go about things. I don’t know why it goes down like that. Just beware of getting their early; you will wait until at least 6:50 to order. Our server was also courteous in explaining their system as well. The place is definitely a dive bar tried and true but the atmosphere was fine no matter what you read on the internet. Didn’t see anything to what those rumors allege.


    Wing Size: 7

    They would have gotten a higher rating here but we had to order them in orders of ten and not five, so we couldn’t try more flavors. But these wings are massive. One of the few times I got put in my place and didn’t finish all 20 of mine. I did go in Whiskey Business with an extremely empty stomach, but now I’m just making excuses. Trust me, they are large and in charge.


    Wing Flavors: 10

    This place does it right with the amount of flavors they have and the diversity they attempt. With mild, hot, butter/garlic, cajun, old bay, honey bbq, honey hot, honey mustard, madness, Jamaican Jerk, hot or mild blue cheese mix, Maui Waui, chipotle ranch, sweet Jack and smokey southwestern, it was easy giving them a perfect 10 for this category. They even had to two other flavors that aren’t even on their main menu.


    Wing Taste (x2): 9

    So close to perfect. These wings were amazing. We got a total of 40 and the flavors were hot, Cajun, chipotle ranch and smoky southwest. The hot were great. Had everything you want in a hot. They had the tang and the zip and they had the flavor. A real thick sauce and I’ll tell you this; these were perhaps the sauciest wings I’ve ever had. Sometimes you get wings and they are only spotted with sauce. These were dominated with sauce. Next the Cajun, they were spicier than the hot, which isn’t a bad thing, it was excellent. So damn flavorful they were. The chipotle ranch had an epic glow to them. That majestic creamy yellow brown does it for me every time. They also were delicious. You can never go wrong, with a chipotle ranch. Finally, the smoky southwest was on point. You easily can taste that smokiness to them but they are more than that. You can taste and feel the passion of the great southwestern part of North America. They give you some zip in there that sneaks up on you, but its okay, they let you know everything will be alright. The only reason I gave them a 9 and not a 10 was because with the Cajun, smoky southwest and chipotle ranch, they all started to run together. Meaning I was starting to have a hard time distinguishing them from the other. Or maybe I was approaching a food coma. Is that how they start?