While driving along North Main Street in Peckville, you may have noticed a change to the recognizable bar called Duke’s, which was well-known for its cheesesteak pizza. The place is now called Benny’s and it’s under new ownership, and with this new ownership came a number of positive changes. The place is still split between a large bar area and a small take-out section. The bar area has much of the same layout, but with a number of changes to modernize it for a new age. The bar top has been redone and the lighting updated to give it a slicker look. Benny’s also added some nice beer selections tailored to the craft beer drinker if that sort of thing floats your boat. There is a section dedicated to two pool tables in case you wanted to pass the time while you wait for your food. Our service was fantastic while we were there. We sat at the bar and the two bartenders were on top of their game. They were very friendly, conversational, and always checking up on us to make sure we had everything we needed. You cannot split your order of wings at Benny’s, so just be wary if you planned on getting a variety of flavors. It never got crowded on our visit, but it did appear to get livelier as the night went on. Overall, Benny’s is a great new bar in the area that you’re bound to enjoy for some food or late-night activities.
Most aspects of Benny’s had high marks. Size is not one of them. Benny’s does this awesome thing where they offer three wing nights – Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. On any of those nights, you can get an order of ten wings for $5. That is about the standard going price on wing night these days. When the wings came out, I knew I would have no trouble finishing all 20 as they were a bit on the smaller side. Usually, I finish my 15 feeling overly stuff, but I took down the 20 with no issues.
Benny’s really brings it to the table (pun intended) with wing flavors. They have a huge amount of wet and dry options to cover your wings. In fact, there were so many to choose from, I struggled on my final selection. It’s interesting because Benny’s doesn’t have a traditional “Hot” flavor listed on the menu, but they do have a Mild and plenty of other “Hot” flavors, so I’m sure you could order a plain Hot if you wanted. Benny’s offers classic flavors as well as some great, unique styles such as Volcano Style (just like volcano fries, but on a wing), Pete’s Sauce (we were told this is a very spicy wing), and Applewood Dry rub. I definitely expect another visit in our near future just to give different wings a try.
Before we get into the actual taste of the sauces I ordered, I wanted to mention that I like that they ask if you want your wings crispy. The wings came out with just the slightest, and rightest (in my opinion), amount of crisp. To start off, I ordered the Tai Peanut, which I believe is supposed to actually be Thai Peanut. Regardless, whenever I see a peanut sauce on a menu, I almost always make it a point to order. Serniak is not a fan of peanut sauces, but that’s his problem. I really enjoyed this wing. It had a good peanut butter taste up front with a decent kick of spice on the back end. It’s certainly not a wing sauce that everyone would order or enjoy, but since I am a sucker for peanut sauces, I thought Benny’s did a good job on it. I also ordered the Hot Caesar. This is another classic wing flavor that I always enjoy. Benny’s starts with a great hot sauce base and adds some Caesar to it to really amp up the taste. The balance between the hot and the Caesar were great. You won’t go wrong if you order these wings. The other two wings I tried – Benny’s Bacon Brown Sugar and Sweet Cajun – were Serniak’s picks, and may actually have been better than the two I talked about, but I will leave that to the other half of The Wing Men to describe.
A real new-comer to the ever growing wing scene in the NEPA area(can’t imagine who or what is responsible for this) Benny’s takes over right where its predecessor left off. Benny’s is located in Peckville in the same location that Duke’s was it. Duke’s was known for their legendary double crust steak and cheese pizza. A possible national treasure it was. Now, Benny’s is in there and it appears they have decided they are heading in the wing direction. Great for wing bloggers, bad for no one. It’s nice to see all the hard work put into remodeling the place from when it was Duke’s. The layout is pretty much the same. They have two pool tables, a big bar area with a good amount of seating that wraps around it. It looked like they updated many things like the bar countertops and the amount of tvs. If you’re a sports guy or gal, it’s a great place to catch some competition of whatever sport you’d like minus perhaps croquet and badminton. We sat at the bar. Our bartender/server was quite pleasant and joked around with us while she attended others. There’s something to be said about being able to do both of those things without slowing down. I’m always appreciative of that. The atmosphere of the whole place also seemed to a positive one. People just seemed to be in a good mood. It’s always better to be in that kind of company. Fact. Equipped with a solid beer selection, I think you could easily spend days inside of there and not get bored. Maybe they should do a lock-in like bowling alleys used to do. That be somethin.
You can go and find wings that are larger. You can find wings that are smaller. To me, they are slightly above average in size. And they’re right around the average for price at 50 cents a wing on their wing night. One thing you can’t do is order them in orders of 5. You need to get them in orders of 10. I’m a guy who craves multiple sauces so I suggest you go with a companion so that you could try our more flavors.
It took me a god while to decide between an 8 or a 9. But, after further review, I went with a 9 because they have over 20 flavors and several of them are unique and they put their own twist into some classics. I’m a fan of innovation and Benny’s certainly is thinking outside the standard flavors in trying to stand out. Flavors such as horsey sauce, boom boom and speedie sauce, sauces that you don’t normally see can be found here. But sauces such as sweet cajun, one that I’ve never seen before, cider glaze and Benny’s bacon brown sugar show me that they’re looking to really plant a flag in the wing society that we live in. I hope they aren’t finished with exploring their brains for new flavors. All of us can benefit if they keep thinking.
We got the hot caesar, thai peanut, Benny’s bacon brown sugar and the sweet cajun. The hot caesar was a very solid representation of what that flavor is all about. The heat of the hot mixed with subtle bite of the caesar dressing did some very good things out there. I do wish the caesar dressing was caked on instead of drizzled on. That’s me nitpicking I know, but I still like to have all sauces on every centimeter of my wings. I’m a real stickler for sauce distribution. It’s a curse I know. Now the thai peanut is a sauce that I typically avoid. I’ve just never been a guy who enjoys that flavor regardless of where it comes from. Lynch wanted to get it and I was in no position to challenge it. I checked. But, if you’re into that style then I’m rather sure you’ll like Benny’s take on this eastern staple. Had the peanutbuttery taste you’d expect. Moving on. The sweet cajun, a sauce I said I don’t think I’ve ever seen before, which is surprising because it doesn’t sound like something that should be that hard to come up with, was excellent. I thought it was real good because it focused a lot on the sweet facto. I figured it would be more spicy but nope, I thought it was real tangy. Real good combo of sweet and spicy. The sweetness wasn’t overpowering but I thought it was the leader of the flavor. Finally, the Benny’s bacon brown sugar is everything that those words are. There was bacon, there was brown sugar and it was at Benny’s. Thought it might be a dry rub but it was more like a hybrid of dry and wet. This might of happened because it had the brown sugar as dry but there was an extremely large showing of fresh cooked bacon on it and perhaps the grease from the bacon mixed in making wet. Either way, it was delicious. The brown sugar had a taste to it that wasn’t fully sweet. Something else was going on in there. Something they don’t want me to know. Whatever it was, it worked and that’s all that matters.
