I only heard of Johhny D’s closing recently. I wasn’t aware there was a new place that filled its spot until Serniak suggested it for one of our visits. In fact, I doubted he even knew what he was talking about. Sorry about that, buddy. Either way, Jak’s is very reminiscent of Johnny D’s. The setup, bar, and seating are very similar. It’s not a huge place, but there is ample room for sitting and drinking, if you’re into that sort of thing. People slowly started to pile in as we were enjoying our wings, but it never got overly crowded. The bartender was very laid back and amicable, talking with the patrons with ease and friendliness. He was always on top of his game with getting us our drinks and food. I assumed he was the owner, although there was no real talk of that. They do allow orders of 5, so that’s a plus. It’s a cash only joint, but they do have an ATM on the premises.
I’d have to go back over all our wing places, but I think the average wing price is slowly creeping up as time goes on. I wonder if there’s some sort of wing index that measures the state of the economy based on the price of the wing. Either way, $0.45 on wing night is becoming the norm, and Jak’s is right along for the ride. Their wings are pretty meaty, so you won’t be disappointed.
Even though it’s not the biggest selection in the world, Jak’s does offer some interesting choices with their Sweet & Tangy and Porketta. I have to say that I’m always a sucker when there is something Porketta on the menu.
We ordered the Hot, Garlic Parm, Sweet & Tangy, and Porketta. The Hot reminds me of that NEPA Valley Hot that you find at places like Windsor. It has like an orange hue to it. I enjoyed the Hot from Jak’s. The Garlic Parm took the hot sauce and added some garlic and parmesan cheese to it. These were decent, but nothing mind blowing. The Sweet & Tangy were a thicker, stickier sauce. It definitely lived up to it’s name, although I feel like it could use a bit more kick to it. The Porketta was probably my favorite of the bunch. The mixture of seasoning was right. I think they just need to up the amount of the seasoning to really make this flavor stand out. You definitely can’t go wrong with this wing, but I think a bit more of the spices would help enhance it a lot.
Jak’s, formerly called Jonny D’s, is a little corner bar located in Jessup. It’s a place that’s perfect if you’re group is only a few of you but any more and you might have a seating problem. This place is just a straight up bar and eatery, meaning there aren’t many things besides the TVs to distract you from interacting with people. No pool table, no darts, no shuffle board and I’ fine with at. At times I like a place that is just about getting some drinks and a bite to eat and that’s it. The place also had a classy décor but it wasn’t pretentious in any way. All walks of life are welcome and will be treated great. Our server, who was also the bartender gave me the feeling he was the owner. He was behind the bar the whole time so we had to order from the bar. Again this is something I’m fine with because it gives the opportunity to leave when I want to, not wait for someone to notice that I’m ready to go.
I’m giving it a classic 5 because the wings were around the average size that we encounter and they were the average price that we see, which is 45 cents each.
There were about 6-7 flavors to choose from, if memory serves and they were all the usual suspects, mild, hot, garlic parm, sweet and spicy. But they also had a porketta dry rub to choose from, which you don’t see all that often.
I ordered the hot, garlic parm, sweet and spicy and the porketta. The hot, in my opinion was just Frank’s Red Hot mixed with butter and that was about it. The garlic parm were fine although I wished they used real garlic instead of garlic powder but that happens. The sweet and spicy were exactly that. You had your heat and you had the sweetness backing it up. Finally, the porketta were good, they really were, I just wish they had more porketta seasoning on them, including the backside of the wing. This is an extremely common thing that I see. Only the top half gets the blunt of the seasoning, while the backside doesn’t.
