The Rusty Nail was suggested to us by a number of people for their wings. Every suggestion generally came with a warning to bring a gun or something along those lines. Needless to say, we made it through the whole experience without having to flash a piece. The Rusty Nail is most definitely a dive bar. Imagine the bar from the movie Roadhouse, and you’ll get a pretty good idea. Luckily, people didn’t break out into fights. In fact, I thought the people here were friendly enough. The bartender/waitress was very nice and mostly prompt on our food. We sat next to a group of two couples who we had a couple conversations with. There is a shuffleboard, small gambling machine, pool table, plenty of darts, and a jukebox for entertainment. Keeping in mind the type of place it is, it was a pretty good experience. One major problem was the amount of smoking that goes on. My clothes reeked afterwards. Also, it was a very dimly lit bar. Another minus is the fact that you must place orders of ten. Luckily, we placed our heads together to get a good combination, but it would have been much nicer to have orders of ten.
Another place that has a very nice-size wing for a pretty decent price. You will not leave the Rusty Nail hungry if you place your usual order that you like anywhere else. In fact, you may struggle to finish hem all.
Before I choose a place to eat, I look at the menu to find a place that has a good variety. Some people are happy enough with hot and barbeque, but I’m a firm believer that variety is the spice of life. Unfortunately, you can’t find a menu for this place anywhere online. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the wing flavor list – A great selection with a nice variety.
We placed an order for Porketta, Hot, Hot Teriyaki, and Hot Caesar Garlic Parm. The regular Hot were a spicy break from life. In fact, all of the hots we ordered were very spicy. The Hot wasn’t anything mind blowing, but enjoyable nonetheless. Hot Teriyaki was a mixture of their Hot sauce and Teriyaki sauce. I wish there was more teriyaki sauce in the mix, as the hot sauce was a bit overpowering. The last wing I had of the Hot Teriyaki, I smothered in the Teiryaki sauce and it was delicious. It was a great sweet and salty wing with a strong spiciness. The Porketta wing was the first dry rub wing I’ve had in a long time. It had a lot of that Italian seasoning. It you’re not a fan of saltiness, than avoid this wing as it had a lot of salt as part of the seasoning. Personally, I dug it. Finally, the Hot Caesar Garlic Parm were great. It was a mixture of the hot sauce mixed with plenty of garlic, topped with a heaping amount of Parmesan cheese. There wasn’t Caesar in the mix, exactly, but I think that was represented by the Parmesan cheese. I liked the way they piled on the Parm.
When you walk into the Rusty Nail in Scranton, you feel like you might be uncomfortable very quickly. But when you sit down, you’ll realize that that it’s just a corner bar with no pressuring hospitality. That’s what happened for me. The place is darkly lit and the waft of smoke is undeniable but they have a pool table, though there was a pool league going on when we got there, and there was an interesting assortment of music being played on juke box. The bartender, who was our server, was personable and had a good sense of humor with us. She even offered to split our bill separately, which most places find extremely difficult to accomplish. Even the other patrons were nice and engaged me in a conversation about basketball.
The size of the wings at the Rusty Nail was impressive. They were large and in charge and for 40 cents each it was a pretty good deal as well. One thing I didn’t like was that you need to order them in orders of ten. I wish places didn’t do that. I feel you should be able to order in orders of 5. It would make thing a lot easier.
I am not going to lie. Entering the Rusty Nail I didn’t feel like they were going to have many wing flavors, but I was mistaken. They had about 13 different flavors ranging from your standard hot, honey mustard and bbq to teriyaki, Caesar/garlic/parmesan. They also had a 3 other flavors that were not on the menu, which were porketta and bourbon molasses. Unfortunately, I forget the other flavor but Lynch has it. Also, it was brought to our attention that were allowed to mix any two flavors together if we wanted to, which is always cool.
The bottom line for wings at the Rusty Nail is that they have good flavors, they are big and the taste is alright. Since we ordered in orders of 10 Lynch and I split orders of hot, porketta, hot Caesar/garlic/parmesan and hot teriyaki wings. The hot were descent and had a strong vinegar taste. The porketta wings had all the necessary spices necessary for the style but in my opinion there was too much salt. The hot Caesar/garlic/parmesan did have an abundance of parmesan cheese on, which you don’t see too often but I thought the hot sauce overpowered the Caesar flavoring that was in the wing. Finally, the hot/teriyaki was my idea to do because I never had that combination before. It wasn’t a bad taste but it was most certainly interesting. It was a real clash of vinegar. I say give it a try.
