Wings Etc. is TKA

Today for lunch, I drove on down to Diamond Avenue to try out the newest wing joint in town - Wings Etc. I have to say, it was TKA - Totally Kick A**.

Not only does the atmosphere make me want to watch football and binge drink Busch Light, the food is great too. I'm not a big "wing person", so I opted for a classic burger, but both of the aforementioned were delightful.

For an appetizer, we ordered some pretzel bites with nacho cheese. I love pretzels and cheese, so this one was hard to mess up. The crispness of the pretzel bites was a nice touch. I wish I would've gone with the beer cheese instead of the nacho cheese, but it wasn't bad either. We ate the whole basket in under 5 minutes, but there was plenty there to share if I wasn't such a lard.

For the main course, I got a traditional cheeseburger (since it's National Cheeseburger Day) with a side of curly fries. I went ahead and added their "signature" chipotle burger sauce for funsies...which was a smart decision. The burger was good, the bacon on it had great flavor, and the curly fries were exactly what I imagined them to be. Overall, I give the burger an A-. I decided not to give it a full A+ because it could've been a little bit bigger for the $10 price tag. However, it was just the "classic" burger, so it wasn't jazzed up compared to the other burgers I saw on the menu.

The boyfriend went with wings, of course, drenched in hot BBQ sauce. He let me try a BITE of one...heaven for bid I eat an entire wing. They were awesome! Like I said, I'm not solely into wings like he is. This was more of a treat to him than anything...but the wings had really good flavor! The breading was incredible - a little crunchy, but not like other wing places, it was more like a crisp than a crunch. He loved the sauce because it was "runny...like buffalo should be." He said a good hot sauce is runny versus thicker, and I guess that's how he rates the flavor, too. I'm just convinced he's burnt all of his taste buds off from the years of hot sauce damage. He literally puts it on EVERYTHING. Anyway, I back his opinion - the wings were worth it. He also got a beer because, like I said, the atmosphere kind of takes over once you're in there.

The walls are lined with TVs and sports paraphernalia, which gives it a real sports bar feel. My boyfriend pointed out how the TVs were "staggered" which made it easier to watch more than one game at once. It was a nice touch. You didn't have to break your neck to watch the TV and almost every table in there had a comfortable viewing seat. The total space isn't insanely big, but there seemed to be plenty of room for everyone. We went during lunch, so I'm sure the dinner crowd is bigger.

Overall, we decided we would definitely go back to catch a game or drink a beer. My total cost for lunch, including an appetizer, a beer, and two main courses, was $32. That really isn't bad at all and we had leftovers for later on. I'd give the whole thing major thumbs up and I'm sure there are plenty of wing-lovers out there that'd agree with me. If you haven't checked it out, it sits right off Diamond Avenue next to Wayback Burger on the North Side. Let me know what you think!