The four wingeries herein were chosen as representative, not exhaustive, with apologies to those omitted. All of the restaurants visited offer takeout, and Mo-Joe’s makes limited deliveries.

Mo-Joe’s
11275 U.S. Highway 98W
Destin
837-5999

Lunch and dinner, takeout, limited delivery, beer, smoking section, children’s Menu

Mo-Joe’s reminded me of the student union at my college. High ceilings, arcade games, order at the counter service, and sports on TV. The menu is fairly limited, though its selection of four desserts does earn it first place in that category. The wings, which I ordered to go with hot sauce, were meaty and stayed crisp, even after a short ride in Styrofoam.

The curly fries were wonderful, hot, crisp, and not a hint of oiliness. Even if you pass on the wings and get a hot dog, burger, or chicken sandwich, get the curly fries. They are best with ketchup, but would no doubt be good with the mild, medium, BBQ or lemon pepper wing sauces. Mo-Joe’s also offers onion rings, stuffed jalapenos, and Buffalo chicken tenders for those too fastidious to gnaw on wing bones. Party trays of 60 and 100 wings are also available. Mo-Joe’s dining room is large and pretty utilitarian, though brightened by the college team banners that hang from the ceiling like medieval heraldry. TV sound is kept to an audible but manageable level, which was not the case in one of the other restaurants.

Buffalo’s Reef
116 N. Eglin Parkway
Fort Walton Beach
243-WING (9464)

Lunch and dinner, takeout, smoking section, beer and wine, children’s menu.

I dined in here. If you do, please note that Buffalo’s Reef has milk on the menu. If you get the super hot wing sauce, you might need milk, because soft drinks and beer only spread the fire. I’d tried Mo-Joe’s hottest sauce, and it was fairly hot, but Buffalo’s Reef Super Hot sauce actually comes with a written and oral warning. It was not out of any machismo that I ordered it, but I wanted to see how they did it. It is extremely hot, but also very tangy and balanced. If you make frequent use of the house’s exceptional blue cheese and ranch dressings, with occasional trips to the rest room to wash your lips, you might get a taste for it. My friend ordered the honey mustard sauce on her wings. It is mild, sweet and a nice change from the hot stuff. Of the four places reviewed, Buffalo’s Reef was the most generous with sauce. Each table bears a stack of napkins the thickness of three Manhattan phone directories.

Buffalo’s Reef is also on the decimal system, offering wings trays in increments of 10 to 200 plus. Sandwiches, salads, seasonal chili, and a goodly assortment of sides are also on the menu. That includes “BSK Smiley French Fries,” which are perfectly round little fries that taste something like breaded mashed potatoes and bear smiling faces. Ours were on the oily side, but my friend insisted we finish them because otherwise, “they’d just lie there and stare at us.”

Buffalo’s Reef has a decidedly informal and neighborhood atmosphere, with customer photos decorating the walls and tables, what appeared to be personalized beer coozies behind the bar, and a steady stream of return customers. From 5 to 10 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday evenings $9.95 buys you all the wings you can eat.

Hooters
15015 Emerald Coast Parkway
Destin
654-1007

Lunch and dinner, takeout, smoking section, beer and wine, children’s menu.

This was my first trip to the House of Owls. I was not sure what kind of food to expect. Perhaps hoping to spare me disappointment, a friend told me not to expect a strip joint that serves food, but I knew that already. Hooters proved to be a family-friendly sort of place (granted, I went on a Sunday afternoon) offering a number of upscale menu alternatives to wings. There’s even a “Gourmet Chicken Wing Dinner” of Dom Perignon champagne and 20 wings, priced at $159.99. We did not order it.

Hooters was the only wing restaurant reviewed that offered breaded wings as the standard, with the un-breaded kind (not surprisingly called “naked” at Hooters) available on request. It was also only one that charged extra for blue cheese dressing and celery. We tried both kinds of wings.

The breaded ones were pretty good, but though we ordered them with medium sauce, they seemed to have been sent out without any sauce at all. I suppose that would make them “semi- nude” in Hooterspeak. Fortunately there was a bottle of house sauce on the table, which was slightly sweet and just hot enough to make it interesting. The naked wings were better, with a goodly amount of hot sauce and crisp skin. Hotter sauces are called “3 Mile Island” and “911.”

While Hooters’ curly fry is not quite the equal of Mo-Joe’s, it doesn’t trail far behind. Other non- wing options include soups, a spicy chili, steaks, seafood, sandwiches and salads.

I have two small criticisms. One, the TVs were far too loud for normal conversation. Two, the smoking section, while adequate in size, contained only stools, which are not comfortable seating for everyone.

Buffalo Wild Wings Grill & Bar
Uptown Station
Ft. Walton Beach
301-WINGS (9464)

Lunch and dinner, takeout, smoking section, full bar, children’s menu

Twelve wing sauces are offered at Buffalo Wild Wings Grill & Bar, including the less conventional Spicy Garlic, Caribbean Jerk and Thai sauces. The hottest in the house is called “Blazin” and I did not taste it. Instead I tried the Thai, and enjoyed its mild, satay-like flavor. The bottled sauces are all available to purchase and take home.

Buffalo Wild Wings is cavernous, with televisions of all sizes (including four-footers) everywhere, college and pro banners and posters, trivia games always in progress, and handheld electronic flasher units. The latter are given to customers upon payment for their orders (taken at the counter), and flash brightly but silently when the order is up. One is told to wave the flasher in the air to signal the waitress. It was lunch, the place was not crowded, and I was alone, so she found me on her own. On busy weekends it probably looks like the nighttime flight deck on a Navy carrier.

My wings, sold in units of six here, had exceptionally crisp skin, which went well with the Thai sauce. Carrots, celery and blue cheese dressing were included. Wild Wings promotes itself as a sports bar, and offers full bar service. The menu includes a large number of finger foods, suitable to watching those innumerable TVs, and a selection of sandwiches, quesadillas, tortillas, wrappers and “buffalitos,”— soft flour tortillas stuffed with chicken or chili. In addition to my wings, I tried the Buffalo Chips, which thankfully were potatoes, sliced unpeeled and fried in oil before being covered with sticky yellow cheese. Good beer food, especially with a few drops of pepper sauce.

According to the writing on the wall (literally) at Buffalo’s Reef, 2004 will be the 40th anniversary of the invention of the Buffalo Wing. What started as an improvised snack for some famished drinkers at a bar in Buffalo, NY has since become a national industry. The Buffalo Wing has the same characteristics that Oscar Wilde attributed to the cigarette: it only lasts a short time and leaves one unsatisfied. That is, until the next one. Which makes this perhaps the only article on Buffalo Wings to mention Oscar Wilde. Come to think of it, Hooters would just be wasted on him.

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