This week, Champs Sports Bar, in South Lakeland. We’ve heard about Champs for years, but several of us had never been - that’s been remedied. I’m pretty sure it won’t be years before we go back. The reviews:

“O.K. guys, today is the first day of my vacation. I don’t really want to
think a lot about everything (or anything), so this is not going to be like my typical
reviews. Here we go:

• wings were pretty good, I got Hail Mary and Sweet Hot
• Hail Mary had good heat; I didn’t care for the Sweet Hot
• restrooms were very clean
• restaurant atmosphere was nice. I liked it (I did too. I thought it was a different, but very cool atmosphere).
• service was very prompt, even though our waitress was spaced out. She
may have had a mental disorder, so I don’t want to talk too much trash (he totally nailed this. She was a good waitress, just out there somewhere).

Alright, I’m going to St. Augustine (Evidently, whenever you have decent wings with a spaced out waitress, the appropriate response is to go to St. Augustine. Who knew?). See you next week.”
–Mike

“Today was my first Wingsday experience, and let me just say I was nervous. These guys are professionals and I didn’t want to ruffle any feathers (Is that a wing joke? Because it’s pretty funny).

I ordered 6 honey bbq and 6 teriyaki wings (We’ll call this the “woman’s platter”) I passed on the 75 cent fries, because they weren’t the crinkly kind, and we all know that those are hands down the best kind of fries ever. The first wing I picked up was delicious, I think I even exclaimed out loud how wonderful it was. I thought it was the honey bbq…I found out quickly, after I picked up a wing from the other side of the plate, it was a teriyaki. Silly me (obviously, we’re not all professionals). Either way they were both pretty good. The wings were big…2 or 3 mouthfuls per wing (and some would say I have a big mouth). The honey bbq weren’t good to me, but I don’t like bbq. I don’t know why I ordered them, I think I was just nervous and we were late and I needed to say something, so I picked them. The teriyaki more than made up for it though, ’cause they were really teriyawesome (Wow. Just wow.). I even ended up with sauce on my neck…so you know I was into it.

Miscellaneous:
The waitress was nice, but spaced out.
The ceiling had glow-in-the-dark stars on it w/ black lights. RAVE!
Somehow, my Dr. Pepper got refilled with sweet tea, and I didn’t notice until Scottie pointed it out to me (This has got to be reassuring to our readers. “Reviewer didn’t notice sweet tea mixed with Dr. Pepper. I’m sure she can tell the difference between good wings and bad.”). Guess I was spaced out too.
You can get 12 wings and a drink for $6.99, and ad fries for 75 cents, so that is a really good lunch deal.

I’d go back.”
–Emily (special guest reviewer, and wife of Mike. It’s also important to note a couple of things - a. Emily was in charge of photos for this week, and b. I’m sure the photos are safe, up in St. Augustine)

“Champs was one of the first places to do a lot of things “right” in my eyes (Finally. 12 wing establishments and we found one that does a lot of things right. I’m kidding. Sortof). For starters, seating and TVs abound… probably more televisions than any place we’ve been to yet. Not to mention the fact that there were 5 of us in a booth and there was still ample room.

The wings came out extremely quickly – this is both a positive and negative statement. Positive because we were hungry, negative because we learned that during the “lunch special” they continuously cook wings, ordered or not. This leads me to believe that there might be some heat-lamp action going on during slower lunch hours, but I digress (I thought the same thing, but I have no complaints about the quality based on our experience).

I ordered 12 wings, with fries and a drink (For less than 8 bucks!)– 6 “Garlic” and 6 “Hail Mary,” a step below their hottest wing. With the continuous cooking of wings, I think it’s a fair bet that nearly all wings are “made-to-order” by dipping them in whatever sauce you order right before they hit your plate. The Garlic wings tasted like the garlic-butter you get with a Shrimp Scampi. Not that great, and not very “strong” like our waitress warned us. They were a far cry from Kau’s ButterGarlic wings, my personal (yet unreviewed) favorite wing. The Hail Marys (“Maries?” – change “Y” to an “I” and add “es” ?? (This is why I love Scott - he writes his own jokes)) had a decent flavor but lacked the “kick” of heat I would expect from a second-hottest wing. Now I wish I had tried “Lava.” At least they were temperature-hot, and crispy. Not extremely tasty though. I will say Travis’ Hot-Garlic mix were the best wings I sampled.

The 75 cent fries were 25 cents worth of fries with 0 cents worth of salt/seasoning thrown on a plate. I need a gansta refund – I want my 50 cent. [Alternate Joke “50 cents worth of fries… I feel like The Dolphins – I need a Quarterback.”] (ummm, maybe you should leave the jokes to me)

The waitress was attentive, but apathetic, and… out there. One of the wingmen called her a Space Cadet, and I feel it suits her; she appeared to be in a helpless orbit around the restaurant, governed by some unknown force that made her visit our table every 20 minutes like a wayward comet… completely devoid of all intelligent life. Don’t drink that Kool-Aid, kids. (See - I’ve got nothin’ to add to that paragraph. It’s perfect.)

Overall I’d return to Champs. The fact that my buddy Josh (Which was an UNBELIEVABLY nice gesture) picked up everyone’s tab may have me biased. The atmosphere was great. The manager who visited our table (twice) was friendly. The waitress was… a good conversation piece. And the wings… well, maybe I’d just order a few beers. And invite Josh.”
–Scott

“Today we went to Champs Sports Bar & Grill, which I’ve heard of and seen but never visited. When we walked in the first thing that caught our eye was the black lighting and the glow in the dark items (stickers?) on the ceiling. It was interesting to say the least and isn’t something you see in every restaurant Bar & Grill. Once we got past that little distraction we noticed that everything was well laid out and seemed very clean. We sat down to read the menu and quickly discovered that we may have found the best deal on wings in town. There at the top of a menu, that seems to contain well over 100 items, was a deal that gets you 12 wings and a drink (even a beer if so inclined) for $6.95. The deal became even sweeter when we found out we could get a side of fries for $0.75 more (as someone who moves among wing-type circles, this is a fantastic value). Not knowing how filling everything was going to be I ordered 12 wings half hot and half Cajun with a side of fries.

The food came out about 10 minutes after we ordered and everything looked well prepared. The wings were medium-large to large in size (pretty close to Decisions) and I was impressed with the quality of the chicken (me too - not a lot of broken wings). The hot had good flavor and although they weren’t overwhelming they did have a little kick to them. There are two other levels of hot including Hail Mary (one level above hot) and Lava (The hottest). Some of the other reviewers ordered the Hail Mary wings and again I thought that they had a good flavor with a nice kick. No one tried the Lava wings however I’m sure they would have been just as good and should have brought some heat. The Cajun wings were a little on the bland side, I wasn’t impressed. Most of us quickly realized that the wings were very filling and we could have done without the fries which were just OK nothing to write home about (I want to hang out here for a second - it’s amazing how many places we ate at where, no matter how many wings we ate, we could leave and get milkshakes. Not the case with this place.).

The entire experience was very pleasant and it got even better when a friend (Josh) of our friends had the waitress come over after he had left to tell us that he was picking up the tab. We were all little shocked (very grateful) as this doesn’t happen very often in today’s world. Travis and I had only met this gentleman about 45 minutes earlier so we were taken back by the display of generosity. There were a few service slip-ups for a couple of the reviewers (imagine how Dr. Pepper/Tea or Coke/Tea taste when mixed together, probably not very good) but overall I felt the waitress and the other workers in the restaurant were nice and attentive. In my opinion champs may not be the best place we’ve been so far but I feel that it ranks very close to the top (I guess we’ll see about that).”
–Shawn

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This weeks adventure took us to downtown Lakeland, home to Palace Pizza and the Black and Brew and Harry’s. It’s a neat environment, clean and walker-friendly, and that’s where we found, The Gym. I’ve probably been past it a hundred times and never noticed it. Actually, maybe I did notice it and thought it was a gym. I’m not that smart. Anyway, the Gym is a sports bar, with plenty of TV’s and excellent viewing angles for watching (in this case) the tip-off of the NCAA Basketball Tournament. On to the reviews:

“I have been to The Gym many times, but never for wings. First of all I love the atmosphere. Its a very clean, t.v. infested sports bar. The staff is always pleasant and fun to just chat around with. The Gym is owned by Molly McHugh’s, and is located directly across from it in downtown Lakeland. I ordered 10 hot wings, which the waitress told us weren’t hot enough. She was brutally honest, but very accurate. The wings themselves were alright. They had a good flavor, consisting of more sweetness than heat. I was definitely disappointed in the size of
the wing, but its hard to find a good sized wing once you’ve been to Decisions. I’d give them 2 stars out of 5 and I’d definitely go back…but probably not solely for wing consumption.”
–Mike

“The Gym in downtown Lakeland provided decent wings in an excellent environment. The service was relaxed and slow but very friendly and honest. The chicken wings were not hot at all here. I sampled the blackened wings as well as the hot wings. We watched the tip off of the NCAA basketball tournament on several of the TVs that surround the room, including two big screens in the front. They offer sidewalk dinning — great for people watching in Lakeland’s bustling downtown. The blackened wings were quite good. They reminded me of grandma’s home-style fried chicken. They may have even used some Old Bay seasoning on them. The standard hot wings were nothing to write about. I’d surely go back, but probably stick with the blackened wings, and avoid the sweet tea and curly fries. As with all downtown eats, good luck with parking on weekdays at lunchtime.”
–Steve

“I’ve been a semi-regular at The Gym since my college days. I started coming here when I “outgrew” the Kau’s life and wanted to just relax and have a drink, rather than get swarmed by 1,382 intoxicated college freshmen.

Many a night I’ve dined on their loaded fries while watching a game and enjoying a brew, but until today I had never sampled their wings.

Let me start with the things that were better than average: Cleanliness of the establishment. TV-to-table ratio. Openness and ample seating. Attentive, friendly, TRUTHFUL waitstaff.

The waitress was dead-honest… steering us clear of the opened 2-liter bottles of Nestea they pawned off as “sweet tea” in your glass and warning us about the mildness of the “hot” wings. Points for that. Those are really all the great things I can say about today’s experience.

I ordered 10 “Blackened” wings, and sampled a few of the “hot” wings. Neither were truly up to my ever-rising standards. The “Blackened” wings (Yes, I just lifted my hands from the keyboard to use air quotes) were not really blackened at all… merely a dry-rub concoction of possibly Lawry’s Seasoned Salt, Old Bay, and Garlic Powder. Again, I stress these wings weren’t black at all – they were whiter than a Welshman. They tasted a staggering “OK” on my personal scale. However, they were served piping hot and they were very crispy.

The again-air-quoted “Hot” wings were… not. Mike pointed out a slightly sweet taste to them, and I couldn’t agree more. These were probably the mildest hot wings to date. With the sauce, they were noticeably soggier than the dry-rub blackened wings. The caliber of the wings coupled with the small size of the chicken and the high prices for “add ons” ($3.00 for fries?!) left a somewhat bad taste in my mouth.

Overall, the dining experience itself was pleasant… but the food was par at best.

At least the celery and bleu cheese comes free here.”
–Scottie

All in all, we agreed that this was a decent sports bar, worthy of watching a game. But, as a wing establishment, the Gym leaves a lot to be desired!

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February 13, 2008Today’s adventure took us to the Bedrock Cafe on South Florida Avenue, about a quarter-mile south of Edgewood Drive.  Here are some of the reviews:

“I have been to this establishment a number of times, so today I decided to try something new. I went with the Garlic Cajun wing instead of the traditional buffalo. I was a little apprehensive when they were first brought out because they were covered with chunks of garlic. However, I found that with a gentle tap against the plate the garlic shook right off, leaving the wonderful flavor behind without the unnecessary chunkiness. The wings were very substantial in size and lacked a thick breading you may find on competitors wings, which was a plus for my taste. Overall, I was very satisfied. I will say, however, that the name may be a little misleading because one might expect a Cajun wing to be spicy – I found them rather mild. I would give this plate a 4 out of 5 rating.

The restaurant itself was very clean, and I liked the open atmosphere. Our server was prompt with service, but stayed away when she wasn’t needed, which made for a better dining experience. I hate when servers are constantly at the table asking if everything is ok and what I need. Trust me, if something is wrong or I need something I will let you know. I can confidently recommend Bedrock Café to anyone interested in eating a good chicken wing. I will return soon.”
– Mike

“I ordered the same flavor combo that I do every chance I get - Teriyaki & Garlic. In this case the garlic was, specifically “Cajun Garlic”, although it didn’t seem very cajun-y to me. Overall the wings were good. They had a lot of meat on them, even though some were a little tough. Maybe the strangest part was that after eating 10 wings I was still hungry (insert fat joke here).”
– Timm

“Finally, hot wings with some heat. Bedrock’s hot wings were hearty and well cooked. Finally, after weeks of searching, these wings showed some promise in the heat department. It was almost more of a cayenne pepper sauce than buffalo wing sauce flavor. They were not the best flavor in town, however, I’d eat there again just to enjoy the heat. I’m really enjoying this job. I think if my current gig doesn’t work out perhaps I could be a foodie. I can’t wait until next week to do it again.”
– Steve

“I must have driven by Bedrock Cafe (on S. Florida Ave in Lakeland) several hundred times over the years but never stopped in to consume any food. To tell you the truth I was excited to try something new, which would surprise my wife as I don’t like to try new things. I ordered 10 wings and split the order between hot and blackened, again it was great that they allowed my to do this and they didn’t charge me anything extra. The wings were quite large which was great because I was quite hungry. The first wings that I sampled was the hot and to be honest I was a bit disappointed not by the wing itself which had a great consistency but by the hot sauce. It had a decent kick to it (more medium than hot) but the sauce was sweet and didn’t taste anything like what I would expect from a hot wing. And no I didn’t have to consume large amounts of water as Travis may lead you to believe. It tasted more like Tabasco sauce than anything else and I wasn’t impressed at all. Next I sampled the blackened wings which were well seasoned but I wouldn’t have considered them blackened. In fact at first glance I thought I had been given the wrong wings. Regardless of my initial impression they were really good and I found myself wishing I would have ordered all 10 of them in this style. Bedrock Cafe was decent and the service itself was good but there was nothing that really made it stand out and it lacked some things when compared to some of the other wingsday day establishments that we’ve reviewed in the past weeks (I.E. Decisions, Beef’s). As big as the wings were, I was still left with a void in my gut. That was easily satisfied with a large chocolate milkshake from Checkers. In conclusion I give Bedrock 25 (oop’s I mean 2 and a half stars).”
– Shawn

As for me, I went with 10 of the Aloha Black, a blackened wing with some kind of pineapple-y sauce. They were really good, except for the fact that the ones on top weren’t as flavorful as the ones on the bottom (sitting in a pool of pineapple juice). I’d go to Bedrock’s again, based just on the service and portion sides; the wings were good, just not the best.

By the way, if you’re following us through an RSS feed, make sure to make the jump to see our new header (thanks Mike)!

That’s it for today. See you next week!

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