The Las Vegas Blog Post

Introducing the first-ever Sportygrrl Las Vegas awards. A ceremony that chronicles our wonderful stay in the real city that never sleeps.

Best place in Las Vegas to get anything you could ever want on your burger from lobster meat to black truffles to fried egg: The Burger Bar (earlier during the awards ceremony, The Burger Bar also won for best selection of imported beers). This restaurant was located in Mandalay Place, not Mandalay Bay which is a little confusing at first, but it is worth the search.

Best place in Las Vegas to see a re-creation of King Tut's Tomb: The King Tut Museum located inside the Luxor Casino. This award could also be re-named: Best place to visit once you have realized you are lost inside the Luxor and can't find your way out of the casino area.

Best place in Las Vegas to watch Beer Pong after midnight: O'Sheas Casino. They actually advertise the authentic beer pong tables they have in the back of the casino. This place resembles a bar from 1982 more than a casino, which is part of it's charm.

Best place in Las Vegas to use a public bathroom: The Venetian. On our long trek down the strip at 3 a.m., it was nice to know you could stop inside a public bathroom with gold trim and private rooms to take a pee break.

Best place in Las Vegas to sit in front of a firepit and eat chicken wings: The Peppermill Fireside Lounge (earlier in the awards ceremony, The Peppermill also won for best $18 drink, which was named The Scorpion). This whole experience was amazing. It was definitely our favorite spot on the strip as we spent a couple hours at the bar and then moved down to the firepit to eat dinner. This is vintage old school Vegas! The wings here were also really good. I gave them a 4.0 out of 5.0 on my wing rating scale.

Best place in Las Vegas to play slots at 5 a.m.: Slots A Fun. Sure...it's dingy and a little scary, but you won't get the real feel of this place during daylight hours. We were quickly sold on the yard-long daiquiri and tacky slot machine themes.

Best place in Las Vegas to eat lunch when you are hungover: The Spice Market Buffet at Planet Hollywood. They have everything here combining every nationality you can think of including a middle eastern selection. The food was extremely good for a lunch buffet and perfect for a "morning after meal".

Best place in Las Vegas to experience an atomic bomb being detonated: The Atomic Testing Museum. This hands-on museum is located right off the strip and was a great late afternoon activitiy. The museum includes movies, war propaganda galore and many pictures of Miss Atomic Bomb 1957. The best part about this museum is that it shows a very accurate reflection of how crazy people were during the Cold War.

Best view in Las Vegas: The Foundation Room at the top of Mandalay Bay. The Foundation Room is a private club affiliated with the House of Blues and located on the top floor of Mandalay Bay. We were able to get in because my cousin was kind enough to pull a few strings and get our name on the guest list. This place really did make us feel like royalty with the velvet ropes, elevator greeters and an unbelievable view of the strip. They do open this place up to the public on Monday evenings and I highly recommend it to anyone who visits Las Vegas.

Best view of Las Vegas from the middle of the strip: The Eiffel Tower at the Paris Resort and Casino (earlier in the awards ceremony this also won as the most french thing you can do in Las Vegas). Sure, it's a little cheesy to go up a fake Eiffel Tower, but we had a coupon from our Players Club Book, which makes it so much more legitimate. What really made this vertical venture worthwhile was viewing the watershow at The Bellagio from above.

Best place to spend two hours in the desert viewing three acres of old Las Vegas signs: The Neon Boneyard. Like Las Vegas? Like history? Like neon? Like getting sunburnt as you walk around looking at old Las Vegas signs? Then this is the place for you! It all came together for me when the tour guide said: "In 1929 neon was patented, and in 1931 gambling was legalized in Nevada." These two events led us through decades of tacky neon signs that eventually ended up at this somewhat secretive Las Vegas escape. If you are going to take this tour, you have to book it in advance.

Best Place in Vegas to get a 99 cent margarita: Our Hotel, Bill's Gambling Hall and Casino. This was way too convenient. The margarita bar was located right by the door, so you ALWAYS passed by it.

Best place to get a cheap microbrew: Ellis Island Casino and Brewery. This place was a pleasant surprise, and a favorite spot for locals. It's an older casino, located two blocks behind the strip with a microbrewery right inside the casino. The best part was that all their brews were only $1 no matter which one you ordered.

Best place to drink a beer under the World's Largest Pint Glass: Hennessey's Tavern. Before entering the Fremont Street Experience in Downtown Las Vegas we stopped inside this little Irish pub to grab some dinner. Luckily for us, Tuesday was Burger night, so we got a free meal. Located above Hennessey's is the largest pint glass in the world, which also happens to be a club called Brass The Lounge. Its a good pit stop as you walk around Downtown.

Best place in Las Vegas to drink out of a plastic football while watching a crazy light show: The Fremont Street Experience. If you haven't seen this light show or been involved with this experience, it is hard to describe. Every hour, the biggest light show in the world goes off for five minutes and completely captivates everyone who watches it. We debated going downtown, but I am so glad we did it.

Best place to gain five pounds and lose a lot of money: Las Vegas!

The World's Best Wings? I Think Not!

Last week I took a new way to work as to avoid the crazy freeway traffic that occurs before you get downtown. As I took my new route, I found a Cleats Bar and Grille at the bottom of a big hill behind the freeway with a huge sign overlooking the parking lot that said: "Home of the Worlds Best Wings". I felt like Columbus discovering America for the first time, though discovering a place that advertises "Worlds Best Wings" might be an even better feeling.

Obviously it wasn't long before we headed over there for dinner as it was only 5 minutes away, and just to remind you, they advertised "Home of the Worlds Best Wings" outside on a huge sign. We got there and were excited it wasn't wing night, so we could taste the real deal and not get stuck with the skimpy wing night wings. We were pleasantly surprised that you could get a wing platter: 30 wings with choice of five different sauces. We were sold on the platter right away. We were also sold on the Great Lakes Christmas Ale, but that is a different blog entry. We chose our five sauces: hot garlic, samurai (teriyaki), memphis belle, cajun and sweet heat. When the wings came out they were all loaded on one big platter with a bunch of fries thrown in the middle. I felt my arteries tighten up as the waitress sat down our dinner in front of us. (Keep in mind this is a place that advertises an 11-pound sandwich on their menu called the Garbage Dumpster, so you know these wings are bound to be extra-healthy!)

As for the wings, I only liked the hot garlic and cajun dry rub wings. The other three were way too sweet and not spicy enough for me. On top of only liking the two sauces, I had two wings break on me, which is an automatic deduction in my rankings. Overall, the wings had good size but could have been sauced better. It looked like they just threw sauce on top of the wings on the way out of the kitchen, so only half the wing had sauce on it. I walked away underwhelmed by the whole experience. I give the wings served at Cleats three wings out of five wings. Also, if you don't think the name Cleats sounds like a romantic place to get wings, you shouldn't judge this wing place by the athletic shoes hanging outside on their big bright neon sign. Underneath the exterior of a very casual sports bar, with minimal formalities and a bathroom that looks like it is only half-completed, they also offer this deal: A Deluxe Chicken Dinner on their menu with 24 wings and a bottle of Dom Perignon for just $150.00. Now that's a classy romantic wing joint!

Who Jokes About Wings?

Today as I was talking to my father on the phone, I told him I was about to take my Wingmaster exam. He completely thought I was joking. He thought I made the whole wingmaster title and site up. After completing the exam and receving this response just a few short minutes ago, I can assure all of my readers this sight and my exam are no joke:

Sportygrrl,

Thank you for your swift response, I am happy to report that you were the first person to get 9 out of 10 correct and if you check the site, TheWingmasters.com has bestowed the supreme status of Wingmaster upon you - Congratulations!!!

We are very impressed with your answers; the only one you got incorrect was a tricky question. We know you are extremely deserving of this title because you got the one question that almost everyone gets wrong correct; the average size of a chicken wing. This is not an easy question and you must eat and know wings to answer it correctly because it is not noted anywhere. We arrived at the answer based on a review and measuring of 250 wings over a two week period, at various locations.

What's also impressive is that you were right on with the wing sauce question, and you took the proper approach to looking at the question - this was our other trick question. Great job and welcome to the League of Wingmasters...

Who's joking now? Ok, ok... it IS a little funny.

Breaking News!

This just in from every major news source in the world: "Keeping slim is one of the best ways of preventing cancer, as is avoiding excessive amounts of red meat and wine, a landmark study has revealed." On Wednesday when this study was announced, I couldn't get away from it. It was on every major news website, and as I worked out that night, it was on almost every television at the gym. Is this really huge news? Who didn't know this? Was there someone out there trying to beat cancer by binge drinking, eating a lot of steak and not exercising, and if so...has that been working? I think my favorite finding of this earth-shattering study is this: "If people must drink, the report said, they should limit their intake to two units a day for a man or one for a woman. A unit is a half pint of beer or a small glass of wine." A half-pint of beer for a woman? Can you actually go to a bar and order a half-pint? I just hope this finding doesn't create longer lines at my gym. Though on the other hand, it might create shorter lines at the bar.

In related news, we tried a new wing place this week called Roosters. We spotted this restaurant last weekend driving through Parma, and vowed to return as they advertised wings on their big bright sign. This was an interesting place because it was a sports bar, but it was really really bright and seemed more family-oriented than anything. The wings were huge, BUT they were breaded and I don't like breaded wings because they take away the crispiness. We ordered extra hot (which they call Donkey for some reason), garlic and teriyaki. The hot wings were unimpressive, but the garlic was very good as was the teriyaki. If you can get past the breading, the wings were fresh, juicy and very filling, but if your claim to fame is wings and you can't make a good hot sauce, I cant possibly award you more than 3.5 wings out of 5. I highly recommend these wings with a good half pint of your favorite beer.

It's Been A Long Two Weeks

The last two weeks have been a whirlwind of fun (except the part where the Indians choked to the Red Sox). My birthday week was filled with fun adventures including the opportunity to meet one of my favorite writers, comedians and actresses, Amy Sedaris. A couple days later I went on my birthday goal bike ride from my house to my friend's house in Chagrin Falls (20 miles), and then spent the rest of the day at the Winking Lizard in Bedford, which is a lot more fun than it might sound. Apparently at the Winking Lizard you get a free birthday shot called "The Blowjob" which creates for good photo opportunities, but the taste was too sweet for me. We also taste tested the new wing sauces (spicy seasme and garlic parmesean) they are offering which got a four out of five wings ranking from me.

On my actual birthday we went to Niagara Falls. Before heading to Canada, we stopped in Buffalo for some recommended wings at Gabriel's Gate that were really good (four out of five wings). We had an amazing time in Niagara Falls and got a beautiful room overlooking the Falls at the Marriott. It was a great trip, but Canada is just so damn expensive that it makes it hard to go there anymore. Remember when the American dollar was actually worth something?

Halloween was this past weekend and I decided to do it up this year. I went as Captain Cock Block (Julie went as Q-Bert). For those of you that don't know what a cock block is, here is the definition according to Urban Dictionary: "An act of ill etiquette in which a male is speaking to one female in a group of females, and the alpha female creates a disruptive environment" Now just imagine that in human form, or just check out the slideshow below.

Birthday Card Rating System

This birthday card from my sister and Julie gets five wings out of five wings:

Moose Wings

A friend recommended The Blue Moose Eatery in Parma for their wings. Once she said they had 41 different flavors to choose from, I was there. Though that advertising is false because three of the flavors were crossed off of the menu, so technically they only had 38 flavors to choose from. I like to make sure my readers get the true story!

The Blue Moose Eatery is a huge huge bar. There is a gigantic outside bar which looks like something right out of a Spring Break disaster story, and then the inside is like two sports bars put together. On this particular day, three hours after the Buckeyes had played and three hours before the Indians game, we were two of only five people in the place, so we knew the wings should at least be fresh. We ordered their top three recommended sauces: Triv Taco Tonka, Southern Belle and Billy Bob Cajun, and then we went with the default Hot Buffalo just to see how spicy it was. While the Southern Belle was not my favorite, it definitely had the most flavor. I preferred the Billy Bob Cajun because of the heat. The waitress who gave us excellent service, and I don't think that was just because we were the only ones eating there, seemed disppointed that we didn't like the Triv Taco Tonka as much as everyone else. It was a good sauce, but not good enough to be number one..for us at least. I think we are pickier than most palates in Parma.

Overall I give this place three wings out of five. Even though there were a lot of sauce choices, there wasn't a lot of sauce on the wings, which were inconsistently sized. However outside of the wings, the service was great and the bar was an awesome place to catch a game. After this rating, I am now officially a black belt on The Wingmasters site. They e-mailed me today to let me know my t-shirt is on the way.

The Wingmaster Cometh

I have stumbled upon a website that is going to change my life. The page is called TheWingmasters.com, and the purpose of the page is to bring together people who rate wings. Individuals go through what is called Wing Kwon Do training to become an official wingmaster on this site. You earn different points for different ratings and recommendations, and eventually climb your way up to the wingmaster level. Along the way you earn different colored belts as you acquire more points. I am currently halfway to becoming a wingmaster and have a blue belt. On this site, they rate their wings on a scale of five wings; therefore I will be changing the structure of my wing ratings to be based on a five wings to keep everything consistent in my ratings. I do believe I have now found my true calling in life. Mom and Dad if you are reading this, I can't imagine how proud you must be!

Ahhh...Civilization

We made it back to civilization yesterday after four days in the woods of Pennsylvania. All told we biked almost 20 miles along the Youghiogeny River and then whitewater rafted 8 miles through the river. It was the most beautiful place I have ever seen. Our campsite (pictured) was secluded which was nice, but that also meant we walked miles and miles in that timespan UP to the bathrooms. Pictures are on their way and we got some great ones. Along with the recreational adventures, we had wings at the Falls City Pub after rafting that got a four wing out of four wing rating.

The Falls City Pub was one of the reasons we chose the rafting company Wilderness Voyageurs. We saw the company was located right next to the pub online before we made our reservations. After spending five hours rafting on Saturday we headed to the pub for some much needed food and beverages of the adult variety to share with some of our new friends, including our river guide (pictured). While the pub looked like a hole in the wall when you walked in, they only had top shelf liquor and any kind of beer you can imagine inlcuding some from Cleveland's Great Lakes Brewery. Those rafters know how to drink. And Cook! We ordered the house wings and they were crispy yet juicy. The sauce had so much flavor: sweet, spicy and tangy all in one. The people we were dining with got the garlic butter and hot wings, which were also exceptional. Perhpas it was the endorphins from rafting, but these were the best wings I have had in a long time.

Other than wings, we also cooked at our campsite. Along with the obligatory hot dog meal, we changed things up a little bit. We took porterhouse steak which we marninated in a pear champagne vinagrette with gorgonzola and garlic. We served it up with potatoes covered in mushrooms and onions sauteed in a garlic butter. On Friday we made turkey breast we had marinated in buffalo hot sauce along with vegetables and baked potato. We also scrambled up omlettes and made nachos over the fire. We worked hard to spoil ourselves including an air mattress that we had to manually pump using a foot pump because we had no electricity. That process took over an hour, but was worth it considering how cold and hard the ground was each morning. Overall it was a wonderful trip, but I was ready to come home and take a hot shower and lie in a warm bed. I didn't catch the Browns game on television, but thanks to my satellite radio, I was able to catch most of the action. I felt just like the early pioneers most of the time minus the wings, air mattress and satellite radio. They must have really had it rough without those things!

Self-Service Wings

Let me just say before I begin this wing rating entry that the whole ranking thing is starting to catch on. The other day my sister and her Julie called me to tell me they had given a 4-wing rating to some bread pudding they ate at Sushi Rock. Feel free to use the rating system for any and all things.

On Monday we traveled to Bedford, Ohio to eat at the Wing House. A student of mine told me they were known for their wings. With a name like that, it's hard to believe, but I bought her story anyway. When we found the place on Miles Road we noticed it was right next to the Crazy Horse Strip Club, so automatically the ambiance of the place got 4 wings. Upon entering we were told everythng is self-serve, meaning that you walk up to the bar and order and you walk up to the window and order your food. When I first heard this, I was hoping we could also pour our own drinks, but that didn't seem like an option after I asked the bartender.

We walked up to the window and ordered: hot, hot garlic, cajun dry and kung fu, which was essentially teriyaki, but the name sold us. The wings came out quickly and they were hot and juicy. The hot and hot garlic werent very spicy, but they had a lot of flavor. The cajun dry were really good, though one of them did break in half, and Julie said that should be an automatic half wing deducation. I agree as well. The teriyaki was really good, but not the best I have had. There was plenty of celery, but the blue cheese had a mayonnaise taste to it, so I passed on that. Overall, with the ambiance, the ability to self-serv, the freshness of almost all the wings, along with the old married men dancing with the younger women at the pool table, I will have to give this experience a rating of three wings out of four and that includes the half wing deduction for the broken wing.

I know it's only Wednesday, but I hope everyone has a great weekend! I am off to go camping, biking and whitewater rafting in Southwestern Pennsylvania for three days. I will be back just in time for kickoff on Sunday.

Bike The Trail, Ride The Rail

I didn't come up with that title on my own. All the credit goes to the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad. This company lets you bike the towpath and then you can jump on the train for $2 and head back in the direction in which you came. This is exactly what we did on Saturday when we headed south to Peninsula and parked at the Winking Lizard (foreshadowing), so that we could jump on the towpath. From there we biked north over 15 miles to Independence and paid our two dollars to jump on the train and head back to Peninsula. It was the coolest trail we have ever biked on, but it was also the hardest trail because it was a dirt path.

After biking and being dropped off right back at the Winking Lizard we had to have wings. The Winking Lizard in Peninsula has an interesting exterior because it has held on to the origianl sign showing there used to be a nite club in that spot. We ordered a dozen spicy garlic and a dozen caribbean wings. All the wings were the largest we have gotten at any restaurant and the spicy garlic were juicy and spicy, however the caribbean wings were lacking in sauce. Overall I would give the wings three wings out of four. Unfortunately two of our wings broke, which usually means that wings aren't very fresh. In this case, the new advertising in Peninsula could be: bike the trail, ride the rail and eat wings that are stale.

The Carnivorous Carnie

I went to the Geauga County Fair on Saturday night and ate like there was no tomorrow. It's amazing what happens to people when they walk through those fair gates with the smell of onion rings, elephant ears, gyros and sausage coming at them. I don't even like sweets and I have tried to give up all fatty foods, but all of that went out the window when that smell hit me. Just to illustrate the gluttony of it all, picture this: I had just finished a gryo, and then was standing in line waiting for a funnel cake as I was sharing "the world's largest corn dog." This was all after I had the wings. Like a moth to light, I can always find wings and I couldn't pass up this opportunity to rate fair wings, which in this case were much better than fair. I ordered up a half dozen hot wings and they did not disappoint. While it is too late for any of you to drive to Burton, Ohio to get these wings at the fair that has now left town, I would highly recommend it if you still could. The wings were crunchy on the outside yet juicy on the inside and perfectly seasoned. They were spicy, fresh and cheap and the best part is that I got them at a fair. I would rank these wings with three and a half wings out of four.

Fantasy Football Trumps Wings

Last week I went out for wings and beer to celebrate losing thirty pounds. I love irony like that. Last night, however I decided to make a healthier "wing" to calm my wing craving. I grilled turkey breasts and threw them in a homemade wing sauce I created, which was extra spicy and extra garlicy-better than any sauce I have had eating out and less fattening as well. I still had a beer with them because you can't completely cut yourself off from the whole wing experience. While the "wings" were healthy and the sauce was mouth-watering, they didn't have the full wing crunch that you get with fried things-go figure. I would have to give myself three and a quarter wings out of four for last night's healthy wing dinner.

As many of you may know, I have a certain penchant for fantasy football, and with my draft being tomorrow night, I am getting excited. While eating "wings" last night, Julie asked me how fantasy football works. You can imagine how my eyes lit up when someone actually wanted me to describe one of my favorite passions. As I started talking about the draft process and how everyone chooses their players, I actually pushed my wings aside so I could use my hands to talk. At this point, she said: "Whoa! Fantasy football must be pretty serious if you are pushing your wings aside." For those of you scoring at home: I do love wings (of any variety), but I love fantasy football more.

Lions And Biking And Wings...Oh My!

I did enough on Saturday for three blog entries, but I will try to fit it all in this one entry. I woke up to a beautiful Saturday morning knowing I wanted a new bike. I debated and debated buying a new bike, but it made sense to me to invest in my new hobby. I ended up buying a gorgeous bike at Spin in Lakewood. I even got to test drive it before I bought it. I think I spent more time with this decision than I did when I bought my last car. I took my new bike to the North Coast Inland Trail, which is an old railway that has been paved over for biking. We started the trail in Oberlin and went about 12 miles. The trail is fascinating because some of the railway markers are still standing (see picture with marker and my NEW bike).

After biking, I decided to treat myself to wings for the first time in a month. That's right...I haven't eaten wings in a month. This along with the biking would explain my weight loss this summer. I thought about going to Winking Lizard because I know what I like there, but I have already rated their wings, so I branched out to the Parma Tavern. I was unsure of what to expect from this establishment because I have never been there. The tavern had over ten televisions showing the Browns game with a full house watching the game. I thought it would take awhile to get our wings, but they came out quickly. We ordered the following flavors: Teriyaki, Hot Buffalo, Cajun and Garlic. I was impressed by how fresh the wings tasted, but the sauce was lacking as well as the spice. They did serve the best teriyaki wings I have ever tasted though. Overall the wings had great taste but not enough spice; the blue cheese was watery, but the beer was cheap. Considering all of these things, I would give the Parma Tavern three wings out of four.

Finally I would be remiss if I didn't mention the performance of Brady Quinn against the Detroit Lions. Yes, he played well against scrubs from Detroit in the fourth quarter, but Detroit's starting defense isn't all that good to begin with, so I am taking it all with a grain of salt. It was exciting and this town needs some excitement in a quarterback. I look forward to see what he can do next week against Denver. I also look forward to Bernie Kosar's commentary. He is the worst commentator in the history of sports. The man sounds like he just left a wedding reception with a great open bar. As a matter of fact, I am starting the Bernie Kosar commentating drinking game. It goes like this:

1. Bernie stops mid-sentence: take one drink
2. Bernie mentions the word "quarterback" for no reason at all: take two drinks
3. Bernie acts like he just woke up and just blurts something out: take three drinks
4. Bernie slurs every word in his sentence: All drink!

As you can see, it was a great Saturday, which might explain why I was so tired on Sunday.

Wings With A Healthy Twist

I have decided to start eating healthier. Unfortunately eating healthier includes cutting back on the good stuff. However a Sportygrrl can not live on lean cuisine and light beer alone, so I went to the Winking Lizard (WL) in Independence for Wings. I present to you Wing Ranking System Part 2.

Every Monday and Tuesday, which is how often I used to eat wings, the WL has wing night where the wings go for 35 cents apiece. The bad thing about wing night is that the wings are always overcooked. I ate wings on a non-wing night once and the difference was huge. On non-wing night you get fresh wings with fresh sauce. I actually asked a friend who used to work there why they tasted so much better on non-wing night. She said often times the wings are sitting under a heat lamp or they have to re-cook them. this was exactly how the wings tasted: overcooked and dry. The ironic part is that we had to wait over a half an hour to get wings that were overcooked and barely had any sauce on them, and the sauce is of course the best part of the WL experience. Everyone knows, or at least you do now, that you don't go to WL to eat chicken, you go there to eat the sauce. The wings there aren't all that jumbo and they tend to break, which always disturbs me, but I blame it on the overcooking and not the fact that the wings aren't fresh. If that were the case, I would have a hard time going there, so I must continue to tell myself it is due to overcooking. On this particular venture we ordered five of each of these sauces: spicy garlic, caribbean, cajun and thai. My personal favorite is the spicy garlic, but all of these sauces are great. If had to rank WL on sauce alone, they would get four wings out of four wings. Unfortunately you have to rate the whole meal, and on this particular wing night, I would only give the experience two wings out of four wings. I also think I am giving up on wing night. It is worth the extra quarter per wing to get fresh wings with more sauce. I can afford it now that I am allowing myself only one beer per wing sitting, which is the healthy twist part of the meal.

Quick recap: Winking Lizard wings on wing-night are not good, but the sauce is always good. If you want good chicken you don't go to Winking Lizard, you go to Barberton.

The Wing Ranking System

Unless you are new to my blog, you know I love wings. I cant help it. They call out to me, and I consider myself a connisseur of different types of wings and sauces. I have decided to have a little fun with one of my favorite indulgences and create the wing ranking system. Whenever I go out for wings, I will rank them on a four-wing scale with four wings being the highest rating.

Last night we went to the Sports Inn on State Road. Yeah...I had never heard of it before either, but everytime I pass this bar, they are marketing their "Jumbo Wings" on the sign outside. Before even going there, I prepped myself for what might be in store by calling and asking about the sauces (I didn't want to waste my time going there if they had a bad selection of sauces). The woman who answered the phone rattled off sauce after sauce, so I was intrigued. The bar itself was filled with mostly regulars, and even though it is called the Sports Inn, there is only one TV in the corner to watch sports on. I wasn't there to watch sports, so this didn't matter to me. I was there to eat wings. The menu boasted that the wings were "Voted Cleveland's Best Wings" though it didn't say who did the voting, so I wasn't sure I could trust it. We decided to get a sample of the sauces, so we ordered 4 different kinds of wings: cajun, hot, hot ranch and parmesean garlic.

While I will not be ranking service in this blog, it is good to point out that it took us 40 minutes to get our food, and there was only one server for the tables and bar patrons. Also we never got plates or a pop that was ordered. Nonetheless, when the wings arrived, some of them were piping hot and some were room temperature which seemed odd. You could tell the wings had been overcooked because they were quite dry. I also didn't like the way they put the sauce on the wings. Some of the wings had no sauce and other wings were swimming in sauce. It looked like the cook just threw the sauce on randomly as they were being shipped out of the kitchen. Of the different selections, I liked the hot ranch followed by the cajun which had both a dry rub and wet sauce on it. The hot wings were bland and the parmesean garlic wings were too much. These wings were sitting in garlic butter and then topped with a mound of parmesean and then a mound of minced garlic. It was hard to even find the wings at first in the bowl. On top of all this, they came only with blue cheese but no celery and to me celery is one of my favorite parts. By the looks of the place, there weren't a lot of signs of fresh vegetables, so perhaps they didn't even have celery to serve.

Given the total package of the wings and our expectations, I am giving the wings at the Sports Inn 1.5 wings out of a total of 4 wings. They were much too dry for my taste, the meat didn't seem that fresh and the sauce didn't cover some of the wings. On the bright side, the beer was cold.