Wingstop

Wingstop
4697 Poplar
(901) 537-1814

Satchel, age 11, is obsessed with chicken wings. He's been asking to go to wing stop for months. Basically every time we drive down Poplar, he asks me to stop.



One rainy afternoon while running errands and visiting the orthodontist, I agreed to let him get some wings to go.



That seemed to keep him quiet for awhile, but then Jiro, age 9, started in. Last week, I had every intention of forcing some semi-healthy Chipotle on the kids prior to our Target run, but Jiro started chanting "Wingstop Wingstop Wingstop" in the backseat. Then he played the "It's almost my birthday" card. Whatever. I can only take so much, especially when I secretly love chicken wings too.

Satchel made some weird speech about being stuffed and wanting to stay in the car. I guess his teacher gave them pizza after TCAP testing or something. It only took about two seconds for him to change his mind and come chasing after us.

Inside, there is an old school aviation theme going on. I'll admit it took me a second to make the connection between chicken wings and airplane wings.

You order at the counter, and then sit down until they call your name. We all basically ordered the same thing--a six wing combo. You can mix and match the bone in and boneless as well as the sauces, which is cool. We varied our sauce requests, and Jiro wanted boneless wings (also known as chicken tenders or bites). The combo comes with a drink and one side, but rolls and carrots/celery are extra. We got two rolls on the side.

The best part of the ordering process is that they tell you exactly how long it will take. "Miss Stacey, your order will be ready in 14 minutes." We got our drinks, napkins, and whatnot and took a seat by the front door. The kitchen is open, so you can watch them prepare the food if you choose.

On my first visit with Satchel, I noticed this display.



It's a little Five Guys-esque, but it is nice to know that the fries are made fresh and not frozen. They are lightly seasoned and very tasty.



Okay, let's talk about the wings.



They have about ten different sauce choices, including a dry Louisiana rub that is quite popular. I went with the standard hot. It was hot but not painful. As you can see, the wings are technically half wings. I've kind of grown fond of the whole wing presentation like at Best Wings--it's so satisfying to pull them apart--but whatever. I thought they were good, nothing special.



Jiro had no complaints about his plain nuggets, which he happily dipped in ketchup.



His favorite part of the meal was the roll.



Satchel also had no complaints about his mild wings, which he expertly cleaned to the bone.



He had a side of potato salad, which he just picked at. The fries were much more exciting. He ate about four of his wings and gave me the other two, like I needed them. His sauce was much more buttery than mine, or at least more noticeably buttery. Oh chicken wings, why are you so unhealthy?

About halfway through the meal, the woman at the counter looked over and asked, "Everything ok, Miss Stacey?" which I thought was sweet.

Our total was $25.62, which isn't bad. I feel like we could have done some sort of family meal deal and probably saved money, but I was too tired to really do the math prior to ordering.

We will probably be back due to the location, good service, and consistently good food. I knew Wingstop was a chain, but I didn't realize there were over 550 franchises until I started researching for this post.