I am a sucker for buffalo sauce. Put it on wings or a chicken sandwich…put it on anything, actually, and I’m sure I’d love it. I’m drawn to the spice, the grease, the salty-sweet combo…I simply love it.
Buffalo sauce takes me back to junior high, to a restaurant in my hometown of Morton, IL called Schooners. Schooners, when I used to frequent it as a youngster, was the type of place that was filled with smoke, the only way of life back then. It was the kind of place that served pork tenderloin sandwiches with the flattened, breaded pork measuring a good 8 inches in diameter and the soft bun measuring in at 3 inches across. This was the kind of place where I would beg my parents for a few quarters to try to win the prize at the crane game and to play darts with my siblings, even though none of us knew how to keep score. This was the kind of the place, the only place really, in a town of 15,000 people for adults to get a drink after work and to eat a greasy meal.
Going to Schooners as an awkward junior high kid with my parents, my order was always twelve buffalo wings; each wing and leg I would savor, dipping it in the cool ranch dressing. I knew it was an odd order at the time, but I also knew that I loved the flavor, and that was something special.
I eventually moved to Minneapolis and making new friends here, we quickly found a common love for buffalo sauce. In fact, there was a time when a certain group of us met weekly for wings, catching up on each others’ lives and sharing a tasty meal. During this time we tried many places in the Twin Cities - Sweeney’s, Maxwell’s, Tiffany’s, Buffalo Wild Wings, Big Ten, Champps, just to name a few restaurants. There are many good places for wings in Minneapolis, but one we kept going back to was Jake’s Sports Cafe.
Jake’s, while not being much to look at or to marvel about for their service, has fantastic wings. They are known for their Jake’s wings, which are Caribbean style spicy-sweet wings. However, their buffalo sauce is nothing shy of perfection. Regardless of the flavor of wing, they are plump and have just the perfect amount of grease to be considered good, but without the guilt of some wing joints.
This group of friends does not gather weekly anymore, but we do stay in touch and enjoy an order of wings a time or two each year. When deciding where to go, there is usually little hesitation before Jake’s is mentioned and we all agree. Over a stein of Summit and some wings, we share news of our lives and inquire about jobs, babies, travels, weddings and boyfriends. No time has been lost…the friends are the same, the conversations flow and the wings never disappoint to bring back the memories of our former weekly wing haunts throughout the Twin Cities.
Posted on May 22nd, 2008 by katiejocannon
Filed under: Food, Health
This is right by my parents house and I have never been there. I will have to give it a try, my boyfriend LOVES wings. Have you been to Mayslacks for wings? I think those are our favorites at the moment.
Never been to Mayslacks - but will have to try it. Do they have a specialty wing or just straight up buffalo sauce?