Dining out: The Wing Coop

There's a problem with this week's review that I'd better get out of the way straight off. Last week, I visited a restaurant specializing in Buffalo chicken wings, and I have a hard time eating Buffalo chicken wings.

I've happily eaten all sorts of food many people won't touch: blood sausage, haggis (made, of course, from intestines), escargot. Why, just last Halloween I crunched down a chocolate-covered cricket. But I was raised by a mom for whom eating chicken skin was just about on the level of eating a whole, dead chicken — feathers, beak and talons included.

Chicken wings are, of course, amply supplied with skin. And I just can't undo three decades of conditioning, no matter how delectable the sauce that covers any given basket of wings.

In the interests of journalistic thoroughness, my sister and I shared a small basket of wings coated with zippy garlic Parmesan sauce, and I can report that they are among the best of their kind: plump and meaty, unbreaded, fried to crisp perfection (you can also get 'em grilled). If wings are your thing, you'll be very happy with the product at The Wing Coop.

But The Wing Coop was merciful. For folks like me, who love the sauces and dips but not the wings themselves, the menu offers "tenders," those little strips of boneless, skinless meat, either breaded or grilled, coated with your choice of 15 sauces and accompanied by any of seven dips. There also are chicken breasts, salads, wraps and sandwiches such as the "Cordon Coop," two grilled tenders topped with mayo, shaved ham and Swiss cheese, that my husband enjoyed.

But the real fun of The Wing Coop is in the sauces and dips for which the chicken is just a vehicle.

We had three sauces: the award-winning honey habanero, intermediate Buffalo sauce and mostaza, a mustard-based sauce. We dipped those in ranch, blue cheese, honey mustard, vinaigrette and peppery "coop dip." I like blue cheese best by far, but you'll no doubt discover your own favorites.

Every sauce we had was excellent. The honey habanero was less sweet than expected and had a rich chili flavor, with medium spiciness. The "intermediate" Buffalo sauce, though listed lower on the restaurant's scale of heat, tasted much more fiery to me.

The mostaza was our favorite. I'm normally not partial to mustard with chicken, but this sauce was inspired: strong but not bitter, assertive and just spicy enough to leave a tingle in the back of the throat. It was drizzled over the tenders rather than coating them completely, leaving the meat nice and crisp from start to finish.