I guess I grew up in a different era.
When I was young, going out to a restaurant was a special event. Our family didn't have a lot of money, but my folks always managed to splurge on the restaurant that had the best shrimp, the best steak or the best sauerbraten.
We ate from real plates with real silverware. There were cloth napkins and cloth tablecloths.
Enter Buffalo Wild Wings Grill and Bar, located next to the new Holiday Inn Express in Watertown.
It's like a huge airplane hangar wallpapered with giant flat-panel TVs. TVs blasting every conceivable sport.
It's loud. It's busy.
And it's packed.
Our five-man WDT Reviewing Team took a table on the border of the dining room and the bar. Actually, it's just one big, cavernous room with a half wall delineating the bar area from the dining area.
Four middle-aged men and a college sophomore home on break in a room full of 20-somethings munching on sticky wings and downing tall beers. Except for the college kid, I think we looked conspicuously out of place.
The menu is pretty much what we expected. Lots of fried things (mozzarella sticks, onion rings, potato wedges), meaty things (wings, ribs, chicken tenders), Mexican things (chips and salsa, nachos, quesadillas), and some different things like popcorn shrimp, pulled pork or jerk chicken sandwiches.
A round of drinks took a while to show up. Super-sized soft drinks arrived after a short wait. Beers seemingly were forgotten. We flagged down one of the young waitrons who located our missing Mich Ultra, Sam Adams lite and 23-ounce mug of Guinness. We had to ask for glasses for the bottled beers.
Everything comes out of the "kitchen" in those old-fashioned paper boats. There are smaller paper boats on the table that become your plate. Your silverware comes wrapped in a paper napkin. There are extra paper napkins on the table that come in handy because you eat most of your meal with your fingers.
A basket of Buffalo chips ($3.99), "crisp, natural-cut potato slices," according to the menu) started us off on a low note. A paper basket full of soggy, flavorless sliced potatoes was pretty forgettable.
Crispy Southwest Dippers ($4.99) were pretty good. They reminded us of pudgy egg rolls. They didn't quite live up to their filling description of "fajita-spiced chicken, pepper jack cheese, tomatoes, onions, jalapeños and black beans."
The description should have been preceded by "minuscule amounts of ..." and concluded with "more crispy tortilla than filling."
We did enjoy dipping them in the Southwestern ranch dressing, ranch with a bit of heat to it.
Ultimate nachos ($6.99) weren't really that ultimate. They consisted of an ultimate amount of tortilla chips and a minimal amount of chili, chopped tomato and onion, shredded lettuce, jalapeños and some kind of cheese sauce, plus the usual salsa and sour cream.
The college kid at our table was pretty excited about having a Buffalo Wild Wings in his hometown. He goes to college in Buffalo, where he and his friends make a regular pilgrimage to the Buffalo Wild Wings there.
For the sake of comparing the two locations, he got two of his favorites, a half-dozen of the traditional wings ($4.79) — whoops, make that the "lip-smackin', award-winning, Buffalo, New York-style wings" — along with a small order of onion rings ($3.99).
The wings weren't exactly plump and meaty, by my standards. They may have been slightly breaded. The onion rings were, well, onion rings — more batter on the outside than onion on the inside.
But he thought both were just great, and identical to the wings and rings he gets regularly in his college town, right down to the spicy garlic sauce.
Which brings us to a discussion of the sauces, 14 in all. They're arranged in order of hotness, from "smilin'" to "sizzlin'" to "screamin." The spicy garlic falls right in the middle.
We got Parmesan garlic, toward the mild side of the scale, with "Naked Tenders" ($7.49). Naked tenders are pieces of grilled chicken. The menu said juicy, but ours weren't.
It was a Thursday, and Thursdays are "boneless Thursdays" at Buffalo Wild Wings. No one told us what boneless Thursdays meant until we asked.
Simple. Boneless chicken wings are specially priced at 50 cents each. You order the amount you want. We got a dozen ($6) with mango habañero sauce, on the screamin' side of the heat scale. The sweetness of the mango seemed to counter the heat of the habañero, making it tantalizingly enjoyable.
Black and blue burger ($6.29) was a bust. It was seasoned with Cajun spices, but you couldn't tell. It looked and tasted like black, burned, greasy ground beef.
We had to send it back to the kitchen for the blue cheese dressing that they forgot.
Pulled pork sandwich ($5.99), served on a kaiser roll, was OK, but nothing special. The meat was a little dry. A little more sauce might have helped.
Finally, to sample the ribs, we got the ribs and boneless wings combo ($11.49). Four meaty ribs — "lip-smackin', glazed and grilled," to be exact — were quite good. The meat, a good amount of it, fell off the bone. The barbecue sauce was mighty tasty.
By this time, the table was littered with boats full of bones, dirty napkins, used silverware and empty glasses and bottles. Our waitress was mildly attentive when the evening began, but service deteriorated as the place got busier.
We considered dessert, but that would have taken forever, so we just flagged her down for the check. We had to flag her down again to take our check to the register.
Food for five came to $70 before tip. A round of beer added $22 to the tab.
Depending on your age, you'll have a different impression of Buffalo Wild Wings.
The under-30 crowd (which made up the majority of the customers) will no doubt rate it high. They were brought up on Happy Meals and convenience-store pizza, so for them, this is a real restaurant.
Over 30 will have a different opinion. Big screen TVs blasting every conceivable sport? Nah. Paper boats and paper napkins? Nah. Meat, meat and more meat? Nah.
Call me old, but this place leaves me cold.
You can contact Walter E. Siebel via e-mail: wsiebel@wdt.net.
Buffalo Wild Wings Grill & Bar
1290 Arsenal St. (next to Holiday Inn Express)
Watertown
779-WING (9464)
Traditional and boneless chicken wings, deep-fried favorites, ribs, pulled pork and some Mexican dishes served in a sports bar/airplane hangar atmosphere
HOURS: 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. Monday through Thursday
11 a.m. to 2 a.m. Friday and Saturday
11 a.m. to 12 a.m. Sunday
Rating: Under 30 years old Over 30 years old
3 forks 1 fork
