If you have been reading my column for any period of time you know one of my favorite foods is chicken wings.
I have tried them all over town and can be a little bit of a wing snob. I believe the wings from back home in Pittsburgh, in general, beat the wings in Las Vegas but that doesn’t keep me from searching the valley for the ultimate ones.
When I heard the legendary Anchor Bar was opening a location here I was excited. The Anchor Bar in Buffalo (N.Y.) is where the Buffalo wing was born. Because you were the first doesn’t always mean you are the best but in this case they have set the standard.
Anchor Bar is located in the food court of the Grand Canal Shoppes at the Venetian. On my visit with my buddy Marc we started with an order of their Buffalo Chicken Meatballs. They make meatballs out of ground chicken and serve them in their signature buffalo wing sauce.
I enjoyed the meatballs and from the taste of the sauce was very excited about how the wings were going to taste.
Anchor Bar offers their wings two ways – traditional bone in and boneless. For the record I am a firm believer that boneless are not wings. I want to chew my chicken off the bone! Anchor Bar offers all of their original flavors – Mild, Medium, Hot, Spicy Hot BBQ and Suicidal.
Also offered is what Anchor calls Wings Around The World. You can get Chipotle, Honey-Ginger, Salt & Pepper, Spicy Italian, Lemon-Pepper and Teriyaki-Sesame. We sampled several different sauces and being the purist I am the Original Medium Buffalo sauce was my favorite.
Of the new flavors that we tried I did like the Teriyaki-Sesame the best. The wings were cooked perfectly; you can have the best sauce in the world but if the wing is not cooked right you will ruin the wing. The perfect wing has that crispness on the outside but is moist and juicy on the inside – and that’s just how these were.
We also had another Buffalo food tradition as Anchor Bar serves Beef on Weck Sandwiches. They take thin sliced Roast Beef dipped in au jus and serve it on a Kimmelweck Bun. The beef was very good but the bun could have had more kosher salt on it along with the caraway seeds.
That’s just a personal taste but not a deal breaker on the sandwich. We also tried several different kinds of fries and potato wedges. I’m a fry guy rather than a potato wedge.
The fries were great with different seasonings. They have Smokey Chipotle, Salt & Vinegar, Lemon-Pepper and Anchor Bar Salt. I was a big fan of the latter two. If you have ever been back east and had Boardwalk Fries then you know exactly what I’m talking about.
We even tried their signature dessert, which is Vanilla Gelato with a marshmallow glaze and puffed rice on a stick dipped in a dark chocolate. They call it an Anchor Bar and it’s very good.
Anchor Bar lived up to the hype of the most famous chicken wing in the world. Being located at the Canal Shops gives me a nice place to take a break from playing poker or sitting in the sportsbook. I give Anchor Bar 3.75 Forks.
Marco D’Angelo is a Race Horse Owner & Breeder, Professional Sports Handicapper & Bettor. You can find Marco at WagerTalk.com and by following him on twitter: @MarcoInVegas @MarcoInVegas. You can contact him at [email protected].