There is no food we love more here at BroBible than wings. They’re the ultimate Bro food: Spicy, easy to wash down with beer, and best enjoyed in the company of friends. They perfectly compliment a variety of social situations: sporting events, happy hours, and late night munchies.
As New Yorkers, wings are near and dear to our heart. In my eight years of calling NYC home, I’ve been lucky enough to sample wings all over the five boroughs. Here’s my definitive list of the best wings in New York City, all worthy spots for the true wing connoisseur.
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13. Mason Jar
43 E 30th St, New York, NY 10016
Extremely popular Murray Hill happy hour bar. If you can resist their mouthwatering smoked brisket, go for the wings. They run out fast, but they’re smoked to perfection.
12. Croxley Ales
28 Avenue B, New York, NY 10009
There are ample places to love this Tristate-era institution. For starters, there’s nothing but craft beers on tap, all priced very affordable. Second, amazing wing specials — Their Wing Night specials are legendary — $.40 wings from 4PM – 1AM. You can stay for up to 90 minutes of stuffing your face with wings and beer. If you hit it at the right time, sometimes they do free wings at the bar during happy hour.
11. Blind Tiger
281 Bleecker St, New York, NY 10014
Another spot with an incredible arsenal of craft beers on tap. Their boozy beer brunches are unmatched in Manhattan, but they also get big ups for the wings on their pilsner-brined wings on bar menu. Try the Korean bbq sauce — it’s far from your typical wing.
10. Dinosaur BBQ
700 W 125th St, New York, NY 10027
It always blows my mind how many New Yorkers have lived in the city for years and never made the journey to the West Side Highway at 125th street for Dinosaur BBQ. I do it twice a year, if not more. Sure, it’s technically from Syracuse, but let’s not dwell on semantics — Their wings are easily some of the best in the city. Dinosaur smokes their wings with a zesty spice, then grills them and slathers them with whatever sauce you’re into. I recommend the spicy BBQ. If you like kick, I recommend the Wango Tango Habanero BBQ sauce or the garlic chipotle. If you’re going on a Saturday night, expect to wait — I’ve waited two hours for a table just to sink my chompers into some bbq at Dinosaur. The healthy selection of bourbons at the bar helps pass the time pretty quickly.
9. BonChon
207 W 38th St New York , NY 10018
There are three of these in NYC now. Each location flash-fries up some of the most beloved chicken wings in the city. The spicy wing is pretty solid, but do the soy garlic sauce for a wing that’s a little sweet with a lot of kick.
8. Blue Smoke
116 E 27th St, New York, NY 10016
255 Vesey St, New York, NY 10282
Three words: Alabama white sauce. It’s a mayo-based bbq sauce that’s sweet and savory. It’s an ode to the sauce they use for the Kickin’ Chicken at Hog Heaven in Nashville. To be honest, there’s nothing like it in NYC.
7. Bonnie’s
278 5th Ave Brooklyn, NY 11215
A Park Slope wing heaven. They do authentic Buffalo-style wings, which means no smoking or grilling. They’re just perfect fried and sauced with a hot buffalo sauce of different heat levels. Don’t be a whimp — Go for hottest one on the menu. It hits you right where you need it.
6. Duke’s
560 3rd Ave, New York, NY 10016
This place is fun. Wednesday – Sunday, it’s packed with Brooks Brothers-wearing yuppies who work in NYC’s financial services industry. It was a regular Thursday hangout spot for me in my Murray Hill years, especially during football season when you can watch the college game and the NFL game while stuffing your face with their wings. Back in the day they won BroBible’s Wingfest a couple years in a row, but I think that’s because they brought their wait staff talent to rig the system and stuff the ballots.
We haven’t done WingFest in years, but still appreciate Duke’s competing dirty like that.
5. Down The Hatch
179 West 4th Street, New York, NY 10014
A basement wing institution in the West Village, usually crawling with NYU students It’s the quintessential college dive bar experience in one of the bougiest neighborhoods in Manhattan. It’s loud, people get wasted, and the wings — made by Atomic Wings — are aces. The half-price weekday happy hour is A++.
4. Blondie’s
212 W 79th St, New York, NY
Best spot for sports and wings on the Upper West Side. Their Honey Barbecue is a personal favorite, but more important is how nuanced their heat levels are: Weak, Plain, Mild, Medium, Hot, Smokin’, Scorchin’, Sizzlin’, Ouch!!, Wicked.
3. Bar Coastal
1495 1st Avenue, New York, NY 10075
A California-themed surf bar that serves wings…. on the Upper East Side? I wish I could tell you how much I love this place. For years it was my go-to spot to watch college football games on Saturday thanks to their amazing all-you-can-eat, all-you-can-drink specials: From the kickoff of the noon game till 6ish, they’d charge $50 per person for endless wings and pitchers of beer for a table. I can’t imagine how many hundreds — if not thousands — of wings I’ve housed here.
Pro tip: The hot buffalo wings are where it’s at, but if you want to mix it up go for the spicy jerk BBQ. It’s a wing rubbed in spicy Jamaican jerk seasoning with a touch of sweet from the BBQ sauce. So, so good.
2. Wingbar
275 Smith Street Brooklyn, NY — 11231
Best wings in Brooklyn, bar none. It’s beauty is its simplicity: Banging wings (only three flavors, too: medium, hot and bbq), cheap domestic pitchers, and open late. Their backyard patio is an anomaly for most good bar wings spots in NYC, making it perfect for munching outside.
1. Dan and John’s
135 1st Avenue, New York, NY 10003
A relative newcomer to the NYC wing scene, but they’re the best wings in NYC right now. Period. Here’s the backstory: Dan and John are two buddies from Buffalo who saw an open lane in the NYC wing scene: Authentic, deep fried wings made with the TLC you’d expect from Western New Yorkers who have been eating wings all their life. While other wing spots go wild on sauce, they managed perfected the crispiness-to-sauce ratio that goes into damn tasty wing. The flavor from their sauces and frying technique is genuinely superb.
They started at Smorgasburg a few years back, frying up wings on Saturdays and Sundays around Brooklyn. Last year they opened up a brick-and-mortar shop (note: It’s tiny and definitely not a bar) in the East Village, where they experiment with flavors like Thai Chili and Smoky Bourbon sauces. I tend to stick to the “Hot” or “Inferno” flavor, which is very spicy — The “Insane” wing will genuinely singe your taste buds off, so maybe hit up a few nearby watering holes for some some liquid courage before that adventure. Fortunely, they have cans of cold beer to cool you down afterwards.
Be sure to hit them up at CitiField if you’re at a Mets game this summer. They’re fam to us here at BroBible, so if you go, tell they that we sent you.
