November 06, 2009

Barefoot Peddler



Barefoot Peddler
37 Glen Cove Road
Greenvale, NY 11548

The crew got together for Game 1 of the World Series and to review some wings. We checked out the Barefoot Peddler because it had a good number of televisions to watch Cliff Lee dominate the powerful Yankees lineup. Being a Mets fan, I am not sure I enjoyed a single minute of the game, but I watched anyway. Having lived near Greenvale for a brief period in my life, I was familiar with the Peddler, but Jody and Jeremy were newbies, so we ordered some beer and wings.

They have 3 flavors of wings at the Barefoot Peddler which posed a bit of an issue since we were sure that three orders would not be enough, but what do you double up on? Hot? Kung Pao (their version of Teriyaki)? Honey BBQ? Ah, the dilemmas of life. We went with 2 orders of Hot and one each of the Kung Pao and Honey BBQ. They all came with celery, bleu cheese and carrots.

I'll start with the Hot. Jeremy loved them. They were his favorite. At first bite, they were not very hot and did not have that smell that clears your sinuses like a lot of really hot wings have. But this was deceptive because the more wings you ate, the more the kick kicked. After 3 or 4 wings in a row, your mouth was burning and that beer was your very best friend. We all agreed that they were very good hot wings.

Kung Pao (or as Jeremy like to call them, Kung Fu). Jody loved them. They were his favorite. They were sweet, but had just enough salt to stop the sweetness from overpowering the flavor. They were drenched in the Kung Pao dressing so you had plenty of extra sauce to dip the wings into to make them sloppy. The sauce also had toasted sesame seeds for that added flavor and presentation. They were well worth trying and Jody and I were tempted to order a second plate. Jeremy was not as much of a fan.

Honey BBQ... well, nobody liked these. They were pretty bad... almost Johnny Famous bad. They were way too sweet and had a ketchup taste that none of us liked. BBQ sauce is sweet enough, the honey just brought it over the top and they didn't have the salt cutter like the Kung Pao wings. We agreed that we would never order them again at the Peddler.

The other factors that we considered as we discussed these wings were price, size of the wings, specials and atmosphere. They were expensive. Each order had about 8 wings. Now these were 8 enormous wings, but there were just 8 in each order. The wings cost $8.99 per order! If my math is correct (and lets face it, I have not taken a math class in well over a decade, so it may not be), that is over $1.00 per wing! That is crazy expensive. Now, Wingmen faithful Sue, who now lives in the area, commented on our Facebook page that they have $.25 wings on Mondays. According to the bartender, They run that special on Sundays as well. I would like to get there to see if the wings are the same size and if they are drenched in sauce like they were off the appetizer menu. If they are, then going on a Sunday and/or Monday will be very much worth it.

Atmosphere-wise, the Peddler is a great bar. It had a cool crowd mixed with young and old patrons either from the colleges down the road or stopping for dinner on their way home from work. The beer selection was solid with a good number of beers on tap. The bartender was very attentive and even asked if we were enjoying the wings, which is a first for The Wingmen.

As far as the Barefoot Peddler goes, it is a cool pub that has very good wings (as long as you stay away from the Honey BBQ), good beer selection, a cool crowd (complete with a couple of young women making out at the far end of the bar [when we were there, I can't guarantee they'll be there when you go, sorry]), and most importantly, the stamp of approval from The Wingmen! Check this place out, it is worth it.

4 comments:

  1. A couple of thoughts:

    1 - *F* Cliff Lee.
    2 - These wings were breaded, which can sometimes be taboo. Sometimes breading the wings will make them soggy, but I actually thought they held up well and it was nice for a little change of pace.
    3 - I actually wasn't crazy about the hot either. Still thought they were too sweet (although not quite as Johnny Famous bad as the Honey BBQ). But I'd take down a plate of the Kung Pow again, no question.
    4 - *F* Cliff Lee.

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  2. Sorry to misrepresent.

    So to recap:

    Jeremy and I like the Hot wings.
    Jody and I like the Kung Pao wings.
    Nobody likes the Honey BBQ wings or Cliff Lee.

    Is that fair to say?

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  3. Absolutely fair.
    So, all three of us agreed on nothing except that Cliff Lee is a D-bag?

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  4. That and we didn't like the Honey BBQ. Cliff Lee can have all the Johnny Famously bad wings he wants. Eff him.

    ReplyDelete