Hurricane Grill and Wings

Hurricane Grill and Wings

1037 Route 112

Port Jefferson Station, NY 11776

http://www.hurricanewings.com/PortJeff/

Map and Directions

The second stop for Jody and I on our Monday off was Hurricane Grill and Wings in Port Jeff Station (it is in the shopping center with the DMV, we had a little trouble finding it). Back in November of '09, Jessica Miller Gomez commented on our Facebook page that Hurricane's was coming soon and we would have to check it out when it arrived (Thanks for being a fan Jessica!). We finally were out there and decided to give them a shot. Eric, don't get upset that we didn't stop at Grumpy's, we plan to, but it will be a huge Wingmen Event! It will take some planning.

So we walked into Hurricane Grill and Wings and instantly felt like we were in Orlando or Tampa at some waterside bar. It felt very different from your typical Port Jefferson, North Shore of Long Island, right on the Long Island Sound bars.  This was more tropical, complete with hardwood floors made to look like they have sand on them, seascapes on the walls, luau feeling decorations Reggae music playing, and fake palm trees. I feel like I have been to this exact place in San Diego, Miami, Orlando... and now Port Jeff, which is good because I can't remember when 3 feet of snow have fallen in Southern California or Florida, but it does in Port Jeff!

After polishing off quite a few wings at Tommy's Place, we decided to try the $18.49 sampler plate. Anyone who knows Jody knows he has a hard time passing up a combo plate, so this choice fit right into his indecisive sensibilities. We had 20 wings with four different flavored sauces. We ordered the Honey Mustard, Mango BBQ, Thai Ginger and Garlic, and Gold Rush as our four flavors. They mostly came at the suggestion of the bar tender, since there are a LOT of flavors to choose from. Check them out here.  You can see there are quite a bit of them and you can even create your own.

Combo Platter- Starting to the left of
the ranch dressing and
moving clockwise: Gold Rush,
Honey Mustard, Thai Ginger & Garlic,
and Mango BBQ.

Lets get into the review-

1- The Honey Mustard were good. The flavor was a bit on the sweet side, not enough mustard, but it is understandable, since a lot of people are getting into the sweeter flavored wings these days. Miller's Honey Mustard was way more traditional, as are Wings To Go in York, PA (which I have not been to in years. We need a trip down there boys, those were good wings). I would suggest staying away from these only if you don't like sweet wings.  If you are a honey mustard fan, go for it.

2- Mango BBQ were a wildcard for us. As our faithful followers may know by now, we have never been really happy with any BBQ wings we have tried, but Mango BBQ, how do you pass up Mango BBQ? They were quite sweet, as I am sure you can imagine, but also completely solid. A lot of flavor. Best BBQ wings I have had, and I have tried a lot of BBQ wings.  The Mango adds sweetness, but also distracts your mouth from the tomato and molasses base that usually makes BBQ too much for me.  I'd eat these again.

3- The Thai Ginger and Garlic wings were way too gingery for my liking and sickly sweet. There is way too much honey in that recipe. They were good, but the flavor was just too strong and sweet for me. If you are into ginger, give them a whirl.  We all have our own particular tastes and these just were not for me... they can't all be winners.

4- The big winner of the afternoon was the Gold Rush Sauce. They are described as a "special honey mustard sauce with a hint of heat" in the menu and as "not honey mustard tasting at all" by the bar tender. In my opinion, it was honey mustard mixed with a buffalo sauce with some spicy red pepper thrown in the mix.  This sauce is great and I wish I had some bottles of it right now, I'd BBQ myself some winglets and douse them in the stuff.  I'd go back for these... and of course to try some of the other flavors.

All of the wings were large, juicy and had a good crisp to them, like all wings should. They reminded Jody of Rookie's in Huntington because they had some many flavors on the menu and they were big juicy wings. Hurricane's has a good beer selection, advertises a happy hour everyday from 4-7PM with two for one appetizers, $2 pints and $8 pitchers, and is a nice novelty bar. If there were outside seating and it was located closer to the water in Port Jeff Village, I could see this place being crazy in the summer. I am looking forward to seeing how popular it becomes.

The Wingmen should make another trip there with some fans to help us get through all of the wing sauces. It is a job for more than 3 people! Who's in?

We will give this a preliminary Wingmen Approved stamp, we have to go back, try more and see what else we enjoy.

Tommy's Place

109 Main St.

Port Jefferson, NY 11777

http://www.tommysplace.com/

Last Monday was a beautiful day and Steve and I both had off from work. We wanted to grab some wings while still enjoying the weather. Since we were around the Eastern Suffolk area, we decided to head to Port Jeff. We used to spend a lot of time there in high school - 14 years ago (holy crap!) - but I haven't really hung out there too much since. It's still a collection of quaint shops, restaurants and bars down by the water - and you can still get a burger at Tara's for a buck, so I guess not much has changed in the decade-plus since I've been there.

We ended up in Tommy's Place, which is basically at the very end of Main St. (Rt. 112) just before you get to the ferry docks. We put in an order for two plates of wings, Homemade Buffalo and Teriyaki. At $6.99 for about 10 wings, they were decently priced.

Overall, the wings were meaty and cooked well. I prefer a little more crisp, but they were still moist and tender. The Buffalo were pretty standard, not too hot but a nice flavor. I'm not sure what "homemade" means in this case - did they just mix some hot sauce with butter, or did they make the sauce from scratch using actual peppers? Steve's sister, Meredith, works there so maybe she can get us some answers (can you?).

If you're like me and love teriyaki wings, this is definitely a place to add to your list. The sauce was really thick and coated the wing very well. It was kind of, um, gooey... in a good way of course. I've been trying this flavor pretty much every chance I get and this is one of my favorites.

Other notes - The service was good. The bartender was friendly even though we accidentally rubbed it in her face that we had off and she didn't. Parking can be tough though. I found some two hour spots a few blocks away but Steve parked right in front of the bar in a 1/2 hr spot (what can you do in PJ in a half-an-hour?). The bartender said the local police were pretty strict on enforcing the rules. I think they're only in effect until 7 pm though.

Mike's Place Too

1086 Mastic Rd.

Mastic, NY 11950

I can divide the last 15 years of my life into phases using wing spots.  Now, I'm probably in the Dempsey's phase of my life.  It's our current go-to for wing night.  High school was Big Barry's.  It's been closed for so long that I don't even remember what the wings taste like.  I do remember that they were good, and probably responsible for kicking off our obsession with wings.  In between the high school Big Barry's days and the Post-Collegiate Dempsey's Days there was Mike's Place.

I was at my Mom's house recently, in the old neighborhood, and was in the mood for a throw-back dinner.  So My wife, sister, brother and I decided to get some apps from Mike's Place Too - wings included of course.  I don't even feel like I need to review Mike's wings.  If you lived near Coram (when the original location was open) or Mastic (the neighborhood of Mike's Place Too) you know of Mike's Place and you've certainly had their wings.  The sauce is not a traditional one.  It's not hot sauce based and is more salty than spicy.  But it is damn tastey.  I'm going to say, without a doubt, it's my favorite buffalo wing sauce - ever.

UPDATE:  I don't know how I could have forgotten to mention this.  My head was a little out-of-whack after watching the Yankees claw their way back to a lead, then blow the game and fail to clinch.  Anyway - Another thing that sets Mike's wings apart is the way they're cooked.  I think they use some sort of double-cooking method, like baking then grilling.  They are nice and tender in the middle, but have this perfect grill-char on the skin.  So good.  Maybe one of our Mikes/Grumpy Jack's connections can give us a little insight here.

(END UPDATE)

Here's the thing though.  We used to go to the location in Coram, which has since closed and re-opened as Coach's Corner.  A couple of the owners  opened a new place in Port Jefferson called Grumpy Jacks.  Then, of course, there's Mike's Place Too.  So that's three spots that could conceivably be making different variations of the best wings sauce ever concocted.  Are you seeing where I'm going with this?  Yup, a Grumpy Jack's/Mike's Place Too/Coach's corner smackdown.  A three way battle royale to see who makes the best wing sauce, well, the best.  I know we've got a couple of friends with connections to the original Mike's as well as Grumpy Jacks.  So, what do you think?  You guys up for it.  Some wings, some beer and maybe a little trash talking?  Sounds like a good idea to me.