Dine-in, Culpeppers, Kirkwood

http://www.culpeppers.com

(Apologies for not having pictures. Explanation contained herein.)

I could curl up in a ball and sleep in their original wing sauce like Rip Van Winkle chugging faerie grog. This is stuff fantasies are made of: the perfect amount of cook, crunch, crisp, flavor, I will never order anything else from this place. Period. Wings, and a pile of them, and don’t try to take any. We Bite Fingers.

To take a step back, this Culpeppers is one of five in St. Louis County. A long time ago, I sampled Central West End. A shorter time ago, I sampled Creve Coeur. Kirkwood is closest to the home, and it is right up the street of the closest Wal-Mart (not proud of shopping there, but they have the cheapest, and quickest pharmacy around).

I’ll be honest and say Kirkwood isn’t the best of the five, either. Its serving environment is a little sluggish, the wings aren’t as perfectly uniform as Creve Coeur: drumettes may be squishy while wingers are cooked perfectly, or vice versa. The dining environment is a step closer to café and a step farther from warm sit-down restaurant. Perhaps too many windows, prying eyes staring in from the drycleaner next door, or maybe even the heavy traffic on Kirkwood takes away from the feel: I’m unsure. I blame the building where they set up shop. But I’m not complaining: wing haze tends to block out all the non-wing distractions anyway.

What’s also great about this place is the salad selection. My fiancée, vegetarian as she is, prefers a strong selection of vegetarian (or to-be-made vegetarian), and their salads hit the spot. Happy fiancée means happy meal, and I’m lovin’ it.

With a strong menu selection for the non-wing obsessives including flavors you’d see at home in an O’Charley’s, Chilis, or Applebees, it’s great for the whole family. Steak, pizza, they make everything well, with a flair for the St. Louis flavor.

To be honest I black out after the first wing touches my tongue, so I’m not entirely sure what people are saying about the rest of the food. I dimly remember the car ride home—mostly because the wing flavor began to dissipate.

Don’t Wing and drive, people. It’s as bad as texting.

Delivery, Kim’s Pizza

Kim’s Pizza

http://kimspizzastlouis.com/

7901 S Broadway, St. Louis, MO 63111

 

Pizza. Well, I’m going to be a bit contrary and say I haven’t actually eaten their pizza yet. For me, the name of this restaurant is a bit of a misnomer, because, well, I’ve ordered from them twice so far, and never once for the pies.

I’m a wing man. I crave good buffalo wings. In fact, I crave great wings; dripping, warm, juicy little chicken pieces so full of yum I might as well be an addict. Call me a wingaholic, and bring me more wingahol. Needless to say, I’m also as picky as you can get with my flavor/texture combination. So with certain places (Kim’s Pizza included), if I find powerful wings, I don’t move on to the other food so easily.

Let me be the first to say their wings are pretty awesome. I hadn’t tasted the honey mustard flavor on wings before (as far back as I can remember. Maybe one of those college blackout days had me munching), and I was more than a little surprised to taste such a smooth flavor coming from what I’d imagine to be a spicy combination. I think mustard, so the first thought isn’t sweet. Yet sweet it was. And without an ounce of spice.

I don’t do crazy hot spice so well on my wings. If you see me at BWW, I’m probably eating on middle-of-the-road wings with bleu cheese: good flavor that doesn’t numb your taste buds off your face*. So I judge based off “regular” or “hot” or “mild.” The fancy stuff like blueberry cider wasabi (not offered at Kim’s Pizza), while occasionally awesome, isn’t my control subject, so I don’t touch it (unless a friend orders. Of course).

Their Sweet and Spicy is the way to go. The two flavors actually juxtapose nicely on my tongue. Imagine a dab of Sweet pushing a dab of Spicy on the swing. They’re laughing. Then they are smeared over wings. That’s the flavor. Gentle but delicious, and a little nefarious to boot.

Being a lunch-delivery kind of guy (working from home sometimes means no ready-mades for lunch), I ordered wings with a meatball sandwich the first time, wings with a ½ pound cheeseburger the next. The sandwiches were alright, arrived warm and ready to eat, with the meatballs being smothered in provel cheese, some concoction the natives find tasty but I haven’t yet developed a taste for. Their home-made pasta sauce was sweet and savory, and worked very well with honey mustard wings. The cheeseburger tasted like a cheeseburger—nothing dramatic or stand-out between the bun—though set beside the wings, just about everything pales in comparison.

I will update my flavor vote when I do, eventually, order pizza. And order I will.

Also, given the delivery nature of this experience, I can’t judge the atmosphere of the restaurant, unless I use my home as said restaurant. If so, it was cluttered with no seating to speak of, and the air conditioner’s busted. And nothing was on TV.

(Comments are encouraged, recommendations welcome)

 

*I have eaten the Habañero, and it is sweet and delicious. And too face-melty.