Wings Around the World on E. 75th in Chicago.
Back in May when J and I got engaged, the first thing out of my brother’s mouth was, “Where do you want to do the Bachelor Party?” I chose a baseball game. I knew right away what I wanted to do.
Like every other time that I go somewhere with a group of people, my goal is to bring as much local flavor to the party as possible. We decided on pizza for after the game, but we needed some tailgate food. BBQ was thrown around as was hitting up a bar near the park, but I eventually found a wing joint not too far away that got rave reviews on Yelp.com and Google. It had been voted best wings in Chicago and I believe I saw the place on a Travel Channel show (although I can’t remember which one).
Wings Around the World is on 75th Street at South Eberhart Avenue. It’s strictly a carry-out place with a small store front along the commercial district in this particular neighborhood. My brother called on Friday to see if we needed to pre-order since we were putting in a pretty large order. The guy he talked to said no, just call right at noon when they open.
I was already at J’s parents, so the van of guys picked me up a little after noon in the south suburbs. Bad news whenI got in the car. My buddy K had been calling non-stop since noon and there was no answer. I grabbed my brother’s Iphone and started looking for a backup plan.
Everyone was pretty set on wings, so my brother contined to drive to 75th Street. We pulled up in front of the building about twenty to one. Still, no one had answered the phone. We parked along the street and kept trying. Finally, my brother got out and walked up to the door. It didn’t open. As he was walking back, K tried calling again. Surprise, this time someone answered! K asked how long it would take to cook a hundred wings. He was told a half hour so he put in the order. We split the hundred into groups of twenty so we could try a few different flavors.
Since we were already sitting in front of the building, we gave the guy about fifteen minutes. He said there were two orders of 100 in front of us, but when my brother and K walked into the building, we were moved to the front of the line. Like I mentioned already, there’s not much to the building. There are no tables. There is a bench to sit and wait, but other than that, the place is really bare. The order window is just a small hole cut in the wall. It isn’t behind bulletproof glass even though they are open until 5:00 AM. I wouldn’t call the neighborhood a really bad place, but the six guys in a mini-van got a lot of weird looks.
Chicago's best wing place..Wings Around the World on the South Side.
Wings Around the World’s big thing is their sauces. It’s not your typical medium, hot, blazing. They have 46 flavors spanning 9 countries. Choosing just five wasn’t easy. The hottest flavor is the Kamikaze (Japan). We were going to see if we could just get a couple of those, but K forgot and didn’t order. We ended up getting Bourbon (USA), Honey BBQ (USA), Garlic Parmesan (Italy), Fire Jerk (Jamaica), Spicy Buffalo (USA).
About ten minutes after we went into the store to try to hurry the guy, he came out with a big aluminum foil serving tray full of our wings. He opened up the top and pointed out which flavor was which. The wings were divided into five sections by parchment paper.
The bill for 100 wings was fifty bucks plus tax. We were a little later than we wanted to be, so we hopped back in the car and started heading towards US Cellular Field to do a little tailgating before the game.
Once we got parked, we pulled the cooler of beer out of the van and started in on the wings. They were delicious. I went straight for the Fire Jerk which I thought were the best ones we got. My dad really liked the Parmesan Garlic which surprised both of us. He grabbed one of those first because they were the least messy option. After he had one, he kept going back to them. The only flavor I wasn’t wild about was the Honey BBQ. I thought the flavor was weak and a little bland. I didn’t really get the Honey or the BBQ flavor.
The wing were a big hit. My brother said many times that if he ever needed food for a party, he would be making the hour drive back up to 75th Street. K couldn’t stop eating them. Every time we got out of the van, he was asking if he could get some more wings. At 1:30 in the morning when we got back to my brothers, we popped the cooler open again and he dug in to the more wings.
The delay sucked. I was really getting worried that our plans were not going to work out, but no one got excited and we waited patiently for someone to finally answer the phone. It was worth it. The wings were delicious. They had a lot of meat on the bones and the flavor options are awesome. There is something for everyone’s taste.
I read a lot of good things about Wings Around The World and I’m going to agree with all of it. It was worth the wait and makes an awesome tailgate option.
Mid-Michigan Dining 
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