By Sam Wroblewski 630wpro.com
Wings Across RI is a series focusing on great places to grab a plate of wings in Rhode Island. This week’s installment: Doherty’s Ale House in Warwick
“Don’t be afraid of the hard work if you want to make a good product.”
These are the words of Tapped Restaurant Group’s Ed St. Germain when describing the meticulous attention to detail Doherty’s Ale House puts into every item the serve to their customers; and in this case, chicken wings.
Established in 2013, Doherty’s was founded as an offshoot of Doherty’s East Ave Irish Pub in Pawtucket. The original ale house concept has grown into a handful of establishments in Rhode Island, with a new restaurant opening in Coventry this summer and plans to break into Massachusetts in the near future.
The owners’ mission is simple: to bring a “craft dining experience” to Rhode Island; and they deliver.
The wing portions were ample and each cut of chicken was packed with meat; but to speak of the food without first mentioning Doherty’s wealth of beer is ignoring a large elephant in the room.
The establishment boasts 123 craft beers on tap, giving bar tenders the ability to serve drinkers of all experience levels from Anheuser-Busch-stalwarts, to the small-batch-brew-snob.
Not only is the bar up-to-date on the latest beer trends, each gas mixture in each tap line is adjusted individually to each beer in order replicate the taste and mouth-feel the brewer had in mind when they kegged their batch. A feat made more impressive by the sometimes daily turnovers on beer varieties.
“It’s insane how much work our bar manager puts into it,” said St. Germain “The next best thing is always here.”
The same attention to detail can also be found kitchen – and of course in the wings.
THE WINGS:
Doherty’s only has two varieties: the standard Buffalo and Sriracha Sticky wings; and they are delicious.
The sauce hugs each wing, with no excess dripping on the plate, and each style brings its own level of hot-pepper spiciness.
Beginning with the Buffalo wings, each batch starts with a house made sauce comprised of the standard ingredients of hot sauce and butter. But to keep the spiciness in check, the executive chef adds a red wine reduction to cool off the mixture, nixing the need for extra butter. While it doesn’t show up prominently in the taste, it does keep the flavors and spice-level in check without the dish devolving into a big mess on the plate.
Next, the wings and drumettes are partially boiled prior to frying to cook out the extra fat in the skin which keeps the wings crispy even after sitting in sauce.
The final result is a crunchy, saucy, moderately hot wing, perfect for NFL Sunday or a shared appetizer.
The Sriracha Sticky wings however, are another story. Whereas the Buffalo wings practice restraint with hotness, the Sriracha embrace it; but not at the expense of flavor.
These wings are baked partially in an oven before being repeatedly brushed with a special sriracha-honey glaze. The heat from the oven compounds the flavor of the honey, resulting in a sweet-barbeque-like sauce with a peppery Thai-Sriracha kick. Served with a side of lime and garnished with cilantro, this American-Asian-Southwestern-fusion wing is both “smack your lips sweet” and “rip your lips spicy.”
In short, Doherty’s Ale House serves up quality recipe wings, made with exacting detail. The small differences in preparation is what separates their wings from standard pub fare, making Doherty’s a go-to place for the wing, and beer lover alike.
Know any great, local original chicken wing spots in Rhode Island? Let us know in the comments below.
