Tailor Made Hot Wings, Not So Hot....

I raised my eyebrows more than once reading the food picks in New York Magazine’s Best of 2009 Issue (Best Bargain Noodles at $14? I’ll stick to Top Ramen, thanks…). It’s easy to pick apart something that strives to be as authoritative as a ‘Best Of,’ and in any case I can’t begin to offer a point by point rebuttal. But there is one thing on the list that is just flat-out egregious. That the bar at Soho’s Tailor lays claim to the cities best chicken wings is as false as to say that the bar at Soho’s Tailor serves chicken wings. These things were not wings; the weird chemical aftertaste of them, the cube shape, it belonged nowhere in the realm of wings. I don’t even know if the rehydrogenized, melded product placed before me was still chicken. The sauce was certainly not Buffalo, or even hot sauce—it was something buttery and bland-- and the little top sprinkles of blue cheese were a far cry from the gooey dripping dip I’d been dreaming of. And I had been dreaming. Because when I read what Adam Platt wrote about these Tailor Made boneless wings, I was instantly transported back to a late night four years ago when I drunkenly stumbled upon a now closed spot on Fourth Ave and had the most juicy, delectable, hot as hell, and still entirely boneless chicken “wings” imaginable. I’ve been searching for something like that for ever. Boneless is definitely not a bad thing, but Tailor’s were an entirely different animal, and at an ungodly $15 for five wings, not one I think I’ll try again anytime soon.