Wingaddicts BLOG
Welcome to the Official "Wingaddicts Westchester Wing Trail" where we blaze a saucy path for chicken wing enthusiasts in the Westechester, NY area! We consulted with lots of the top area foodies and wing fans to come up with this amazing list of wing spots you simply MUST experience.
To be clear, though it's damn close, this isn't necessarily a "Best Wings in Westchester" claim as we believe that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Instead, this is a collection of some of the best restaurants who focus on putting out great wings. If they simply have a single entry for "chicken wings" on the menu, they probably didn't make the trail. We wanted to find the best restaurants with the best wing menus and the best overall wing atmosphere. Let's start in the South and work our way upstate! Happy hiking!
And don't forget to download the Wingaddicts App so you can record your reviews along the trail and let the world know what YOU think!
Ironically, we kick off our trail at a spot that definitely is in no way classified as a wing joint. But I'm a sucker for an authentic Caribbean theme and this is one you'll want to experience. Acclaimed chef, Edwin "Chrissy" Crisp, brings his Jamaican heritage to this upper scale sit down Caribbean establishment in New Rochelle. The wing menu isn't deep here, but visit the bar and enjoy the authentic Jerk Wings. You will also love the BBQ and Lemon Pepper choices here. And we dare you not to order the brown stew chicken!
Frequently touted as the "Best Wings in Westchester" (it even says so on their website) Beechmont is everything you want in a wing paradise. Choose from a dozen sauces and dry rubs and enjoy the comfortable tavern feel that always makes wings taste even better. Beechmont has been pouring beer for almost a hundred years and is the preferred Happy Hour hangout for Iona College students and alum. New owner Rob Hayes took over the bar in 2018 and continues to carry the torch in New Rochelle, open seven days a week. After you fall in love with the wings here, keep your eyes peeled for their "Wing King" food truck at a parking lot near you!
Another outlier on our trail, Smokehouse isn't really a wing joint but an important wing destination boasting "The Best Damn Wings in NY." With locations in New Rochelle, Somers and Mamaroneck, you get to decide if it's really Westchester's Best BBQ joint. We're human too, and when we go to a place like STG we dive into brisket and ribs and beans and coleslaw like everybody else. But the very first thing you'll see on this menu are the "Tailgate Wings" which are slow smoked and finished on the fire grill, glazed with Agave, and served with a choice of White Alabama BBQ or Nashville Hot Sauce. We recommend both! Only here will you experience this flavor bomb. Lord have mercy!
This Mount Vernon treasure is a classic sports bar and restaurant downstairs and also offers a rooftop patio upstairs when the weather is nice. Maggie's is one of the area's best-known Happy Hour locations with over 20 beers on tap and, more importantly, has a dozen wing flavors on its full pub fare menu. This is also a happening nightlife spot and you can get your wings here until late. Wink. They even offer you the choice of all flats or all drums.
Serving a gigantic selection of local craft beer by the bottle, on tap, or (of course) by the growler this restaurant in Tuckahoe has a small, but super interesting, wing selection. You can get Carolina Honey BBQ, Peanut Butter Pineapple, Sesame Hoisin, Spicy Tamarind and Cajun Dry Rub unlike anywhere else. But their most-popular flavor might be "DIRT" which is an interesting twist on a Caribbean style wing. You'll need to experience this one for yourself.
Billed as "Tuckahoe's Best Kept Secret" this spot is another local treasure. You'll want to save up your appetite for their Tuck'd Jumbo Wings which come in a dozen great flavors including a rare Scarpariello selection. Go there for lunch, dinner, brunch or Happy Hour and and enjoy a great bar/restaurant atmosphere, but try to go on Wing Wednesday. For a flat $30 you can enjoy unlimited wings and beer from 7-9 pm. (Note that this may not be a permanent special, but it is in effect as of April 2024)! Call and check first.
Are you looking for the Best Wings in Westchester? For the past several decades, residents there will do their best Poltergeist impression and tell you to "Go to the Light!" The Candlelight that is. Operating in Scarsdale since 1955, this small pub is frequently said to have the best Buffalo wings outside of Buffalo. Served as full wings they also have another ten flavors on the menu including a local favorite combination of Teriyaki and Hot Sauce. Put a star next to this one on the map and be sure to bring cash. No credit cards here. This spot is a NY treasure.
In the heart of White Plains, THE largest craft brew selection in the county offers over 200 options. And while you're reading that insane beer list, you can enjoy some of their award-winning chicken wings from a much more manageable list of ten foundational flavors. You'll enjoy the atmosphere here as well and see why it has been a bustling nightlife spot for 30 years. Their Tequila Citrus wing has been praised by the locals and that kitchen is open until 11 pm during the week and midnight on the weekends!
Sporting the best live music scene in the county, this Elmsford "saloon" was open by Pete (Riekstins) in 1977 and flourished right up until he sold it at the start of the pandemic in 2020. New owner Anthony Bartolotta vowed to keep it the same and why wouldn't he? The expansive menu has all the bar food you like highlighted by a ten delicious flavors of jumbo wings. Looking for something unique? Stop in seven days a week and try the Dr Pepper BBQ wings.
This isn't your "typical" wing joint, as it's inside a fast-food drive-in type restaurant called Hot Spot, that does a ton of takeout and delivery. And we don't normally include this genre on our Wing Trails, but Toxic Wings is definitely an exception to the rule. The only restaurant of its kind on our trail not only has "Wings" in its name, but it also sports one of the more-extensive wing menus in White Plains. Choose from over two dozen mouth-watering flavors and burn it up with the Ghost Pepper wing "if you dare." They open every day at 11 am and keep it going well into the night with three sister locations on Long Island.
We don't normally include two BBQ joints on our area wing trails but we couldn't help it in Westchester. In Tarrytown, Pik Nik delivers that classic slow-smoked chicken wing and serves it up in a nice variety of flavor options including Sweet Thai Chili, Jerk, Carolina Mustard, Korean BBQ or it's very own original house BBQ. They smoke the wings up daily over cherry wood and flash fry them to order. Come hungry because, as usual, you won't be able to resist some of the other goodies on this menu.
Ladies and Gentlemen, THIS is a wing joint! Game Day Grill in Yorktown Heights offers a menu with more than 30 sauces and dry rubs, including Louisiana Cajun Punisher Powder (the house fave). You'll want to try their signature "Game Day Specialty Jerk Wings" which are oven roasted and sauteed in house-made jerk. This is the kind of bar that enters (and wins) chicken wing competitions. The passion is there and you'll feel it when you walk in the door. We watched them take home the first-place trophy for "Boozy Wings" at the 2024 Hudson Valley Wingfest for their Tequila Lime Cajun entry. Well, we may have been the judges there too. Wink.
With only two wing flavors on the fixed menu, its difficult to make your way onto one of our official Wing Trails. But Birdsall is a unique spot with some unique wings we need you to try. The only craft beer, farm-to-table gastropub in Peekskill offers wings with an original house Hot or the house BBQ sauce and adds creative flavor specials to the menu on a regular basis. The wings are smoked for four hours every morning with confit, then are cooled and fried to order. TV reality star and Skinny Girl Margarita founder Bethany Frankel posted about Birdsall House on Tik Tok in January 2024, rating it "10 out of 10," and it went viral. Fox 5 Good Day New York called it "the post that launched a thousand reservations." Go see why.
This awesome firehouse-themed bar/restaurant in Peekskill hails to service members and first responders with all-the-time discounts and "fires up" (sorry I had to) a menu with 50 Firehouse Wing flavors! Belly up to the bar and marvel over this Wingaddicts paradise! Maybe try the Ninja Warrior, the Hulk, the Wyatt Earp, Sassafras or the Charlie Sheen (A1, Tiger Sauce & 3 Alarm). Or if you're really feeling froggy, sign the waiver and try your luck with the "Waiver Wings."
This all-star wing spot in Mohegan Lake offers 30 wing flavors on its menu and even gives you the "grilled" option in which they fry your wings, sauce them and then char them up on the grill to order. Sadly, the restaurant was on the verge of shutdown over the Covid pandemic but new owners stepped in and saved this local treasure. Grab a bucket of Caronas, sit inside or out and enjoy some of the absolute best chicken wings on the Trail.
Westchester County is BIG, and we know there are other highly touted wing destinations to visit. We decided to give Honorable Mention to a few spots that didn't quite make the "official" Trail but came close. That list includes Dukes Ramen, Horsefeathers, Muscoot Tavern, Spectators, Rockwell's, Larchmont Tavern, Yard House and Three Little Pigs BBQ.
Did we miss your favorite wing spot? Please let us know! And as always, hopefully we'll be seeing you Under the Wingfluence!
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Tommy Wyatt is co-founder of Wingaddicts and author of “Under the Wingfluence." He can be reached directly by email at tommy@wingaddicts.com
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