| Photo by Rick via Flickr Creative Commons |
| Buffalo Wings |
9. Buffalo Wings
Anchor Bay
Buffalo, New York
There are a number of creation myths for buffalo wings, the ur-bar-food combo of fried wings coated in hot sauce, served with carrot and celery sticks and blue cheese dressing. We go with the one that places their origins in Teressa Bellissimo's Anchor Bay bar kitchen late on Friday night in 1964. Since then, millions upon millions of wings have been fried to feed hungry drinkers busy getting fried themselves.
| Photo via kellyskornertavern.com |
| Irish Nachos |
You famously cannot have it your way at Father's Office. The renowned Office burger, a dry-aged sirloin patty on a soft French roll, comes with caramelized onions, applewood bacon compote, arugula, and Gruyere and Maytag blue cheeses. There's no holding the cheese, no raw onion, and don't even think of asking for ketchup for those cute fries that come in a miniature shopping cart.
6. Gold Coast SlidersUpscale Luxbar's signature sliders come in many varieties. In addition to the regular mini-burger and filet mignon versions, you can get turkey sliders, Kobe sliders with caramelized onions or truffle butter and bacon, blackened tilapia sliders with tartar sauce, crab cake sliders with hot pink mayo, even buttermilk fried chicken sliders with bacon mayo and tomato.
5. Toasted RavioliYou won't find toasted ravioli -- the meat-filled pasta pockets breaded and deep-fried, served with a side of marinara sauce for dipping -- almost anywhere but on the menus of St. Louis. Charlie Gitto's is one of several places that lay claim to inventing the dish in the 1940s, and the only one still in business.
4. Chicken Tenders
Good Dog Bar
Philadelphia
At the Good Dog, people say "bone appetit!" to the chicken tenders cordon bleu, which come wrapped in Black Forest ham and Swiss cheese, and are lightly breaded and fried and served with a side of honey-grain mustard sauce. The Dog does a twist on fried mozzarella sticks, too, using house-aged mozzarella and serving them with tomato-vodka dipping sauce.
3. Oysters on the Half ShellOysters are a specialty here, hauled in daily from the Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf of Mexico. The raw bar (which also offers mussels, clams, and lobster) features eight to 12 varieties daily, placed on the bar in an ice-filled trough. And during happy hour (4:30-7 p.m. Mon.-Sat.) they're all half price.
2. Devils on Horseback
The Spotted Pig
New York City
We're besotted by the Spotted Pig's classic devilled eggs and rollmops (herring stuffed with pickles). But the gastropub's nontraditional spin on devils on horseback (prunes wrapped in bacon) wins out. The prunes are soaked in strong tea and stuffed with pickled pear, with a cloak of smoked bacon dusted with chili powder.
1. Scotch EggsWexler's, a modern BBQ restaurant, updates the classic pub grub of a hard-boiled egg wrapped in sausage and deep-fried by soft-cooking the egg and enclosing it in a thin layer of ground brisket trimmings (called "burnt ends") before flash-frying. When cut, the still-liquid
yolk miraculously flows out to join housemade barbecue sauce and sweet tea gastrique on the plate.
