Getting Down n’ Dirty with J. Timothy’s Dirt Wings – Plainville, CT

When we launched ourselves into the Twitterverse back in 2010, we quickly made friends with J. Timothy’s Taverne in Plainville. We quickly realized that they not only know a helluva lot about beer, but they know even a whole lot more about wings. In fact, year after year they became more popular for their legendary Dirt Wings, and we became correspondingly more ravenous for them.

Original Buffalo Wings

So, you might be wondering: why are they called Dirt Wings? Well, it’s all in how they’re prepared. They sauce up the wings (Original Buffalo, Honey Gold BBQ, Teriyaki, or Sweet Red Chili), then fry ’em, then sauce ’em up again. This process results in nice and crispy bits of sauce and awesomeness on the outside, thus giving them the name, Dirt Wings. So, when we planned a fun day up in Northern CT with our friends Alica and Renato Ghio (Local Food Rocks) we had to get J. Timothy’s on the roster before heading out to Relic, Firefly, and Bear’s Smokehouse in Hartford.

When we got there around 12, we were amazed to see that the huge parking lot was packed, as was the restaurant. We got a seat upstairs and put our beer orders in (like New England Brewing’s highly sought after Imperial Stout Trooper). As we got our order in, we meet up with Nikki, the person who handles their social media. Being a kickass kinda girl all around, she sat with us and told us about their food, beer . . . and of course, the star of the day: the wings.

Honey Gold BBQ

One of the most interesting things we heard is that they do an incredible amount of take-out business with their wings. So much, in fact, they went through 8.7 tons of Dirt Wings last Super Bowl weekend. We can’t even fathom that many wings . . . though we’d like to try! Just as our buddy Rob swung by to have a drink with us, we got our wings. It’s odd, Dan always goes with the drums and we found out that Alicia does too; Kristien always goes for the flats and we found out that Renato does too. They really are our doppelganger couple . . . that’s why we like them so damn much.

Teriyaki Wings

Before we get into the flavors (we ordered 6 of each), let’s just say all the wings were perfectly cooked and just the right balance of meaty but not too meaty, and crispy, but not too crispy. This is no easy feat. Ok, now for the flavors. First up was their Original Buffalo. They were buttery, crispy on the outside, moist and juicy on the inside, with a nice spice and gentle heat coming through. The Honey Gold BBQ was up next which was sweet and also had a nice spicy undertone, these were better than any other BBQ wing we’ve ever had. We also had the Teriyaki which had a nice tangy flavor, but it could have used more Teriyaki and salt . . . but they were still good. Teriyaki tends to be our least favorite everywhere we go, and it was the same here.

Red Sweet Chili

And then there was the Sweet Red Chili. Oh the Sweet Red Chili. Yeah, these were our favorite. The sauce was perfectly sweet and spicy, slathered over a perfectly cooked, meaty wing. We could’ve licked the plate on these bad boys. In fact, there were enough for all four of us to have two wings of each flavor, but we soon found ourselves with a horrible problem: there was one left of each flavor and we had to decide who could have which flavor. Being the gentlemen they are, Dan and Renato let Kristien and Alicia duke it out for the last Sweet Red Chili wing. But how would two respectable ladies decide? Oh, you know, they broke into an epic battle of Rock, Scissors, Paper. It definitely was a close call with lots of rocks and scissors being throw down at the same time, but in the end Kristien was victorious and took the Sweet Red Chili much to the chagrin of Alicia. We could have stayed longer and we could have had more wings or even tried out some of the other dishes on the menu, but we had a set schedule. Yes, it was time to take a little drive down the road and check out Relic Brewing for the first time ever.

Check back soon for the next post in our Epic Couples Date Series. In the meantime, get your butts to J. Timothy’s because these seriously are quite possibly the best wings in Connecticut. Yes folks, the hype is real. We’re salivating just thinking about them now.

J. Timothy’s Taverne

143 New Britain Avenue

Plainville, CT