Dining

WOW Cafe and Wingery: Get your WOW on at the new World of Wings

11/15/06 @ 01:16:46 pm by archivesadmin

By: Emily Rea

On a crisp November day, our lunch bunch crew piled into as few cars as we could get away with driving and headed over to Mayfaire for lunch. Our destination: the brand new WOW Cafe and Wingery next to Mayfaire Cinemas.

The “WOW” we learned stands for “World of Wings.” We stepped inside the restaurant to see if its name would have double meaning, preparing ourselves to be “wowed.”

Now, I had been to this World of Wings the weekend before, but it was at night, and so, of course, the ambiance was different. Still, although lighter and slightly less relaxed, it felt just as inviting as I’d remembered. Open space, dark mahoghany and enormous big-screen TVs that dominated the walls greeted our wide, observing eyes. We were startled back down to reality as our hostess tried genially to capture our wandering attention.

A table was found quickly and efficiently to accommodate the six of us. We settled down into our chairs in the middle of the restaurant, appreciative of the break we were allotted in the middle of our workweek.

With Wade gone and John busy with other things, it was just us girls today. So we immediately ordered 15 wings and three different sauces. After only a quick debate, we had settled on Kansas Honey Barbecue, Jamaican Jerk and the Original Buffalo.

“How good does a Texas Toast burger look?” Lauren asked herself aloud, as we all attempted to scan our extensive menus for entrees. I have to admit: those burgers looked about as enticing as anything else listed.

“Cajun corn for your sides,” I immediately recommended off my previous experience. “It’s creamy, but it has a little bit of a kick. I loved it.”

“I didn’t realize this place was so much a sports bar,” Ginny commented, taking in our surroundings that were obviously designed for the avid sports fan. Two huge big screens at the back, a full bar to the right, plenty of room for jumping to your feet while watching the game among the center tables, and a plasma flat-screen TV at every single booth around the perimeter of the restaurant. We all agreed it was a great space, and you never can have too many sports bars.
Once entrees were ordered, our conversation, sans the guys, quickly turned to celebrity gossip and the new Macy’s at Mayfaire. But as soon as our appetizers arrived, we were no talk and all bite.

WOW has a great selection of sauces for your wings, and I think we may have gotten three of the very best. Full of flavor and just enough spice not to have you guzzling through eight glasses of water, they were the perfect satiation for our increasing appetites. We discovered that WOW’s menus had little WOWs next to select items which “denote a WOW favorite”—and, of course, that “wingery” is just a really fun word to say.

Pretty soon, our highly anticipated entrees arrived piping hot and smelling so intoxicating that we nearly dove right in before the plates hit the table. Four of us got wraps, and amazingly, all four were different: Lauren had decided on the Sonoma chicken wrap topped with Monterey Jack cheese and Ranch dressing; the Buffalo chicken wrap with cheddar and Jack cheeses, Buffalo sauce and no Bleu cheese dressing was for me; Shea got the Memphis chicken wrap with honey mustard cole slaw and Kansas City honey barbecue sauce; and Ginny had ordered the West Coast Veggie on a spinach wrap. Sue made all of us envious with her platter of Wow Shrimp, and Kris was faced with an enormous Monterey salad bowl filled with lettuce, tomatoes, tortilla strips, jack cheese and honey-lime and peanut vinaigrette.

Most of the meal was dedicated to the task of devouring everything put before us. The leftover wings we had previously decided to bring back to the office were gone. Slowly but surely, we proudly put away the rest of our food (who says girls can’t eat?). Pleasantly, Wow was not too crammed with people, although it definitely looked big enough to hold many on game nights.

Gathering our things to leave, we chatted about work and our upcoming deadlines, but mostly there was the all-around, glazed-over grin of satisfaction among us that comes with a full belly.

It was yet another pleasurable experience for me at the wingery—what is it about that word?—and a place I know I will venture out to visit many more times in the future.

Next time, though, I’m going for the Texas Toast burger.