I finally made it to the chicken wing cook-off I kept hearing about.

Morgantown's Chicken Wing Cook-Off was held Saturday, Sept. 27 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Triple S Harley-Davidson. Participants included Kegler's, The Mason Jar, Barside Grill, Tilted Kilt, Sports Page, Tropics, and Schmitt's Saloon were all in attendance. And Archie's was supposed to be there, but was nowhere to be found.

I had a pretty good time overall, though the music was way too loud at some points, and it got pretty warm. For $16, I got 10 tickets. Each ticket = 2 wings. So, 20 wings in total. I hit up every place plus a couple extra. Some had just two or three different flavors, while others had a whole bunch. Just depended.

We parked in a sort of gravel/weeded lot, but if you have a bike, you can ride right up top. At least parking is free, just a little bit of a hill to walk to get to the top.

Judge's Picks:
1st place: Sweet Chili from Tropics
2nd place: Garlic Romano from Sports Page
3rd place: Pumpkin Mule from Clutch

People's Choice (I'm not sure which flavor, because I caught this from Facebook and it wasn't listed):
1. Kegler's
2. Mason Jar
3. Barside Grill


Barside Grill - My first stop. I just recently went here to review it. I haven't had a chance to write that one up yet, but here I tried their signature "bottom of the bucket" sauce, which was a bit too... creamy(?) for me. The butter garlic parmesan was OK, though.



Clutch Wings - I expected these to be the best because they have WINGS in their name. But I thought both of these were just OK. The pumpkin had only the faintest flavor of pumpkin, but I didn't mind the bacon bourbon ones. I prematurely used two tickets here thinking they would be the best.



Tropics - Easily my top of the night. My sweet chili wing was my absolute favorite. Hawaiian style seemed to just be straight sesame seed oil. The sweet chili was sweet, but flavorful and my No. 1 pick, for sure.



Schmitt's Saloon - Worst. They were mushy, and both of these tasted exactly the same to me. I'll take my wings firmer, please.



Tilted Kilt - Surprsingly quite good. I was careful with the Kilt Burner, but I actually liked the Guinness BBQ sauce. That one was my second place pick of the night.



Sports Page - Both of these were pretty average. I want to like a garlic one so bad, but it was just OK.



Mason Jar - This garlic one was better than the last.  But still meh.



Kegler's - Gold was a tangy and sweet Carolina mustard bbq, herbs and garlic with a touch of heat. Special was a garlic butter sauce with lots of herbs and spices. Neither impressed, and it was such a cluster trying to get our wings, Vicki ended up getting four instead of two - too bad they weren't great.


So, all in all, a fun way to spend a Saturday. The wings were overall average, with a couple I really enjoyed.