Charlie’s Bar

When you create a site about Buffalo wings, people from all over do not hesitate to let you in on their favorite spot to find the best wings. After a “Suggest a Joint” request from Ashley and a personal recommendation from Walt, a colleague of mine, I felt that this place may have something to offer. But being that they are located in Somers Point, which is a nice hour drive for me, it makes it a little tough to just swing on in. However, luck would have it that I happened to be doing work near that area, so Walt and some friends invited me to tag along to try the wings out for myself.

Now normally in this situation I like to stay incognito so as not to draw any special attention to myself. This way, I can ensure that the wings that I get are the same wings that my readers would get when they come in, and that I get no favoritism because of what I do. Unfortunately, the group that I was with were already favorites of the bar and not only knew the owner, but received special treatment from all the staff. So even though they let the cat out of the bag and the owner knew why I was there, I would like to believe that it wouldn’t matter because this place seemed to take all their food pretty seriously. And with the large crowd that was packed in there on this Friday night, it was clear that they were doing something right. So we took our seats, got buckets of beer (of course) and ordered up a storm.

With everyone ordering different things, I was able to sample many varieties of Charlie’s wings. From bone-in to boneless, from Southwest to Buffalo, these things smelled great. I ordered the thirteen count of bone-in wings with Mild sauce. The group insisted that I try Charlie’s signature sauce, “Top Gun,” which is comprised of Jalapeño bits, and as the menu puts it, a bit of “Hell Fire.” The Top Gun had the same great heat that you can expect in the “Blazin” from Buffalo Wild Wings or the “Smoker” from Pic-a-lilli’s, but it didn’t stick to the back of the throat as bad making it a bit more tolerable to eat, thus making me want to keep going. I said it multiple times that I am no Hot Head so I just made my way back to the Mild, which was no joke. The heat level is equivalent to a normal place’s Medium, and it carried an awesome flavor with it that made it worth the finger lickin’.

The wings themselves were very tender, which not only tasted good, but made it easy to rip apart the wings from the tips (which came attached). Everything was well covered with the sauce, so I didn’t have to do much dipping to get to the good stuff. My only wish would be to have more seasoning in the actual meat itself instead of relying on the sauce to bring the flavor. This way, you would have the taste of a great Buffalo sauce coupled with a smokey roasted chicken flavor that would send any wing-eater’s taste buds into heaven.

The boneless wings were pretty good as well. The meat that they use for this dish is very good quality, and has more of a flaky crust than that difficult to chew breading most places carry. But when it comes down to it, this guy is sticking with the wings.

So if you find yourself near the Atlantic City area, I recommend that you stop in to pick yourself up a bunch of these wings and enjoy the company of Charlie’s Bar. Not only will you have great service, but you will be satisfied by great food and that’s what will keep this critic coming back.

Charlie’s Bar
800 Shore Rd., Somers Point, NJ 08244
(609) 653-9848