Wings Around Waukesha: Mainstream

Here it is – the first wing post on my blog! Sure I have talked about wings before from some of my favorite places, but never to the level that I am going to take it this time. I’m starting it off with Mainstream Bar & Grill. It was at this bar that I really brought the chicken wing blog idea to fruition. I had done some research of all the bars in the area and their wings and specials, but this was the first place that my guy and I ventured to on a mission to try their wings.

Although Tuesdays & Thursdays feature $.45 wings, we went on a Sunday, because…why not? We got to the bar right around noon and picked a table for two. The bartender came over and welcomed us.

We went right to the Chicken Wings area of the menu and started plotting our game plan. Ten wings are $7.95 when not on a wing special night and every five can be in a different sauce.  We asked about the sauces on the menu and if they were in order of heat. Unfortunately they are not.

The menu lists them as: Naked, Garlic Herb, Honey BBQ, Caribbean Jerk, Buffalo, Demon, Inferno, and Thai Peanut. The bartender let us know that the spiciest is Inferno and Thai Peanut is about the same level as Buffalo.

I ordered ten wings and selected Garlic Herb and Honey BBQ. My guy ordered Thai Peanut and Caribbean Jerk. We also ordered the Fried Chip Basket because the chips are amazing! And I figured we might need a side to enjoy with the wings.

It didn’t take too long for our wings to come out and the bartender apologized that the cook accidentally made all ten for each of us with one of our sauces. She would be bringing the other five for each of us out shortly. This was no problem for us and we appreciated her apology.

And so we dug in. What I noticed first about the Garlic Herb wings is that the wings weren’t overly saucy and I wouldn’t be elbow deep in wing sauce causing me to use 10,000 napkins. For me this is a plus–I appreciate wings that are coated, but not dripping with sauce. And I loved the flavor on these wings. The mix of herbs and garlic was terrific. My new goal is to figure out their blend and use it on all my chicken. It was really good. I couldn’t stop eating them!

My guy’s Thai Peanut wings were nicely coated in sauce.. We of course shared our wings so I could try the other flavors–I agree that these had a slight kick but weren’t overly hot. The heat mainly comes at the end. I could probably handle a few of these, but for my guy, he thought they were a nice heat and could eat them all day.

I didn’t take shots of our additional wings because my fingers were a little too greasy (and maybe I forgot). The Honey BBQ is a very sweet sauce with no kick at all–very mild. This sauce too would be great on grilled chicken.

Unfortunately my guys Caribbean Jerk wings came with the wrong sauce, but whatever the sauce was, it was really good. The bartender was quite busy at this time and because the wings were still delicious we continued to eat without complaints.And the chips were a welcome snack for us to munch on between wings. We will definitely be returning to Mainstream to eat here again and try more wing flavors. And my guy has to have one of their burgers – I love those too.

Mainstream Bar & Grill Rating (Max Score of 5): 4.3

Flavors: 4 Drumsticks (flavors in heat order would be helpful but great variety)

Size: 3.5 Drumsticks

Taste: 4.5 Drumsticks – huge fan!

Price: 3 Drumsticks on non-wing night (~.80 each)/4.5 Drumsticks on wing night ($.45 each)

Temp: 5 Drumsticks – came out hot but we were able to dig in right away!

Sauces: Options are Ranch & Blue Cheese

Veggies: Celery is offered

Wet Naps: Not provided with wing order – didn’t ask if they had them available