LTHForum.com

Starting this month Jake Melnick's has been offering seriously HOT (read extract) chicken wings complete with a bell for you to ring in which they will then bring you milk, sour cream, ice cream etc...to help ease your pain - but I sense that is also a sign of quitting!

Metromix ran a story and video of the wings today but was wondering if anyone has tried them and how hot they really were.

Going tomorrow for lunch to check them out.

Jake Melnick's Corner Tap
41 E. Superior St.
Chicago, IL 60611
312-266-0400

Here's the article in Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSN0425675720080104?feedType=RSS&feedName=oddlyEnoughNews

Also, for those who really like wings, Wingfest is right around the corner February 24, 2008. I've gone the last couple years and I'll be definitely be going back this year. FYI-If crowds aren't your thing, this may not be the event for you. They seem to squeeze as many people as they can in the Bailey Auditorium which resembles a high school gymnasium. They do offer "VIP" tickets which allow access to the less crowded balcony area. It's a great place to try many diff't wings with some standouts and a few let downs. Here's a link
http://wingfest.net/

Snark,

By coincidence I had the hottest spiciest chicken wings I've ever encountered at Great Sea Friday, which I posted about here

Looking forward to hearing about your experience at Jake Melnick's. I'm assuming you are going for the killer hot.

Enjoy,
Gary

Was not able to make it to Melnick's on Saturday - went to Ohio instead!

But am going tomorrow for dinner! I plan on eating 2 orders - I have built up a tolerance for extracts! Can not wait!

Also, will have camera to take pics for anyone interested in my pain!

Went there last night to have a try at their wings after hearing about it from CLTV over the weekend. It was billed as the hottest wings, ever. And as a fan of spicy foods, I am willing to give this place a try.

The current menu has the usual bar foods; nachos, cheese sticks, soups, salads, chili, burgers, ribs, etc. But today we are here for their spicy wings, and we are not going to do this on an empty stomach. So with beers, we ordered salad, a couple dogs, and soup to eat with the wings. Their wings come in three varieties; Buffalo Style, Pancho's Grilled (marinated in garlic and cayenne), and their really spicy wings (coated with red savina peppers). They have a combo offering where you can get two half orders of two styles, which we went with.

The spicy wings looks like normal Buffalo wings, with more of an orange-ish glow, of the sauce, on the outside. These wings were breaded and then coated with the red savina pepper sauce. The aroma was slightly vinegary. Upon tasting the wings, the mouth and lips started to feel the effects of the heat. These were spicy, indeed. And tasty as well. The heat of the peppers was not overpowering that you could not taste the wings, which was nicely prepared.

Sitting there chomping on the wings, one of the staff came over and asked us if we wanted our picture taken (with a Polaroid), but we declined. There was also a waiver that we had to sign that emphatically stated that these wings were spicy and that we could not take legal action against them - reading it was extremely humorous. There is also an option to order a cooling tray, which contained a scoop of vanilla ice cream, double shot of whole milk, a large smear of sour cream, half a slice of toast, and a slice of orange. I suggest ordering this, even if you don't need it, because it is free. This caused us not to get dessert.

Unlike the suicide wings at the Anchor Bar (the originator of the Buffalo Wings), these were easily edible. Anchor Bar's wings are, IMHO, about 20% spicier than Jake Melnick's.

So we went to Jake Melnick's last night. I ordered the Hot Wings. A table next to ours had also ordered the wings - you could tell because they were wearing the Fire Fighter hats and they were crying. The boyfriend was able to eat just one and his girlfriend managed 3. I wasn't too scared yet.

I signed the waiver saying I would not sue if I died. The wings came and I took my first bite - it was seriously hot that even the fumes almost did me in. It was going to be tough. After the second wing I started to lose feeling in my legs. After a few more I could not talk nor feel my tongue or lips but I was nearing halfway there - there were 10 wings. I also refused to ring the bell.

My friend, Barry took a bite to see how hot they were and he nearly died. He literally drank 5 glasses of water (first mistake) and then could not sit still for the next 10 minutes walking around the restaurant putting napkins to his tongue. I took the rest of his wing back.

The peppers and the pepper extract really were doing funny things to my body and mind - things got pretty blurry and hazy. My arms were somewhat numb and the end of my fingers were all tingly. My hearing started to go and ironically I started to get freezing cold - even though it was very warm in the restaurant.

Barry's wife begged for me to give in. There was no way I was going to. I rang the bell so my son could drink the milk and eat the ice cream which was supposed to cool my mouth down. I finished the basket - all ten. I got my picture taken. It was worth it.

The restaurant mentioned that they will be featured on Nightline -they were supposedly filming this morning at the restaurant so keep on the look-out!

Awesome report, Snark! Good on ya, mate (and yt's was great as well, although without bringing the Loony Tunes fire-breathing steam-whistle moments to mind as much).

Pictures:

share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8CbOGTNqyZKNdA

Turns out Nightline is there right now until 9 Pm so if you want to get on the news I'd hurry over!

No way Im doing it 2 nights in a row. My body paid the price late last night.

hehe..the pretty orange habenero as garnish..nice

+1 if that was consumed as well.

thought about - but didn't do it - didn't even take it home as I naturally would have. My body did not want to have anything with heat in it's immediate vicinity.

Did you see dead friends and relatives beckoning you to the other side? It is almost like you could feel death approaching.

You have my admiration for your focus and determination taking one for the team. I will easily eat an insect or a bit of offal, though capsaicin blasts is where I put up the white flag at beginner's heat level.

Thank you again for spitting in death's eye. I'm getting cold just thinking about it.

Regards,

It was faily unreal, if that makes sense. The whole atmosphere/environment became different, muffled -almost as if under a drug - which also caused immense pain.

It was not a pleasurable experience although got a little better toward the middle and end when you could not feel anything nor did you much care, really.

After 2 wings my mouth seemed to take a different uncomfortable shape. I couldn't concentrate and was rather irritable. One thing that did help with the experience I can tell you were the fries. They seemed to help me continue and diffuse the heat a bit - DO NOT DRINK WATER! It makes it worse. Also, before you get set to eat - get a lot of napkins. And do not rub your eyes.

Hi all, first post.

I decided to give the wings a go last friday. I was pretty nervous, but I can eat some pretty hot stuff. Our waiter noted that he couldn't get past 4 and that the wings were hotter tonight than they had ever been.

First things first....they are hot. Very hot. It didn't get me at first...its more of a sneaky hot. For most, this heat would be intolerable....I actually really enjoyed it and must say that the wings actually tasted great.

I ate 10, didn't even think about the bell. I felt fine...although I will say that about 5 minutes after I finished, the heat reached its peak and I was having trouble focusing on table conversation, etc. You kind of get consumed by the heat.

All in all, it was exactly what I was looking for, and plan to go back frequently. I am kinda pissed....I ate all 10 and didn't get my pic on the wall so it looks like I might need to take down 2 orders to make some waves

FWIW, had really spicy indian the next night, and thai two nights after that. I think I found a new talent....

Where? I am always looking for REALLY Spicy Indian Food. Since you appear to like really spicy food I would be interested to see where you go for a fix.

I actually just discovered that I liked Indian about 6 months ago...Ive only been to a few places so I can't say I have the best experience to draw from...but most people love my food recommendations so take it for what its worth.

My favorite place (usually go there 90% of time for Indian) is Indian Grill on Clark just south of Fullerton. While they won't outwardly tell you...they have a 1-10 scale of heat that they can apply to most dishes...you just have to ask. You may have to be pretty clear about it...I am a white guy and it took several visits for the owner, Ram, to finally concede and start really cranking up the heat for me. If you go, ask for him, and tell him how hot you want it.

He has actually committed to keeping some really hot Thai chiles in the freezer specifically for me when I come because I passed the threshold of what he keeps onsite After about my 10th visit, he finally conceded victory to me telling me that I could "out-heat" even him, and that he thought there was something wrong with me...Now when I go there, he always comes out to see if he defeated me...but has not yet. I have yet to try the Thai chiles though.

Make sure if you go, you get the Somosas Chait for the appetizer. Excellent dish and apparently you don't find it in too many restaurants in the US...he said its a common Indian "street food".

Curious to hear what you think. Ive been to some of the more well known Indian places and think I.G. is by far my favorite. Had bad chicken at other places...never here. There is also almost never a wait and the weekend brunch is supposed to be very good.

yellow truffle, Snark, and BPD...you guys are great...I have to go give it a shot now. I know they will light my a*s up but I'm too intrigued to not give it a try.

The Nightline segment finally aired tonight (2/1).

"Hot Wings: Chicken wings -- they're an American favorite, especially on Super Bowl Sunday. And at one Chicago restaurant, chicken wing-lovers can sample the spiciest wings on the planet. The wings are so hot, waiters stand nearby with glasses of milk at the ready. Why are so many customers eager to put their taste buds to the ultimate test? ABC's Eric Horng reports from Chicago." Read more here:

http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/story?id=4228273&page=1

Went again last night. Ate 14.

Got to taste Melnick's famous H-O-T wings last night and if I told you they werent that hot, it would be a flat out lie. I got to talk to the chef and watch and learn how the wings are made. These are jumbo wings, fried perfectly and then coated with a liquid sauce made from the red savina pepper, which was recently displaced in the Guinness book of records by the Naga Jolokia pepper from India.

The wings were actually tasty and would be enjoyed by fans of spicy foods, after the first two I was thinking "not that bad" then out of nowhere, boom it hit me , my nose started running and I was sweating heavily and managed to chug my Sam Adams in one sip to try and ease the heat. My biggest mistake was taking a little break in between because the heat dosent last that long in the mouth and after it was almost gone I didnt want to finish the last four but at the risk of losing my manhood, I had to finish them. The final four were hotter than the first eight beacuse they were on the bottom of the basket and all the sauce fell though to make these wings extra coated in the hot sauce. All in all I was impressed with the wings and taste, I know its gimmicky with the release form you gotta sign and the bell they give you to ring if they are too hot, in which the waitress comes running out with milk and ice cream and such, but I found these to be enjoyable. Just be careful because I actually made the mistake of going out to the bar afterwards and after a few beers and a couple shots of Jameson I felt weird and queezy.

This was the second hottest food experience I have embarked on, the first was when I actually ate a raw scotch bonnet in Jamaica for a case of red stripe on a dare. Dont do that.

On a side note, the chef at Melnick's has already placed an order for a package of Naga Jolokia peppers to use for their wings and they are being fed-ex'd as I write this. I guess he had to prove who he was and what he will use the peppers for to get these hottie's shipped in from India. Ill be trying those when they get them, which should be any day.

Wow...the Naga Jolokia pepper has been recorded as having over 1,000,000 Scoville units, almost twice that of the Savina pepper...good luck when those come in!

Also, there is a botanist in England that has created a cultivar of the Naga Jolokia, called the Dorset Jolokia which has been recorded as having a heat level of up to 1.6 million Scoville units.

Well, UniAddict and I are going to check out these wings today. We've heard reports (on Yelp) that they're not as hot as the Blazin Hot (or whatever they call 'em) wings at BW3, which would be pretty disappointing. On the plus side, they are supposed to taste pretty darn good. Will report back.

I've had the Blazin wings at BW3 - which I did not find that spicy. Melnick's are so much hotter than Blazin - no comparison.

I am very happy to hear that. And perhaps a little frightened. Well, we're off to Melnick's.

OK, so we're back already.

Melnick's is kind of an odd place. When we got there, we were seated at the bar which, I'm afraid to say, smelled a little bit funky. Luckily, a couple had left within five minutes so we were promptly seated at the table near the fireplace.

Staff was a little bit frazzled, it seemed, but we put in our order for wings. The wings came soon enough, and we had that anticipatory adrenaline build-up one might experience on the long climb up the American Eagle. No bell was provided, so I guess we had no choice but to go all the way.

It wasn't that bad. Both me and UniAddict finished all 10 wings easily enough. I started feeling the heat build up at about wing seven or eight. If I had to compare it to a commercial hot sauce, it's at about the heat level of something like El Yucateco, maybe their Kutbil-ik Mayan blend. It's been years since I've had the Blazing Hot at BW3, but I'd say it's about the same heat level as that. The sauce was hot enough to leave a nice warm glow around my lips, but not hot enough to get my ears ringing (when I eat something really blisteringly hot, my ears begin to ring and hurt). Put it this way, on most days, Xni-Pec's habanero salsa (not the stuff served at the table with chips, but the roasted habanero-lime stuff) is much spicier than Melnick's wings.

On to the flavor and the wing itself. The sauce had a great flavor--mostly habanero, with none of that capsacian extract bite you expect from a sauce amped up with extract (the kind of weird burning heat you get from a sauce like Blair's or Wanza's). It was balanced nicely with a buttery vinegariness, without being overwhelmingly acidic. The wings themselves were big and meaty--a plus in my book. However, they were soggy by the time they had gotten to the table--because they were breaded. Serious minus in my book. Unbreaded and perfectly crispy, these might be contenders for my favorite wing in Chicago. However, as they stand, they seem little more than a gimmick to me.

isn't it true that spice level can vary dramatically even between peppers of the same species? that one habanero can be significantly hotter than another? Could this be why some people have the ear-ringing experience and others don't, rather than differences in heat tolerance?

Back in the day when I ate a lot of Chipotle (I know, I know!), I always noticed the hot salsa could be hot one day and blistering the next, which I always attributed to variance in the peppers.

Absolutely. Heat levels vary among peppers of the same species, but I would have thought the extract they add is pretty constant in the heat levels. That said, if the habanero base is a little less hot then that will make a difference. Although, I don't know how much fresh habanero they use vs ready-made sauces which would be fairly consistent in heat levels.

And here's the video of the experience. I'm the one with the nasal voice talking most of the time.

Has anyone been to a Wings, Etc. and tried their "Wall" sauce? I'm interested in hearing how it compares to Melnick's.

Thanks for the write up and video Binko! Well it's the next morning, 14 hours later after the wings and I feel fine. I do like to eat stupid hot stuff but the wings didn't cause any pain or discomfort while eating except that my lips burned a little bit - felt like chapped lips... and there was redness around my lips from it. But in the mouth and in the stomach etc ... no pain, no discomfort. I actually enjoyed eating them. I've found days where the special blend of hot sauce from Xni-Pec (pure habanero) were painfully hot in comparison to the wings. I honestly wish they were hotter. Good wings, but I set myself up for a painfully burning treat and left quite disappointed.

The price also went up from 8.95 to .. don't quote me on this .. 12.95, maybe a dollar or two higher.

The bar at everything else is as Binko says, my comment is: Somehow they managed to cram a dive into beautiful downtown Chicago.

Close...It was $11.95 for an order of wings.