Detroit Wing Company (East Lansing)
437 E. Grand River AvenueMonday started a wild week of work for me last week. A lot of overtime. Working in the rain. Switching shifts. Coming home to no power. I’m happy last week is over.
Monday night I was sent to East Lansing right away when my shift started. I actually left a little bit early and was going to pick up a sandwich on the way.
I stopped at Mr. Corned Beef in Frandor but there was a sign on the door the business was under new ownership and closed temporarily. I was bummed but I decided to just go start my shift and I’d worry about food at dinner time.
I was near downtown East Lansing when dinner time rolled around so I had a lot of options. The co-workers I was with all went to Chipotle. I can get Chipotle anytime in Kalamazoo so I wanted something different. I pulled up Google maps to see what was around me.
I settled on Detroit Wing Company. Eating wings out my car was going to be a challenge but it was a challenge I was up to.
The East Lansing location of Detroit Wing Company is on Grand River Avenue near Division Street across from the Michigan State University campus. The restaurant is one of three first floor storefronts in the building where The State News is produced. This spot was most recently a Blaze Pizza before DWC moved in.
I could have just walked to the store but I put my order in online because that is so much easier. I have had DWC once in the past. they have a Grand Rapids location on East Beltline that I ordered from one night. I remembered liking the wings so I was looking forward to this meal.
I did an order for 12 piece traditional wing combo. I picked garlic parmesan and hot garlic for my sauces and did the Butter Cheese dry rub for the fries. I also added on a drink because they had 20 oz bottles of Pepsi. The total cost before tip was around $23.
My order was ready when I walked in the store. There’s a big order counter right inside the doors. I gave the guy working my name and he reached over to a rack next to him and grabbed the bag. Using the online ordering system, I got a text message when the order was ready and was only a 2 minute walk away. My wings were super hot and fresh by the time I grabbed them.
I opted to go back to my car to eat because I still had work to do. There is a nice big dining area though which several MSU students were taking advantage of. The furniture is mostly the metal stuff places like this are using because it’s easy to wipe off after people touch it with saucy hands.
I was pretty surprised by how much food was in the box when I opened it. I expected the wings to be small but they were not. The environmental friendly carry-out box was doing it’s best to hold together from the thick layer of sauce on the wings.
I would usually start with the fries but I couldn’t get to them so I went all in on the wings. I wanted to grab the Garlic Parmesan first so my mouth was toast from the spicy garlic ones and I could enjoy the flavor.
The Garlic Parmesan wings had a thick layer of the sauce…and it was really garlicky. The wings were still really crispy underneath that layer of sauce and they were big and juicy. I could have eaten twenty of these wings if given the chance. I love garlic and these are oozing garlic.
The Garlic Parm wings were kind of buried under the Hot Garlic so at some point, I had to just jump in. The Hot Garlic was exactly what I was hoping they were be. The sauce was a thick spicy Buffalo sauce with garlic. I really loved this one. A lot of Buffalo sauces taste like modified Franks Red Hot. This one did not. It had a much deeper pepper flavor to with a little bit of a tomato zing. The garlic wasn’t as strong in this sauce but it was still there. I feel bad for my colleague that had to smell my garlic breath the rest of the night.
I was finally able to get down to the fries and they were covered in the leftover sauces. Not a bad thing at all, I just didn’t really get the Garlic Butter rub. The fries are skin on restaurant style fries with salt and a dry rub seasoning on them. My mouth was kind of on fires from the Hot Garlic sauce so I’m sure that had something to do with me not being able to taste the dry rub too.
This meal from Detroit Wing Company was so much better than the Chipotle my colleagues had. I stopped at 12 wings but it was kind of a disappointment that I was stopping. Both flavors were super tasty and the wings themselves were perfect. Good size and lots of juiciness.
Two Lansing area locations and two Grand Rapids area locations plus one up in Traverse City are the only locations west of the Detroit area. I have longed for a good wing place in the Kalamazoo area for years. Detroit Wing Company would be a welcome addition.
SW Michigan Dining 