Wing City
444 Capital Avenue NEWe had a long weekend at a figure skating competition coming up so I knew money was going to be tight last week.
I was in Battle Creek for a quick job assignment that kind of fizzled out pretty quickly. I was out in the Baily Park area and not looking for lunch but as I drove back towards downtown, I passed a place that I just couldn’t pass up.
Wing City is on Capital Avenue and Wabash Avenue east of downtown Battle Creek. The small brick, almost windowless building stands as an island on a the corner surrounded by a large but oddly shaped parking lot. The building has been Wing City for a few years now but a past life, over a decade ago, this was a Chicken Coop restaurant. I don’t ever remember seeing anything in there in between so not sure how the building was used in the mean time.
I stopped in around noon and walked in to a small shop with just the owner working both the register and the kitchen. There’s an order counter right as you walk in the door which is the only thing dividing up the space. The deep fryers are right behind that counter and to the back of the space are a few refrigerators but that’s about all the space has room for.
The menu is on the counter in the form of a laminated piece of paper.
I put in an order for the 6 wings and fries. The cost was a little over $13 before tip. I paid with a card then took a seat in the small waiting area which consists of just a couple of chairs. Most people call in their order and pick it up but I was driving by and decided to stop in. The guy who took my order said it would be about 10 minutes to fry everything up.
As the meal was being packed up, the cook asked me if I wanted some of their special seasoning on the chicken. I said no at first assuming it would be the lemon pepper seasoning most places use now. He kind of talked me in to saying the seasoning is why people keep coming back so I went with it but told him to go light. I didn’t want an overpowering, salty flavor to the chicken. He obliged and put just enough seasoning on that I could see but not so much that it was pooling up in the bottom of the to-go container.
I started eating the fries on my way back to Kalamazoo. These are the kind of fries I expect from a chicken place like this. They were dumped out of a bag and fried alongside the wings. They always tend to come out a little soggy but crispy around the edges. There was some seasoning on these as well and it really helped give the fries some flavor. Otherwise, they would have been pretty bland.
The wings were exactly what I was hoping for. They’re whole wings with a very crispy breading, very juicy middle and just enough of that seasoning to give the flavor some pop but not enough to overpower everything else. Thye’re not the biggest wings but they plump and juicy.
I love places like Wing City. Grand Rapids has a bunch of them but Kalamazoo doesn’t really have one so seeing this in Battle Creek was a welcome development. I know most people think Buffalo wings when they think wings but these whole wings are it’s own genre and one that shouldn’t be overlooked. Wing City does a solid job.
SW Michigan Dining 