Crosstown Pub and Grill - Naperville

Located on Ogden Ave. in Naperville.

The Wing Joint:

Open on Christmas!

Crosstown Pub has the neighborhood bar feeling on a busy Ogden Ave. loaded with strip malls and chain stores.  Walk in and your right at the bar area and it was packed with co-workers and friends meeting after work for a beer and a bite.  Luckily there is a dinning area you don't even see until you turn the corner.  There's even an out door patio.  Because of the location, a ton of daily specials to keep you coming back, and the well known wing menu this place is usually crowded.  I also went on trivia night, so I'm sure that contributed.  Dinning area was very noisy.  They had a verity of sports the wall mounted TV's to watch while I think about the extensive craft beer list of 20 drafts, 24 craft bottles, and 15 cans.  Can never go wrong with a Revolution Anti-Hero draft.  Did I mention this place was noisy?  Crosstown Pub has been nationally and locally recognized for their food, especially their wings.  I read some online reviews before coming in and many patrons say this is their favorite wing joint.  Rated #1 wings by ABC and have "They hottest wing challenge ever" that's been seen on the Travel Channel and Chicago's Best.  They use pure Ghost Pepper Extract & Ghost Pepper Power with their own Devil's Sweat.  I like my wings hot and spicy, but hot damn that sounds hot.  Also an events page on their website with golf outing and charity events.  New location coming to Batavia at the end of January.  Hey look, open Christmas Day!

The Wing Review:


Jalapeno Dry Garlic Buffalo Sauce & Shut Up Sauce

This will be one of my longer reviews, so lets get to it.  There are 21 sauces and 21 dry rubs with 7 dipping sauces and if that wasn't enough to think about, now choose having them cooked naked, breaded, or grilled.  I do wish they had a list of popular combinations on the menu, otherwise your wing order could be a gamble.  I went with a friend and ordered 4 different combinations.  You can split the order of 10 and try more flavors that way or get the 5 sauce sampler.  Its all about the sauce and flavor here but lets start with the wings themselves.  Temperature served was good, this was a better hurry up and eat because they will get cold quick temperature.  Wing size was medium to jumbo.  Meaty and tender and depending on how you order them the crispy level varies.  Now lets talk the sauce and dry rubs.
Here is the order:
5 naked Jalapeno dry rub with buffalo garlic sauce.
5 grilled Shut Up Sauce (a whiskey bbq)
5 naked cool ranch dry rub
5 naked buffalo sauce.
I tried not to get to crazy with the combinations but it would be easy to do so.  Jalapeno dry rub and garlic buffalo had a ton flavor as one can imagine.  Extra jalapenos came on top of the wings and in the sauce to spice it up.  Heat sneaks up on you after a few bites and by far the best of our order.
The Shut Up sauce grilled is like I said a Whiskey BBQ.  Usually not a big  BBQ wing fan but with a name like Shut Up sauce, I gotta try it and it tasted like a very average BBQ sauce. Not spicy not hot, just average, actually a little disappointed.  Spice these up or something, make this sauce stand out like the name indicates.


Buffalo Sauce and Cool Ranch Dry

My friend ordered 5 naked cool ranch and this tastes just like you think...Cool Ranch Doritos but on a wing.  Very tasty, I could eat an entire order of just Cool Ranch.  Also 5 of the buffalo sauce wings were pretty average as well, not spicy but just Buffalo.  Nothing wrong with that but mix this up with a dry rub and you could have one Huelva flavor.  The great thing about this place is if your favorite sauce is just average, you can mix it up a little each trip.  I'll be back for that 5 sauce sampler.  Oh and get the waffle fries, there's an amazing salty seasoning on them, worth it and a nice compliment.  You're Welcome.

Wing Night: Thursday wings are 1/2 priced.  Sauces and dry rubs extra.

Side Notes:
+A new wing month every month!
+Seemingly endless combination of wings to keep you coming back, I know I will be.
-Parking is kind of a pain.
-I said this place is noisy, right?

Moment of Truth and Why:

Overall: 4 Star Wings 
Temperature: 3
Size & Texture: 4
Heat: 3.5
Flavor Overall: 4
Sauce Overall: 4
Jalapeno dry rub with buffalo garlic sauce: 5
Shut Up Sauce (Whiskey BBQ): 2
Cool Ranch dry rub: 4
Buffalo Sauce: 3

Life if full of wonderful decisions

With the amount of combinations, see picture menu to the left, you're bound to find one with right amount heat and flavor, it just may take a few tries.  The Jalapeno dry with Buffalo Garlic was excellent.  Cool Ranch isn't bad by itself either.  The wing menu is overwhelming the first time you lay eyes on it.  I can't even tell you how many times I changed my mind on a combo, came up with a new combo to try or even forgot a what my final order would even be.  Crosstown Pub if you read this, please come up with a list of popular combinations, my brain was hurting by the time I ordered...but let me know I can always help with that list too.  Overall the wings are great and I'll be back to try another combination soon.

Website: http://crosstownpub-grill.com/

 

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Always looking for a new wing joint, got a favorite ?  Tell me about and I'll check it out.  Hope this helps and enjoy.  Eat more wings!