Ghot Wingz – 8.29.08

Last week as we were heading back to the office from our favorite East Nashville recording studio, we spied a simple sign on Gallatin Road that asked “Ghot Wingz?” with an arrow pointing down a side street across from Nashville Auto Diesel College.  Hank whipped his head around, made the mental calculations and exclaimed that we had just found the place to go for letter G.  Cool.  We’d discovered a brand new lunch place with a nifty spelling that nobody’s heard of and Nashville Eats It’s ABCs would be the very first to bring it to the attention of all the adventurous Nashville lunch lookers. But later that same day our dreams were dashed as a RSS feed confirmed our worst fears.  Ghot Wingz was old news.  A Nashville Bites Scenester got there first and reported back to their blog.  Good for Ghot Wingz, but bad for Frank Hank and Eddie.  However, we are a resilient trio and generally unperturbed by this sort of disappointment so we struck out for a lunch date at East Nashville’s latest and hopefully greatest lunch spot.  Here are our ruminations.

Frank:  I’m not a fan of wings in general.  I don’t really know why this is but probably has something to do with laziness.  Too much work for so little reward.  It’s like ordering quail at a nice restaurant.  Sure, it’s delicious, but really…  was it worth all that effort?  However, I am a fan of locally owned eateries and chutzpah.  Ghot Wingz has both in spades.  Being across the way from the NADC, the décor is spot on with b&w tiled floors and a tool-box counter motif with a few pool tables in the next room.  I ordered a dozen wings - half Hot Garlic and the other half Original with onion rings on the side.  As my number was called, Sharonda (the owner) opened my styrofoam container to be sure that they had my order right.  Nice touch.  The Hot Garlic wings came “naked” and the original arrived breaded and fried.  Both were messy but delicious. The onion rings were great also.  I think I was able to finish all but a couple of wings.  I had no idea that a dozen tiny wings was actually a lot of food but it sat heavy in my gut all afternoon in case I were to forget.  All in all, I love this place.  Great service and very courteous.  But next time I go there, I still think I’m going to try the burger…   

Hank: I don’t claim to be an authority on wings...but I’d like to think that I know when food tastes good...and these wings were good.  The first thing you’ve got to figure out when ordering is what flavor wing you want.  Sounds easy enough...but when you’re presented with 13 different flavors and then the option of fried or naked...it becomes a bit of a daunting task.  Instead of laboring over the choice...I went with the house recommendation and got Asian Heat and Garlic Parmesan...half fried and half naked.  Asian heat was a little sweet and a little spicy...and Garlic Parmesan was exactly as the name would lead you to believe.  I got the 12 wing basket (probably 4 more than I should have ordered)...a drink and Cajun fries for under $10.  The cleanliness factor was above average.  The health score was in the high 80’s...which I thought was pretty good for the age/type of building it was in.  Add to all of that the fact that the Ghot Wingz staff were genuinely happy we were there...and this a no-brainer recommendation to friends.  So...go ghet you some wingz!   

*note to Titan’s tailgaters: This place is close enough to LP field for you to pick up some great wings before the game.   

Eddie: There are only a handful of local chicken places that offer a notable variety of sauce options.  And still, most of them only give you a choice of 4 or 5, maybe 6.  Ghot Wings had at least 9 sauces.  Of course there were the standards (BBQ, Teriaki, etc.), but there were several unique ones too, including one called "Summin Different".  I'm not sure what was in it, but it made my chicken tenders summin gooood.  The honey bourbon sauce was fantastic too.  Value alert: for only a couple dollars you can add a side item and a drink, but get this... the drink is

one of those big 20 oz. coke bottles.  The staff was really friendly and welcoming.