War of the Wings (***)
333 Waterside Dr., Norfolk, VA 23510
Winner, winner, chicken (wing) dinner. I was lucky to score a complimentary ticket from Costal VA Yelp Elite for this year's War of the Wings. From top to bottom, this was an excellent event. Ok, I will admit that I'm not a huge fan of food festivals. Well, I guess I wasn't a fan of food festivals during my NYC life for a few reasons.
They tend to be a bit overpriced for the amount of food you get. I recall going to a food truck festival in NYC that was 35ish dollars. After 45 minutes, I left hungry and ended up going to a Thai restaurant a couple of blocks away. The next reason is why I left hungry and frustrated.
These festivals tend to have massive lines for crumbs of food. Regarding the NYC food truck festival that I mentioned above: I tried to find the shortest line possible, I found it, waited for about 20 minutes, and was disappointed. Turns out the line was for goddamn doggie treats.
There is rarely any place to comfortably enjoy the food. I guess I'm a little bougie when it comes to this, but I like to sit at a table to consume my food and beverage(s). What's the point of eating (and trying to enjoy yummy food) if you have to struggle to balance the food on all of your limbs while living in fear of dropping it?
The Fyre Festival of Pizza in NYC. Seriously, who the hell is paying ~$75 to sample various slices of pizza?
However, I experienced NONE of these issues during the War of the Wings festival. For the festival, Coastal VA Yelp Elite provided us with a complimentary VIP pass, which included 10 tasting and 5 cocktail tickets, and access to a VIP "lounge". Depending on the vendor, one tasting ticket gave you 1-3 chicken wings. Based on my experience at the festival, I wouldn't mind dropping ~$35 for VIP tickets for next year's festival. I mean five cocktails alone probably will cost at least 35 bucks.
LOL, I think that I was doing the festival wrong because I used up most of my drink tickets before making a real dent in my tasting tickets.
Kwame S, multipass. Muuuuulllllltttttiiii pass.
The Food:
The festival had about 15 vendors competing to win the "war" on wings. Even Hooters was there, but I hope to God that they did not win. Of my tastings, I really enjoyed two vendors, but I'm not saying that the other ones were bad. I think the Koren fried chicken vendor had the best wings.
If they did not win the war for the best chicken wing. I hope they got an honorable mention for the nicest vendor.
I have to say that I was a bit disappointed with the peace cobbler wing from one vendor.
You know, what? I'll take it back. It wasn't a bad chicken wing; it just wasn't to my taste. I think I'm at an age where I'm not a fan of things that are sweet just for the sake of being sweet. If I want peach cobbler, I'll just get peach cobbler . . . I don't need my chicken to taste like dessert.
Speaking of taste:
I get that you want to have a unique chicken wing sauce, BUT you still gotta season the chicken. I noticed this lack of attention to detail from a few vendors. Y'all spend so much time adding 80 thousand things to the sauce that you forget about the main component of the wing THE ACTUAL CHICKEN WING.
Both of these wings (a chicken parm sauce and a soy, ginger sauce) were AMAZING
This was was interesting, because the sauce contained fish sauce. Actually, I think that vendor was more of a seafood restaurant than a chicken joint. However, I think the sauce actually grew on me as I nibbled (maybe pecked would be a better term) at the chicken wing.
Since I did not take too many pictures, I guess this wasn't much of an FPOTW post. There was a bit of carnage though. ;)
Although you cannot see my face, I was happy because there were plenty of spots throughout Waterside District to sit and enjoy the food.