Sickies Garage

FOOD

At Sickies, the first wing decision is wonderfully practical: bones or no bones? Tuesday’s AYCE special belongs to boneless wings, handy for the fork-and-dip crowd; Thursday gives traditional wings their turn. Bone-in enthusiasts may consider the napkin pile part of dinner. The regular wing menu supplies plenty of inspiration; confirm your location’s AYCE sauce choices, sides and upgrade rules before ordering.

There is no obligation to begin with the hottest thing in the garage. Golden BBQ offers a mellow Southern-style starting point, and Jameson Sauce brings whiskey to the barbecue side of the menu without the burn. That leaves room for a little curiosity before the pepper-heavy choices arrive. A wing supper can have ambitions beyond Buffalo without immediately becoming a negotiation with a habanero.

Garlic lovers have a more interesting dilemma. Boom Boom combines creamy garlic with red pepper, while Stinging Honey Garlic lets cayenne interrupt the sweetness of honey and garlic. The sting has earned its place in the name. Spicy Garlic takes another route, folding garlic into Buffalo sauce. A Buffalo loyalist can keep that familiar base; the honey version takes the sweet-and-spicy path instead.

The garage’s fondness for tinkering becomes especially clear with Wild Willy Style, a separately priced preparation on the regular traditional-wing menu. The wings are tossed in sweet, garlicky barbecue sauce with a subtle kick, then grilled. Wild Willy Sauce also appears among the standard sauces; ordering that flavor and ordering the grilled Wild Willy Style are separate decisions. Sickies has managed to make even the wings a customization project.

Then there is PB&J, borrowing the name of the sandwich that once lived in your lunchbox. On a wing menu. Sickies clearly saw no reason for adulthood to become entirely sensible. For a fruit-and-pepper combination with a more explicit description, Poppin’ Pineapple brings tangy pineapple and sweet heat. Mango Habanero pushes tangy sweetness toward habanero’s bite. Those two let fruit join the conversation without pretending the peppers have gone home.

A Buffalo devotee looking for a small adventure might pause at Hurricane. It blends Buffalo, barbecue and Jamaican jerk, gathering three familiar wing-sauce directions into one order. Why stop at one when three are within reach? Jamaican Jerk on its own carries lime and green onion alongside its spice. That gives the blend a more specific personality than its weather-report name might suggest.

For a less saucy order, the four dry rubs—Ranch, Cajun, Spicy Buffalo and Lemon Pepper—offer a detour. Handy if the sauce is usually what you leave behind on the plate.

Hell’s Fury occupies the far end of the menu’s heat ladder, with ghost peppers behind the warning. A fairly considerate name, really. The habanero-inspired Hot sauce provides another point of comparison before that leap. Choose for the flavor you actually enjoy; dinner does not require a bravery certificate. With an AYCE invitation on the table, there is plenty of reason to save some appetite for a favorite rather than turn supper into a dare.