Preserved Pepper Wing
Contrast is an essential part of the wing experience. When the spicy wing is dipped in bleu cheese sauce, you get two extremes at once: Spicy and mild, hot and creamy. Red Star Tavern has reigned in those opposites with their Wing Week wings, and the result is something nicely complex. These wings are not brute extremes crashing into each other; instead of spicy and creamy merely pushing against each other, they collaborate. Before meeting any kind of sauce, Red Star’s wings are braised in pork fat and champagne vinegar, giving them a jolt of richness. After that, they're fried and coated with a Mama Lil's pepper glaze. The wings are then dressed with dill fronds, which gives the whole thing a bit more dimensionality. On top of all that, there's creamy feta sauce. It's still an experience in wing-y contrast, sure, but it's contrast that creates something. JOE STRECKERT