Wings at The Dew Drop Inn

Putting the “Ew” in “Dew”
Wacky Wings at The Dew Drop Inn, Derby
February 2023 – December 2024

As you see from the dates above, this was a multi-visit, multi-year project. As such, I will split this page up into my 3 visits.

Intro
Visit 1: Buffalo Hot, Imperial Coffee Stout Dry Rub, Tikka Masala Peanut Butter
Visit 2: To Be Revealed 12/20/24!
Visit 3: To Be Revealed 12/24/24!
Conclusion

The littlest town in Connecticut goes big with its wings. The Dirty Derb.

Derby is tiny. Ridiculously tiny. Embarrassingly tiny. So tiny that its historical society museum is in an neighboring town. But hey, they’ve got top tier pizza (Roseland), a very good brewery (BAD SONS), and The Dew Drop Inn.

Two of these three are legendary in Connecticut, and BAD SONS has done very well, partnering with both restaurants to make a sort of triangle of gluttony in Derby. (I don’t mean that as a bad thing.)

I don’t know the full history of the Dew Drop, just that it’s a neighborhood bar that’s been around for a very long time. It used to be a biker bar and a dive. It still retains hints of both to be honest, which isn’t necessarily a negative. I do not know the history of its kitchen or menu, but I do know that in 2006 a guy named Jason Carlucci bought it, tried to keep it going as it was, realized it was awful, burned the menus and started over.

The Dew Drop has a menu full of perfectly normal pub food. And I’m sure it’s fine – very good, even – but that’s not why I came to this place three times in 2023-24 to eat. I came here for wacky wing flavors. Nine different wing orders plus a baseline buffalo hot order to fairly judge Dew Drop against the other wing kings of Connecticut.

“Nine wacky flavors? How can a little neighborhood pub have that many wacky wing flavors?”

Clearly you are unfamiliar with the Dew Drop Inn. They have over 120 wing flavors, a number that grows every year. I’d guess there are infinite flavors and flavor combinations, so who knows where they’ll be at by the time you’re reading this.

The Dew Drop’s wings are “always fresh, never frozen!” and “Cooked to crispy perfection!” The price for six ranges from 12 to 13 bucks. Their menu sections of wings range from “Basic” to “Basically Ridiculous.” I appreciate the self awareness.

To list all the flavors here would be silly. I did ask a few friends which seemed wackiest/stupidest to them. I also asked a friend in the business who was the one who suggested I start with a normal buffalo hot wing. My first order was fairly benign: Buffalo hot, imperial coffee stout (dry rub), and tikki masala peanut butter. There are half a dozen “Dessert Wings” which I’d have at some point, but not during my first visit.

I ordered each tin of six wings to go and made my way down to the Dew Drop. It truly is a neighborhood joint with very little parking. And it’s always packed. Like, packed. People were stuffed near the entrance waiting for a table. I made the mistake of thinking I’d sit at the bar and enjoy a beer. It was at that point I was told, fairly politely, that even the bar seats are reserved here. People were waiting for them. On a winter Wednesday night.

Oh. Wow. Okay Dew Drop, I see how you do. This is the norm here, no matter time of day, day of week, or month of year. Impressive.

Before we get going, I want to make it clear: I’m purposely choosing wings I’m very confident I won’t like. I fully recognize the idiocy of doing this. I recognize this is unfair to the Dew Drop, but at the same time, recognize these flavors are listed on their menu for human consumption. Okay, let’s do this!

The First Visit, February 2023

Baseline Wings: Buffalo Hot

I took my wings a very short way up the road to BAD SONS Beer Company and enjoyed them next to my own private fire pit. Kinda perfect in a way.

I’ll admit it. I came here with a pre-conceived notion that this whole thing was going to be stupid. You serve cucumber wasabi wings, you’re going to be stupid. But I did my best to remove that bias as I took my first bite which was…

Good! The sauce has a sweetness that I didn’t need in my hot wings, but it wasn’t too off-putting. It won’t come as a surprise to you that these were the winners on the night for me. Dew Drop’s wings aren’t the largest or the meatiest around, but I think that’s actually a good thing; people get multiple flavors of wings here and with six being the fewest you can order, you don’t really want 18 massive wings when you order three varieties. At least I don’t.

Buffalo hot: 4 out of 5 stars

I was off to a good start.

Imperial Coffee Stout Dry Rub Wings (1 out of 5 stars):

Well, it didn’t take long to get a stupid wing. These were stupid. Can a dry rub work on a little chicken wing? I suppose so, and the Dew Drop certainly thinks so. As of this writing, they have 12 dry rub wings on their menu: Taco, BBQ, Applewood Chipotle, Honey Habanero, Tikka Masala, Montreal, Lemon Pepper, Citrus BBQ, Cherry Chipotle, Candied Bacon Sriracha, Imperial Coffee Stout, and Pink Peppercorn Lemon Thyme.

I have the same questions How in the world are some of these dry rubs? I have no idea. For their sake, I hope many of these flavors work as a dry rub, because the ones I was eating certainly did not. These are simply plain fried chicken wings. Very crispy plain fried chicken wings. There was some brown powder on them, sure, but I have no clue what was remotely “stouty” about them at all. Total duds in the flavor department. These are the wings for the gluten free, no salt, no spice crowd.

Terrible.

Imperial Coffee Stout Dry Rub Wings: 1 out of 5 stars

Tikka Masala Peanut Butter

Okay, now we’re in deep. I love chicken tikka masala. So tikka masala wings should be pretty good – just an entirely different type of chicken of course. But why did they add peanut butter into the mix?

Yes, lots of southeast Asian cuisines have peanut sauces… Thai and Vietnamese spring to mind. This is my first Dew Drop wing that makes me think half of these flavors are just dreamt up by drunken fools at the bar and then the chefs try to do something with the idea. I actually saved these for later as I was full from my beer and the other 12 wings.

I never noticed the F on the white sauce that came with these wings. I simply opened and and went for it, and…

Can you guess what the F?

The F is Fluff as in marshmallow fluff. If I wasn’t fully immersed in Dew Drop wing culture, now I was. What a thoroughly disgusting idea this is. Except it’s not just an idea! It’s real! And I was eating it!

Once. The wings on their own – and I’m fine ignoring the “tikka” here is fairly nonsensical to Punjabi speakers, since most of us aren’t Punjabi speakers – are actually surprisingly good. Weird and confusing, but somehow their peanut butter sauce works with whatever masala spice mixture they use. But the Fluff? GTFluffOH with that. JFluffinC.

Tikka Masala Peanut Butter: 2.5 out of 5 Stars

Overall, not a bad first foray into the depths of Derby. I knew I would be upping the wackiness ante on subsequent visits, though, so the jury was still out.

Dew Drop Inn
CTMQ’s Unique & Historic Restaurants & Food