Quaker Steak & Lube – New Berlin, WI

Some History

The newest location of Quaker Steak & Lube broke ground in fall of 2010 and opened at the end of January 2011. Being the wing fanatics we are, of course we were excited about having a Quaker Steak less then an hour away. Last May we visited the Middleton location and walked away with lukewarm feelings about their wings. We loved the atmosphere, the service and the variety, but the wings left us a bit disappointed. In hindsight, I felt like the expectations we had for Quaker Steak & Lube were just too high. For one, they claim to have the best wings in America. For two it was an hour drive, so it was a good distance to travel just to get some wings. I don’t think any of us hated the wings, but none of us were blown away by them. One thing that stuck with me after our visit however, was that I felt the wings didn’t have the crispiness we were hoping for. We think this was due to the wings being served in a bucket. The wings at the bottom of the bucket were definitely not as crispy as the wings on top. So I felt as though if it weren’t for the bucket, the wings would have retained their crispiness, but it would be almost a year before we could find out.

Despite our previous visit, I and the rest of the gang were really looking forward to this new location right in our back yard. We let a few weeks go by to let some of the traffic die down and proceeded to set up a  Tuesday for their All-You-Can-Eat wing night for $10.99. That sounded like a super deal to me.

Prep Time

My wife and I stopped in the Saturday beforehand to have lunch and sure enough they were jumping. We only had to wait about 15 minutes so it wasn’t completely insane. Of course I had wings for lunch and was really impressed with the flavor, quality, and doneness of the wing. This had me thinking my hunch about the bucket may have been right. Before I left, I talked to the GM Conrad and asked him how he felt about us coming with 15-20 people to do a review and shoot our very first video for the site. Conrad was real cool, and was all for it.

Go Time

On February 8th, 2011, with video and camera equipment in hand we stormed the new Quaker Steak & Lube and had probably the best time we’ve ever had doing a wing review. Not only that, I think we all really enjoyed the wings. Doing the All-You-Can-Eat with that many people was perfect because we all kept ordering wings and trading wings with each other. I’m pretty sure between all of us we got to try every wing flavor on the menu. I am usually a 6-10 wing max kinda guy but I probably had 20+ that night.

The Sauces

My favorite sauces were the Hot, Supercharged (which were not as hot as expected for being the third hottest sauce on their scale) and Arizona Ranch. The Arizona Ranch is usually not my cup of tea, but I enjoyed the flavor. I’m sure everyone had their favorite, and I heard everyone talking about how good the wings were. They didn’t come out in buckets, and sure enough retained their crispy exterior which made them that much better.  I’ll let people chime in on the comments about their favorite sauces since there are so many and we had so many people with us.

A few of us have been back since then to eat some more wings, so our minds have definitely changed. BW3′s is dang near right across the street and their biggest competitor because they both offer a full menu, a variety of wing sauces, and a themed atmosphere. We all agreed that we liked the wings better at Quaker Steak & Lube then BW3′s. Unfortunately I still didn’t find a sauce that will help me completely kick my obsession with BW3′s Spicy Garlic, but I did find a lot of sauces that will keep me coming back for more.

One thing I did want to do this time was try the Triple Atomic wings. During our Middleton stop we tried the regular Atomic wings which we all thought were damn hot. Personally I’d say they were a touch under BW3′s Blazin Wings which are usually a lot saucier.  So my expectations for the Triple Atomics were that they would be triple as hot, and triple as painful. On this night, 5 of us decided to be brave souls and try one Triple Atomic wing. The one I had I can honestly say was pretty weak. Still very hot, but we actually thought the regular Atomics were hotter. The BW3′s Blazin is definitely hotter. The extra sauce on the BW3′s Blazin wing means that sauce covers your mouth even more. The Triple Atomic Challenge is a little more doable if you can stand the heat but can’t eat fast. But that was just 1 wing. 6 wings is a different story…

The Triple Atomic Challenge

Nick “The Piranha” stepped up after we all had a single Triple Atomic wing and took the Challenge for us. While Nick didn’t have a problem finishing 12 Blazin wings in 6 minutes, the time limit was the only thing that kept me from completing the challenge. At Quaker Steak & Lube, there is no time limit and you only need to eat 6 wings. Nick had no problem plowing through the 5 wings (since he already had one with the rest of us). In fact in the video you can see him actually using the wing to soak up some of the extra sauce sitting in the tray. He didn’t even realize he was doing it! The best part though is he won a really sweet Quaker Steak & Lube Staff shirt and a hat. Nick even said it was the best thing he ever won! We should note however, that Nick only received the staff shirt is because the regular prize t shirts hadn’t come in yet.

We all loved the new New Berlin Quaker Steak & Lube. Conrad the GM, and the wait staff were also excellent. Despite it being super busy that night, Allison, Seth and a few other waiters  had no problem keeping up with our large group, keeping our beer full and the wings coming. As the night went on, customers and employees were definitely digging what we were doing with the video and people started gathering around and watching. We even had people chanting our names! Some lucky customers went home with aWingThing.com stickers too!

So check out the video, give us your thoughts and tell a friend about it. Hopefully you can tell we had a tons of fun making it. Look for more videos to come in the future as well.