Area doctors top six list for local wings
By Tom Holmes.

A few of us would meet regularly for beer, chicken wings and sport at a few Kingston establishments. An argument would develop over where would the best place be in Kingston to watch sports and eat chicken wings. The six of us decided we'd find out. Together we feel we have over 150 years of experience with wings and beer.
We developed a rating system with six judged categories: the quality of the wings, the ambience of the establishment, the service, the price, the quality and selection of beer, and the quality of the televisions.
The 16-week Monday night NFL season provided the perfect opportunity. It would be Monday football and wings. It would require dedication through and entire football season but the team was up the job.
We would ask our buddies and acquaintances for suggestions and we would pick 10 extablishments,. We would rank them from #1 - #10 and revisit the top four finalist before we declare a winner.
The requirement for each establishment was that we had to be able to watch Monday night football on television and eat chicken wings.
The 10 establishments carefully chosen were: Kelseys (Gardiners), The Peel Pub, Dailey Café, Raxx, Boston Pizza, the Lone Star, the Loyal Oarsmen, Shoeless Joes (Princess), Smitty's and the Queen's Inn.
(We are sorry if we missed any other possibilities. A couple of places closed the kitchen before 9:00 on Mondays so were eliminated. We have next season to try any places we missed this year.)
After ten grueling weeks the six of us came up with our top four finalists. The Queen's Inn, The Loyal Oarsmen, Shoeless Joes and the Lone Star. A special mention will be made for fifth place Smitty's. The Wings were excellent and it was the least expensive of all ten. Kelsey's also deserves an honourable mention. Kelsey's had good wings and great ambience but the television set up was poor.
Boston Pizza also has a great Sports bar ambience with quality televisions but we recommend that you stay with the pizza.
All four of the finalists had a good sports ambience, giant televisions complete with sound (hearing John Madden was a must) and great wings. The Lone Star -finished third. The upstairs sports bar had good atmosphere. The television was good but the picture quality wasn't the best. The added touches like free nachos and salsa and fries with the wings were noted. The price was the lowest of the finalists, always a bonus. The wings were good but not as good as the other three finalists.
Second Place went to Shoeless Joes by only a whisker. The large screen projection TV was huge, the wings were excellent and the service excellent. You certainly can't go wrong choosing Shoeless for wings. The group is looking forward to visiting the new Shoeless on Bath Road.
First place went to The Loyal Oarsmen. The wings were large and tasty, the overall atmosphere and service excellent. The television was large and the quality good. Only a very busy night could make it difficult to see the large screen television. The beer selection was #1 with over twenty beers on tap, each beer served in its own labeled glass. That really impressed the judges. A night out at the Oarsmen won't be cheap (the 3rd highest) but it is well worth it. Unfortunately for the Queen's Inn, the frontrunner going into the finals didn't have wings on our final testing night. They were all out. Maybe that's because they are so good they sell, we don't know. However due to a lack of sings we had to drop the Queen's Inn to fourth place. Our judges do say that if they are serving wins they are possibly the best in town.
We celebrated the final Monday Night Football game at the Loyal Oarsmen. We'll now have to plan for next season. We would gladly be open for further suggestions. It's a 16 week season.

The Judges

Dr. Tom Holmes
Dr. Dave Gouett
Dr. Gord Lansdown
Dr. Terry Swaine
Dr. Brian McDougall
Mr. Dave Lucas

Ranking

1. Loyal Oarsmen 8.67
2. Shoeless Joes 8.64
3. Lone Star 8.47
4. Queen's Inn 8.40
5. Smitty's 8.3
6. Kelsey's 8.1

None of the six judges have any personal or business connection to any of the 10 establishments.