
8 minute read
PUTTING YOU AND THE COMMUNITY FIRST
Deauville Inn
The new-and-improved Deauville Inn is pushing the boundaries from a culinary standpoint thanks to its Executive Chef TJ Ricciardi and his team. So, why would their entry for Wing Fest be any different? The Strathmere-based restaurant and tourist destination will bring it with Mezcal-Ancho Chili Wings, a South of the Border-influenced offering featuring mezcal tequila, ancho peppers, cumin, cilantro, chipotle peppers and even some brown sugar to sweeten that heat. Dip ’em in some Avocado Mousse with heavy cream and jalapenos, and you have a winning recipe.
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(Deauville is located at 201 Willard Road, Strathmere. Go to DeauvilleInn.com)
EastWind Chinese Restaurant & Noodle Bar at Resorts Casino Hotel
EastWind Noodle Bar, located right off the Atlantic City Boardwalk in the entrance of Resorts Casino Hotel, will wow the crowd with their unique, sweet-and-spicy Hunanese Wings made with sweet and spicy sauce, quick-pickled cucumbers and scallion. The Kimchi Aioli dipping sauce may be the main attraction with fresh, chopped kimchi, garlic, horseradish and sriracha. You won’t need chopsticks for this amazing creation.
(EastWind is located inside Resorts Casino Hotel, Atlantic City. Go to ResortsAC.com)
Essl's Dugout
If there is a wing competition – or any major event, for that matter – you will find Essl’s Dugout Restaurant absolutely killing it. The hard-working, husband-and-wife team of Robert and Carey Hettmannsperger are always coming up with creative spins on classic comfort food, and their Wing Fest entry is no different. Essl’s always offers awesome wings on their catering menu, and even though they
Hooters
Everyone has had Hooters wings at one point or another. They are awesome. The attractive servers are just a bonus. But have you ever had their Chipotle Honey Wings? If not, you are in for a treat. Hooters, located inside the Tropicana Atlantic City, has impressed wing enthusiasts in past wing contests with a variety of wings ranging from their traditional to smoked to dryrubbed, but the Chipotle Honey Wings with cayenne and red pepper, honey, aged habaneros, chipotle and garlic may be their best competitive wing yet! And ranch dressing lovers take note: When you dunk those sweet-and-spicy wings into their Rockin’ Ranch Dipping ↘
Atlantic City Wing Fest Contenders

Bill’s Bar & Burger at Golden Nugget
Slice Piz zeria at Caesars Atlantic Cit y
Careme’s at Atlantic Cape
Communit y College
Cuz zie’s Piz zeria & Kitchen
Deauville Inn
EastWind at Resor ts Casino Hotel
Essl’s Dugout
Hooters
PC Event Ser vices at Showboat
Michael Patrick’s at Golden Nugget
MotleyQue NJ
Holy Cit y Publick House
Romanelli’s Garden Cafe
TacocaT
Tennessee Avenue Beer Hall
Villain & Saint at Ocean Casino Resor t
Wingcraft Kitchen & Beer Bar
Yesterday’s Creekside Tavern
Sauce, you will know what heaven tastes like.
(Hooters is located inside the Tropicana Atlantic City. Go to NortheastHooters.com) their new Holy City Sauce featuring horseradish, ketchup, mustard, Cajun seasoning, honey and more garlic. Should be interesting. Word on the street is this Chiodi character is larger than life, and these wings sound like they will be too!
(Holy City is located at 332 Jersey Ave., Gloucester City. Go to HolyCityPublickHouse.com)
– I mean you came this far, so why not? - dip ’em in the Roasted Garlic Blue Cheese with fresh-peeled garlic, buttermilk and more, and you really are doing your taste buds a solid here.
(Michael Patrick’s is located inside Golden Nugget Atlantic City Hotel, Casino & Marina. Go to GoldenNugget.com)
(PC Event Services operates numerous restaurants inside Showboat Atlantic City. Go to PCEventServices.com or ShowboatHotelAC.com)
Holy City Publick House
Atlantic City Wing Fest is proud to feature a competitor that’s a little outside of our usual restaurant range, and we were thrilled to welcome Holy City Public House from Gloucester City when they called us to get in on the action. So, what the hell is a Chiodi Wing? Well, it’s named after a customer who one day decided to take Holy City’s most popular sauce – Maple Hot, made with fresh maple syrup from a farm in Michigan – and combine it with their second most popular sauce – Garlic Parm, resulting in an amazing flavor combination now known as Chiodi Wings, which are now Holy City’s most popular flavor for those in the know. They will be accompanied by

Michael Patrick's Brasserie at Golden Nugget
When you win previous wing competitions with an amazing recipe, why change it, right? Well, that’s the philosophy the crew at Michael Patrick’s Brasserie is taking with their Garlic Buffalo Wings. Michael Patrick’s, the awesome café inside Golden Nugget, hopes to win over the judges and attendees again with the fan favorite recipe featuring hot sauce, chopped garlic, honey and more. If you aren’t worried about having garlic breath
MotleyQue NJ
Another newbie to Atlantic City Wing Fest is MotleyQue, an awesome food truck that specializes in unique, nontraditional barbecue such as their deep-fried pulled pork and stuffed chicken and waffles. Case in point is their Twisted Thwings that are seasoned, smoked and then slathered in a homemade BBQ sauce featuring cayenne pepper, fresh tomato, brown sugar and more. Their dipping sauce – appropriately named Motley Kick BBQ Cream – is particularly interesting as they take their BBQ wing sauce and mix it up with some sour cream for some tasty results. Smoke ’em if you got ’em! And with an ’80s rock ’n’ roll theme inspired by Motley Crue, how can you not be a fan?
(MotleyQue is a roaming food truck that will be at the next event near you. Find MotleyQue NJ on Facebook.)
Romanelli's Garden Café
Thanks to Owner Drew Huggard, Romanelli’s Garden Café has really evolved since he took ownership a few years ago. For starters, they added a gorgeous new bar, and any South Jersey bar isn’t worth its salt without a good wing. And Romanelli’s certainly has that covered. Known for their signature limonecello wings, Huggard wanted to do something even more different, and his Sticky Root Beer Float Wings are likely to be the talk of Wing Fest. Sweet thanks to its sassafras glaze and brown sugar, yet savory and spicy thanks to its soy sauce, serrano peppers and Thai chilis, these wings find a perfect balance. To kick it up a notch, the French Vanilla Dipping Sauce not only completes the root beer float concept, but makes them pretty ridiculous … in a good way!
(Romanelli’s Garden Café is located at 279 S. New York Road, Galloway. Go to RomanellisGardenCafe.com)
PC Event Services at Showboat Atlantic City

PC Event Services, the restaurant company behind a slew of restaurants that already exist or will open soon at Showboat Atlantic City - including the seafood buffet and the eatery inside the new waterpark – will make its wing competition debut with their Honey BBQ Whiskey Wings. The secret recipe has hot sauce, BBQ sauce and whiskey … what more can you ask for? Oh, how about some chunky blue cheese for your dipping pleasure.
Slice Pizzeria at Caesars Atlantic City
Caesars Atlantic City is getting most of the culinary attention in Atlantic City lately thanks to opening both Gordon Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen and Nobu, but Caesars wants to remind people they have Slice Pizzeria, a very cool, casual concept where you can find inexpensive comfort food at its finest. Their Gangnam-Style Korean Wings will be the third entry with an Asian flair at Wing Fest, and they will certainly impress thanks to their fresh ginger, gochujang sauce, soy sauce and more. Will they be better than the “Gangnam Style” music video? We are pretty confident they will be.
(Slice is located inside Caesars Atlantic City. Go to CaesarsAC.com)
TacocaT Margate
South Jersey sure has its share of authentic Mexican and Tex-Mex eateries, but TacocaT is the only Cali-Mex restaurant that we are aware of … and it’s absolutely one of our favorite places to eat, whether at their Margate location or when they bring out their food truck – Kitty Cat – to feed the masses at events and catering gigs. We already love TacocaT’s signature Naked Wings – fried or grilled – with their spicy rum-cola sauce, but Owners Mike and Randi Talley wanted to create something new and original for Wing Fest, and man did they ever succeed. Their Guava Habanero Wings with fresh guava puree, habanero peppers, roasted garlic and pineapple, brown sugar, curry, honey and more, will tantalize your tastebuds, which will really explode when you dip them into their Avocado Maytag Blue
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The Band
The Anthony Krizan Band with Sandy
Mack
Atlantic City Wing Fest isn’t just about eating wings. It’s an entertainment event, and we are thrilled to have The Anthony Krizan Band with special guest Sandy Mack be our featured performers.
If you’re looking for your typical cover band that you find at many events, The Anthony Krizan Band is anything but.
But if you are looking for an amazing, blues-based rock band fronted by one of the best guitarists on the planet that performs raucous originals and a few covers, then The Anthony Krizan Band is exactly what you need in your life.

As the former lead guitarist of The Spin Doctors, Krizan opened for The Rolling Stones and The Allman Brothers, spent 10 years as a touring guitarist with iconic Jimi Hendrix bassist Noel Redding, and he’s an original member of Amphibian with Phish lyricist Tom Marshall.
Earlier this year, Krizan was a guest guitarist for headliner and music legend John Waite at the 2023 Light of Day Festival at the
Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank. In fact, Krizan co-wrote the title track to Waite’s new EP, “Anything,” and he produced three tracks on the release. He also cowrote the title track to Waite’s Mercury release “When You Were Mine.”
Krizan has penned rock/soul staples such as "Stand By My Woman" with Lenny Kravitz, five songs on the “Spin Doctors Greatest Hits,” the theme of the “Spin City” TV series and The Howard Stern Show’s “Miss America” theme.
Having worked with stellar musicians during his career, Krizan's true passion is his solo career and his brand of swampy, rock/blues/soul, genre-crossing music. Check out his latest album, “Dust & Bone,” which was well-received and recorded by Gretchen Wilson, blues guitar legend Pat Travers and Tim Hicks on Universal Records. His latest singles “Sweet Divine,” "Strawberry Wine” and "Forbidden VooDoo" are currently streaming on all platforms.
Krizan will be joined by his fantastic band as well as special guest Sandy Mack, a Jersey Shore singer and harmonica-playing legend. Mack is known for his involvement in the Asbury Park music scene and played alongside greats such as Bruce Springsteen, Steven Van Zandt, Southside Johnny and others. Mack, a well-versed session musician, has released his own solo albums and will certainly help Krizan’s band kick it up a notch at Atlantic City Wing Fest.
Cheese featuring fresh avocados, buttermilk and crumbled blue cheese. Now that sounds very Cali-Mex to us!
(TacocaT is located at 8 S. Essex Ave., Margate. Go to TacocatSouthJersey.com)
Tennessee Avenue
Beer Hall
Tennessee Avenue Beer Hall has had great success in previous wing competitions to the point that they had to add one of their creations to its perma- nent menu. And while their Sweet Soy Wings, as well as their more traditional but amazing TK Wings, would probably fare well again, Chef Charles Soreth wanted to create something cool and new that could end up being their next menu staple. The Chili-Garlic Buffalo Wings mix a little traditional with a little contemporary thanks to its hot sauce, honey, chili-garlic sauce and lots of butter. Dip them into Soreth’s Buttermilk and Chive Blue Cheese, and experience the magic!