Try these wings that move beyond hot sauce and blue cheese. (But if a classic is what you seek, The Ritz’s Gumbo Limbo dishes up our go-to pile of the crunchiest, sauciest drumsticks imaginable.)
TAG: The American Gastropub (23161 Village Shops Way, Estero, 949-4300, tagswfl.com): Bar food gets a high-brow makeover at one of this season’s best new restaurants. Do the mix-and-match grilled wings, picking five with sauces including honey-Sriracha, jerk and Thai peanut—or order the Hot Cheeks, moist, flaky pieces of lightly fried grouper doused in a zingy sauce and sprinkled with celery curls atop blue cheese aioli.
Rosedale Brick Oven (1427 Pine Ridge Road, Naples, 325-9653, rosedalepizza.com): Trade in the heat, and you won’t regret it. Roasted with whole cloves of sweet garlic and rained on with freshly squeezed lemon juice, these wings at the popular Italian joint are addictive.
Fuse Global Cuisine (2500 Tamiami Trail N., Naples, 455-4585, fuseglobalcuisine.com): Not exactly following a strict necessary-for-flight definition, the super-tender “hogwings” (foreshanks of a pig) soar for shareability, and we love chef Greg Scarlatos’ use of tamarind and hoisin.
Crave Market (12901 McGregor Blvd., Fort Myers, 466-4663, cravemenu.com): This militantly fresh and from-scratch casual eatery—its chef-owner butchers his own chickens—makes a wing special once a week you should aim to try. Brined for tenderness and smoked for flavor, they are then deep-fried and smothered in a 50-50 mix of the house bourbon sauce and hot sauce.
Henning’s Chicago Kitchen (6060 Collier Blvd., Naples, 732-4312, henningschicagokitchen.com): Primarily a pizzeria serving deep-dish and cracker-crust pies, this tiny spot across from Rookery Bay also does a mean funky chicken—wings, that is, including a bacon-grease-fried version and a rockin’ Korean barbecue take with garlic, ginger and soy.
Cork Soakers Deck and Wine Bar (837 SE 47th Terrace, Cape Coral, 542-6622, corksoakers.net): At another of our best new restaurants, this one known for its menu’s irreverent tone, chef Gary Pfenning gets cheeky with “Sticky Chicken,” an appetizer of green curry-brined wings coated with sweet chili and plated with Asian slaw.
