Today I had the pleasure of having lunch with friends at Dew Drop Inn, a restaurant/bar located in Derby, Connecticut. I only recently found out about this place as it had been brought to my attention by a friend of mine, who had discovered it when looking for wings while their favorite wing place was closed on a holiday. After looking up the Dew Drop, and seeing their massive wing menu, and mentions of them being awarded for having the best wings in CT in 2016, we decided to make a day to verify that bold claim. Spoiler alert, they definitely earned it.
Dew Drop is a small establishment with limited parking, so we decided to try and go Sunday morning, and got there around 11:30, a half an hour after opening. Even then, only one parking spot was free, and the restaurant was mostly full, but lucked out and still got a table to fit four of us. One thing that caught us off-guard, we were carded just to enter the establishment. Their website does mention that, I just didn’t expect that to actually happen, but I like that they take things seriously regarding their liquor license despite our not planning on purchasing booze. We sat down and began reviewing the menu to make our selections.
The menu has a wide variety of what you typically would expect from this type of establishment. They had the usual staples including burgers, mozzarella sticks, onion rings, sandwiches, and of course wings. People clearly come here for wings, the menu for those are two whole pages, with 118 different flavors (I counted) listed. To be fair many of the flavors are a variation of another flavor, like “Spicy Ranch” and “Spicy Ranch Bacon”, but regardless how you count it, there is a ton of variety, and you will end up wanting to try multiple flavors. Some other places I frequent have a limited selection, typically mostly Buffalo style with different levels of heat.
One thing that worried me was that with this many available flavors, that they would be mediocre, I’ve had that happen before with other wing joints, they would have a ton of “meh” flavors instead of a handful of really good ones. I’m happy to report that was not the case here. At least of the four types I tried, (white BBQ, peanut butter smores, maple bourbon BBQ, and spicy ranch bacon) all had more than exceeded my expectations. So much so, I think this may now be my new favorite wing spot. Ignoring the overwhelmingly massive selection, the wings themselves are great. They were perfectly cooked, with the right amount of crispiness, and they were also a good size, not super large like some other places I go to, but thankfully not the “micro-wings” some other places use to try and save a buck either.
In addition to the good size and preparation, they were all properly sauced, Dew Drop is generous with bathing the wings, so you will have extra for dipping your fries and such into. Man, the flavors I chose were knockouts too. Most of my wings came with blue cheese to dip, and honestly, I really didn’t even need it, most of the wings were better as is, the blue cheese took away from the excellent sauces the wings were coated in.
First up I had the White BBQ wings. This was something I did not expect to see on the menu, I often love the white sauce from various BBQ joints down south like Phil’s BBQ pit in North Carolina, white sauce is basically a mayo-based sauce with various other spices mixed in, and it is a winner on these wings as much as it is on a southern brisket sandwich.
Spicy Ranch Bacon was not exactly spicy (I honestly forgot it had spicy in the name until writing this), it was just enough to make my nose run a bit, but it was nothing uncomfortable, and was not as much kick as a typical chipotle mayo, but that didn’t matter to me. The wings being drenched in bacon bits was nice and added an excellent crunch, I made sure none of the bits that fell off went to waste!
Maple Burbon BBQ was my “safe” choice, I figured with the others being more creative and exotic I’d also get something more traditional, to see how they faired. The sauce on this one reminds me a lot of the real tree maple syrup I use, which is aged in bourbon barrels to give it a bit of that flavor. It tastes like that mixed with a sweet BBQ sauce. Simple, but still very delicious.
My favorite of the four I chose today is the Peanut Butter Smores. Wow, I was totally surprised by these, the wings are covered with peanut butter sauce and marshmallow fluff, with some chocolate drizzled on top, it was essentially a chicken wing fluffernutter!
In addition to four orders of wings, my fiancé twisted my arm and talked me into also trying out a burger. The menu entry for it says, “You know you want it!”, so that also talked me into ordering one. It is a simple burger, just a burger patty on a bun with bacon and peanut butter sauce, no cheese or veggies, but it didn’t need it, the combo rocks it on its own. To top things off, surprisingly the burger was actually cooked as done as I wanted it. If possible, I try and get my burgers cooked rare. Maybe 1% of the time that actually happens, usually it comes out medium. I’m not the type to make a fuss and demand a remake, I know many kitchens will err on the side of overcooking a bit, so the fact that I actually got what I asked for helped put it over the top. The burger was nice and juicy, good flavor, good bun, good size, and nice crispy curly fries on the side.
Beyond the food, the restaurant itself was great. The service was top notch, the various girls serving us were very much on top of things, not letting drinks run low, and taking care of our needs in general quickly and accurately. The restaurant was clean, as were the bathrooms, the décor was nice, and while the lighting was not very bright indoors, it was more than comfortable, not super dark like the Batcave as many other restaurants tend to be.
The only “bad” things I can say (and they aren’t really that bad) is the parking situation is not great, and there are not many tables so if you don’t get here early, you are likely to wait both to park and to sit. Pricing is a bit higher for wings than what I typically pay, most of the wings I got today were just a hair under $2 per wing, but if you get larger quantities of the basic wings, it will be a little cheaper per wing. Still, it was well worth the price along with the long drive for me to get there. I do plan on coming back in the near future to try more.
This place has earned a Froggy Seal of Approval!
