Episode 024 — The Basement Sports Bar & Grill, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio

Season 2 opens in Cuyahoga Falls, and the Falls keeps delivering.

The Basement Sports Bar & Grill does exactly what a sports bar should do and then goes one step further. The layout is clean, the TVs are everywhere they need to be, the craft beer selection is the kind that gives you something to think about while you decide, and the wings have a house sauce that was clearly developed by someone with strong opinions about what a wing sauce should be. Double fried, custom sauce, the kind of result that makes you slow down mid-plate and pay attention.

That double fry is worth noting. The first fry cooks the wing through. The second fry crisps the skin to the point where sauce application becomes a different experience entirely — it clings rather than slides, the texture holds up, and the flavor of the sauce reads differently against that crunch than it would on a standard wing. Someone in that kitchen made a deliberate choice, and it shows.

The Basement is a place to watch a game, eat well, and stay longer than planned. That's a good combination to find in any season, and a strong way to open a new one.

The Basement Sports Bar & Grill — Cuyahoga Falls
Google Maps

Host: Mike "PFFMaestro" Fraser
Co-Host: Jon "PFFNinja" or just "Wingman"

SSSQ SCORE: 8.8

I Can Do Another 12: The Global Chicken Wing Show is about finding the best chicken wings on the planet, one honest bar, restaurant, backyard at a time.

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Episode 023 — Opal On Pearl, Cleveland, Ohio

Season 1 ends where it should — at a neighborhood bar in Cleveland that nobody needed to tell us about. We found it ourselves, on the way to the Zoo.

Opal On Pearl sits down the road from the Cleveland Zoo, which is how it ended up on the radar during a holiday lights visit. What looked like a convenient stop on the way turned into the kind of place you file away for a Friday when the week has been too long and you need somewhere that gets the balance right. Parking in the back. Chill inside. Decor that actually reflects someone's taste rather than a design template. A wine and beer list that takes itself seriously without being pretentious about it.

The wings arrived plated in a way that a neighborhood bar doesn't have to bother with, and they bothered. That kind of care tends to show up on the plate too, and it did here. Boutique menu, real food, wings worth the stop. There was a Christmas tree up that could stop traffic, which is its own kind of commitment to the season.

This is where you unwind after a long week. The quest found it on the way to see some lights, which is exactly how the best places on this list tend to get found.

Twenty-three episodes. One season. Ohio, South Carolina, West Virginia, Kentucky, Florida, Switzerland, and a Cedar Point parking lot. The quest is just getting started.

See you in Season 2, Wing Kings.

Opal On Pearl — Cleveland
Google Maps

Host: Mike "PFFMaestro"
(Solo episode)

SSSQ SCORE: 8.9

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I Can Do Another 12: The Global Chicken Wing Show is about finding the best chicken wings on the planet, one honest bar, restaurant, backyard at a time.

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Episode 020 — BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse, Fairlawn, Ohio

Twenty episodes in, and the quest has earned a seat at the bar.

BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse in Fairlawn sits right next to Summit Mall, which makes it the kind of place that could easily become just another convenient stop for shoppers looking to debrief over a meal. What keeps it off that list is the bar program. The tap selection is deep, they brew their own craft beer on site, and the bar itself is the kind of setup where you settle in, pick a game on one of the many screens above you, and lose track of how long you've been there. That's not an accident of layout. That's a well-built bar doing exactly what it was designed to do.

The wings are the reason this stop made the episode log. BJ's has a house sauce that does something most chain-adjacent brewhouse wings don't — it earns a second order. Magic is the right word for it without being able to fully explain why. The wings are solid, the sauce is the story, and the bar setting makes the whole experience land better than it would at a table in the dining room.

Solo stop, good call. Sometimes the bar stool is the best seat in the house.

BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse — Fairlawn
Google Maps

Host: Mike "PFFMaestro"
(Solo episode)

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I Can Do Another 12: The Global Chicken Wing Show is about finding the best chicken wings on the planet, one honest bar, restaurant, backyard at a time.

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Episode 019 — Block 7 Bar & Grill, Barberton, Ohio

Right across the street from M & M's Taphouse, which means Barberton just became a two-stop wing town.

Block 7 Bar & Grill does not advertise itself from the outside. The facade is modest in the way that certain bars have perfected over decades — small enough to walk past, big enough to surprise you once you're through the door. Past the entrance it opens up considerably, a full bar leading into a back room with pool tables and the kind of energy that exists in places that have never needed a marketing budget to stay full.

There is something about Block 7 that reads as slightly dangerous and entirely fun, which is its own particular category of bar and one that this show has a soft spot for. Classic bar-style wings, sauced correctly, served without ceremony in a room where nobody is performing for anyone. The sauce-to-wing ratio is right. The heat is honest. The setting makes them taste better than they would somewhere nicer.

This is the less-traveled road. Not every stop on this quest is going to be a boutique bar or a brewery with a view of the river. Some of them are Block 7 on a Tuesday, and those might be the ones worth remembering most.

Barberton is delivering. Two stops, zero disappointments.

Block 7 Bar & Grill — Barberton
Google Maps

Host: Mike "PFFMaestro"
Co-Host: Jon "PFFNinja" or "Wingman

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I Can Do Another 12: The Global Chicken Wing Show is about finding the best chicken wings on the planet, one honest bar, restaurant, backyard at a time.

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Episode 018 — M & M's Taphouse, Barberton, Ohio

There is something specific about walking into a bar where the owner is behind the bar.

Not a manager. Not a shift lead covering a Friday night. The owner, pouring the beers and making the wings, in an old converted bank in the heart of Barberton, Ohio. That detail tells you everything you need to know about M & M's Taphouse before you even sit down.

The building has presence. A converted bank has bones that a purpose-built bar never quite achieves — high ceilings, real square footage, the kind of space that handles live music and a few pinball machines and a crowd without feeling crowded. M & M's fills it well. The atmosphere is the kind that develops when someone who actually cares about the place shows up every day and pours the drinks themselves.

The wings are outstanding. That word is not an accident. The secret M & M's sauce is the reason — a house recipe that doesn't get explained, just experienced. Sauce is the whole game on a wing, and this one is boss. Order a round and then order another one to figure out what's in it. You won't figure it out.

Hidden gem is another term that gets overused. In Barberton, it applies.

M & M's Taphouse — Barberton
Google Maps

Host: Mike "PFFMaestro" Fraser
Co-Host: Jon "PFFNinja" or "Wingman"

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I Can Do Another 12: The Global Chicken Wing Show is about finding the best chicken wings on the planet, one honest bar, restaurant, backyard at a time.

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Episode 017 — Tres Potrillos, Copley, Ohio

Nobody walks into a Mexican restaurant expecting the wings to be the move. That's exactly what makes this stop worth talking about.

Tres Potrillos in the Montrose area of Copley is a legitimate Mexican restaurant with a cool bar, a well-decorated patio that earns its reputation in the warmer months, and a happy hour that pairs bar wings with a cold Mexican lager in a way that makes complete sense once you're sitting there with both in front of you. The hot buffalo sauce is the one to order. It hits the way a good buffalo sauce should — no identity crisis about being in a Mexican restaurant, just a solid wing sauce doing its job.

This is the kind of stop that doesn't show up on anyone's wing radar until someone who's already been there tells you about it. The quest exists precisely for moments like this one. A place that isn't trying to be a wing destination quietly turns out wings worth coming back for, tucked inside a menu full of other things worth ordering.

Order the wings at happy hour. Get the Mexican lager to go with them. Thank yourself later.

Tres Potrillos — Copley
Google Maps

Host: Mike "PFFMaestro" Fraser
Guest: PFFNinja

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I Can Do Another 12: The Global Chicken Wing Show is about finding the best chicken wings on the planet, one honest bar, restaurant, backyard at a time.

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Now available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts