
PORTLAND WING WEEK 2023
Portland Wing Week 2023: October 2-8
Another year of Portland Wing Week, the first year where they’re $8 for an order of 5 wings. Previously they were $6 for 5, but with the inflating cost of wings, I wasn’t surprised. My second favorite Portland food week after Portland Pizza Week, but what’s fun about Wing Week is that you could share it with others versus sharing a slice of pizza. This year’s flavors were a bit disappointing as they had a bunch of repeats from previous years, but some of the newer ones we’ve had were great. This year seemed to have a lot of “Jerk” flavors or “sweet” flavors, I personally favor more savory, salty, and spicy flavors, so that’s my bias in the rankings. This year we got to 21 out of 58 locations. 5 additional locations we went to were sold out or closed at the time :(
How I decided on top of the flavor preference of “savory, salty, and spicy” were the size of the wings (I’m a flats guy first, then full wings, then drumettes), taste and juiciness of the wings, texture (some were chewier than others, though I don’t want mine overcooked and done, some were definitely cooked but super chewy for some reason), and of course originality of the flavor. As mentioned, some were repeats from previous years, so if a place used a same flavor, they were just lower on my list even if they were higher years before. I’m currently working on a full article of my decisions, but here’s my list from Wing Week 2022.
My favorite this year is between Chém Gió @ White Owl Social Club & Lechuza Wings @ Todo