• The Frog Pond
131 Coal St., Wilkes-Barre
570.824.2222
Hours:
Tuesday-Thursday, 3-11 p.m.
Friday, 2 p.m.-midnight
Saturday, 4 p.m.-midnight
Most credit cards accepted.
by Mystery MouthAfter a long afternoon of playing “The Beatles Rock Band,” my friends and I needed to forage for food. The only thing that my dining companions — who I’ll affectionately refer to as Paul, George and Ringo — and I wanted were wings and pizza.
And only one place would suffice: The Frog Pond.
The Mouth has always loved the restaurant’s pizza but had never tried its wings. Paul, George and Ringo raved so much about them that I had to see for myself what the fuss was about. The fact that The Frog Pond won Best Wings in this year’s Weekender Readers’ Choice poll also piqued my interested, and we soon found ourselves at a cozy table overlooking Coal Street.
Since we were dining on a Wednesday, the nightly special was a full tray of Sicilian pizza for $10.50 instead of $12, so we immediately decided to get half with onion and half without. (You can also get a half tray or individual cuts.) Now that the pizza portion of the evening was covered, all that remained was choosing our respective wing sauces.
Paul instantaneously picked honey mustard, while Ringo went with honey barbecue. George chose the Bull Frog, a butter garlic sauce, and I couldn’t decide between red garlic, medium or hot. After much debate with myself, the medium won out.
Wings, which are sold in increments of six ($3.50), 12 ($6.25) or 30 ($13.50), are also available in mild, hotter and barbecue. Bleu cheese and celery costs $1 extra.
We also ordered the deep-fried pickles ($2.25) because they sounded interesting. They were the first to make their appearance, and the four spears were crisp and dilly and paired nicely with their yummy accompanying horseradish dip.
Our baskets of wings soon arrived, and the four of us quickly tucked in. Paul’s honey mustard, which, to me, didn’t sound like a very appetizing wing flavor, was actually much tastier than I expected, with a nice mix of honey sweet and mustard-y bite.
Ringo’s honey barbecue wings were tart with a slight tomato tang to them, and my medium was the perfect balance of heat without being too hot and overpowering (though the wings did make my lips tingle for a bit). They were definitely the best wings I’ve ever had — until I tasted George’s Bull Frog wings.
The sauce — which had just enough butter and minced garlic — was scampi-like and ridiculously good. Like the other wings on our table, they were fried to a crisp golden brown, meaty and exactly how a wing should be — which is why the Mouth is naming Frog Pond its favorite wings in NEPA, hands down. They are so perfect, actually, that I want to order them without sauce next time just to marvel in their fried perfection. The bleu cheese was also fantastic, creamy with large chunks of cheese mixed in and totally worth the extra $1.
Though slightly overshadowed by the wings, the pizza didn’t disappoint. How could it? From end to end, it was a glistening landscape of gooey cheese that stretched out enticingly when we separated a cut from the rest of the tray. The dough was crisp, yet still chewy, and the sauce, as Ringo opined, “had a great balance of tomato and cheese,” with just the right hint of herbs. The onion side had ample clusters of diced onion you could smell across the table.
By the time the four of us were full, our table was a glorious war zone of bones and sauce-stained napkins.
If wings and pizza aren’t your bag — which would make the Mouth question your sanity — The Frog Pond has a plethora of other items on its menu, from salads, burgers and sandwiches to stromboli and round and specialty pizzas. There is also an ample bar, and the service is always friendly.
The Frog Pond has always served one of my favorite pizzas in NEPA. From here on out, though, its name is now synonymous with wings, and you can bet I’ll be hopping in there a lot more often than I should.
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