WING (And Pizza) REVIEW: Main Street Pizza Company

Nice Place In Batavia But One Flaw That Can't Be Ignored

A little podcasting business took me to Batavia on a Sunday afternoon, roughly a 45-minute drive from home. Naturally I wasn’t letting an opportunity to be in another town slip by without trying some Batavia wings, with hopefully a slice of pizza to compliment it.

I threw something up on Twitter asking for recommendations in the area and one suggestion was Main Street Pizza Company. Seeing it was just five minutes from where I was already going, I landed on that. Walked in and went with 10 dry rub wings (based on a recommendation) and a personal cheese and pepperoni pizza.

Here's my thoughts and by the way--- this may be the farthest away from home spot for wings I’ve included.

PROS: I absolutely love that their single wings order comes with 12 instead of the typical 10. I wish every place would do that. I often find myself still a bit hungry after 10 wings, but a double order (20) is too many if I’m running solo.

Also, these wings were huge, so big that 10 was more than filling—and there wasn’t a single tiny throwaway wing either. These were legitimately among the biggest order of wings I’ve had anywhere, the bang for your buck ratio here is awesome.

CONS: I cannot emphasize this enough----if you happen to go there and order wings, you’re going to want to tell him you want them “extra, extra, extra, EXTRA crispy.” These were the polar opposite of that and honestly closer to rubbery than anything else. I generally don’t need as much crisp on my wings as most but these were straight up undercooked.

Far as taste---they knocked on the door of appealing but couldn’t get in. These were supposed to be fairly spicy and they weren’t, not enough for my liking anyway. I’ve had dry rub wings at several spots and these paled by comparison. I asked for a small side of hot sauce and that gave them so kick, but totally at the expense of what dry rub flavor there was.

By the way I could tell just from the side of hot sauce that it’s very basic, probably Frank’s.

Also going to point out that I attempted to get my order to consist of half hot and half dry rub. They said they couldn’t and while that’s not necessarily unique, it’s always a con in my book not to mention bad business. The more flavors I’m able to try the bigger chance I’ll find something I like, which ultimately increases the odds I’ll be a returning customer. What they do offer is a “flight of wings”, which while more expensive would land me what I wanted, so I said I’d take that but only wanted half of them hot and half dry rub. I was then told that for some reason, the dry rub not being available for the flights, so that became useless to me.

Also, I wanted to try a slice and was told they had no slices available and I’d have to get a personal pizza. I’m like, uhhh OK on a Sunday afternoon? Anyway, went with the dry rub because that’s what I heard is good, which reminds me to unfollow, mute and block the suggester on Twitter because they weren’t.

QUICK PIZZA REVIEW: I typically only do this with wings and not pizza, but since I tried theirs, I’ll quickly chime in here. It’s not good, at all. Lacked sauce and what sauce it has is bland. Not tasty at all and to be perfectly honest, I may have had better gas station pizza. My guy Sal Capaccio has some of the best sports and life takes you’ll get from anyone, a brilliant dude—but he said the pizza here was great and that makes me conclude his pizza takes may suck.

RANDOM OBSERVATIONS: If you care about the sort of thing, there’s no carrots with the wings though in fairness there were four hefty pieces of celery. Also if you’re a bleu cheese person know you’re getting the packaged Ken’s with the wings.

Far as the restaurant---really nice. There’s a large, open area in their dining room and a more quiet sitting area with smaller tables and booths near takeout like a traditional pizza place.

VERDICT: End of the day my lone big beef is that wings were rubbery if not utterly undercooked, and I can’t get past that. The portion’s huge, the 12 wings instead of 10 is awesome, the hot sauce was “fine”, the dry rub was at least acceptably tasty, the restaurant is nice and the service was good too. However, none of that matters when the actual wings are kinda terrible.

Maybe if they came out (a lot) crispier this would’ve been an entire different experience (at least with the wings) but I can’t give that benefit of the doubt. I since heard the antipasto salad is awesome and I personally saw a few appealing looking dishes being served while I was there. In terms of the wings and especially the pizza though, I personally can’t imagine there not being better options in Batavia.

For now anyway, these wings ain’t making an NFL roster and I’m not sure they’d be on the practice squad either. Maybe next time life takes me to Batavia I’ll go back and see If I just caught them on a bad wings and pizza day. GRADE: D+

MAIN STREET PIZZA COMPANY TIER: “Waiver Wire” (7^th of 7 tiers)

Here’s my seven tiers with a brief explanation of each.

Mt. Rushmore: The four undisputed championship wing spots of Western New York.

The Elite: The next best thing—right on the brink of being immortalized.

All-Pro: Perhaps not MVP material but categorically deserving of being discussed among the best.

Solid Starter: You certainly won’t be complaining. Exactly what the description reads—solid.

Depth Chart: You can do far worse but at this point — significantly better as well.

Roster Bubble: If left with few other options these places may suffice, but I can’t recommend them.

Waiver Wire: I’d rather eat pizza or something else.