Delaware is a very small place. Bigger, yes, than Rhode Island by square mileage, but not by much, and with fewer people living within its borders. Thus, it’s society that’s small in Delaware. Waiting tables at a local restaurant, I bump into old friends on a regular basis. Because of this, it’s charming but unsurprising that I’d eventually write about a place I have something of a prior connection to; I went to high school with the son of one of the Fat Guys.
2 Fat Guys is one of the most American restaurants I’ve ever written about. Not that they’re particularly patriotic, rather, their menu is packed with items that drip (sometimes literally) with traditional American influence, and never could’ve been conceived anywhere but Twenty-First Century America. As a Twenty-First Century American, I absolutely love it.
Every time I find myself sitting in a 2 Fat Guys dining room (they have
two locations), I can’t help but order the wings. They must make their Buffalo sauce in house, because it has a sweetness that’s unusual for the flavor. Even more unusual is how much I like it. In general, I find sweet and meat at the same time to be a poor combination of flavors, but sweet and spicy is an excellent pairing. 2 Fat Guys’ wings seem breaded as well, another nontraditional step, but one that seems to reconcile the flavors that I normally find offputting together. The breading is another key contributor to the other best thing about their wings: they’re always plenty crispy. At Buffalo Wild Wings, I feel the need to tell my server I want them extra crispy so that they’ll come out sufficiently crunchy. At 2 Fat Guys, however, I need only specify which sauce(s) I’ll want, and they come out perfect every time. Frankly, it’s impressive. Equally impressive is the array of unusual flavors, including flavors of the week that seem to be whatever the chef decided to whip up that day. The wing sauce that day was buffalo bleu, and I tried it with my fries: it was exactly what it said on the bottle, complete with delectable chunks of bleu cheese.
Wings alone aren’t a meal, however, and they were simply the first course on this visit. By chance, I discovered that Wednesday is half price burger night, so I followed my wings up with a Black a
nd Bleu burger. They start with a half-pound patty, then infuse it with Cajun seasonings and pile it high with chunky bleu cheese crumbles. I always order my burgers rare, and it’s interesting to see what I wind up getting. I waited tables at an Applebee’s for a while, and despite cooking our steaks to order, our guests only had two burger temperature options: pink or no pink. This was a corporate rule borne from the health risks associated with undercooked meat products, and since, I’ve never held it against an establishment if they don’t serve me a burger as rare as I was hoping (if indeed I asked for it rare). That being said, 2 Fat Guys didn’t serve me the rarest burger I’ve ever seen, and I didn’t care one bit. One of the main reasons I order my burgers rare is because I’m rather particular about dryness in my food. Specifically, I dislike it, and am convinced that a good meal needs no beverage with it to be palatable. My burger came out medium rare, but the color was the only reason I noticed at all. It was juicy, it was deliciously Cajun, and the piles of bleu cheese were an excellent addition, and didn’t drown out the other flavors of the burger one bit—instead, it blended with them.
I can’t wait to go back to 2 Fat Guys; I’ve never had a bad experience in their dining room. Writing this article, my stomach has become mad at me that I’m not about to go get an order of their wings. It won’t be long, though, as I’m always ready to try new limited time flavors.
Umbrella Terms 