No Burn at the Beach

Buffalo Beach

Virginia Beach, VA

Wings.  Everyone has them nowadays.

You don't even have to go to a "real" sit-down restaurant.  You can just zip through a KFC drive through or call Pizza Hut and have them deliver.

But just because there are wings everywhere, that doesn't mean it's easy to find good ones.

In fact, it's not easy.  It's dang hard -- even for Suit 69.

Well, one particular afternoon just before Christmas, I once again had the hankerin' for hot wings and cold beer, and I rolled up to Buffalo Beach in Virginia Beach, Virginia to get my fix.

Buffalo Beach is located a few miles from the oceanfront strip in an area known as Hilltop.  Because of it's location, it's not necessarily a full-time touristy area.

It's basically the area where locals with a few bucks and affinity for strip malls do their shopping and eating.

While the whole area was jam-packed with folks doing some last-minute holiday shopping, Buffalo Beach was dead when I rolled up. 

In fact, despite being lunch time, there were only two other tables of patrons.

Normally, this isn't a good sign.  "But at least I'll get good service," I thought as I looked over the menu.

Buffalo Beach's wing menu was impressive.  They have wings just about any way you'd want them -- lemon pepper, Old Bay -- everything.  Nice.

When the waiter rolled up, I asked what they had on tap.  He listed 4-5 American puke beers and a Richmond area favorite -- Legend Brown Ale, and Charlottesville's Starr Hill Jomo Lager.

I've always avoided "Jomo Lager" primarily because I wasn't sure if the "J" was pronounced with an "H" sound.


Turns out it's not.  Whew.

I ordered a Jomo Lager and 10 hot wings.

Unfortunately, this was a rookie mistake.

You see, according to Buffalo Beach's rating system, "hot" is the lowest sauce you can order.

So, in effect, what I actually ordered was wings safe for toddlers.

Despite having no flavor, I guess they weren't bad.

And the Jomo Lager was decent.  It's a light amber style beer with some good fruit notes.  I liked it.

For my second beer, I ordered a Straub Special Dark while I decided on what sandwich to order.

I settled on a Pittsburger -- sausage, onions, peppers, egg, ground beef and cheese.


Unfortunately, despite having literally no customers, it took forever for my food come out.


So I was stuck with my Straub and an examination of the decor.

As for the beer, even despite being dark, the Straub had only minimal flavor.  I was disappointed.

The decor was hardly an improvement.

Turns out, despite having probably 15 TVs, Buffalo Beach has only one that's high def -- and it's located behind the bar where the fewest possible people could see it.

The rest are old-fashioned tubes.

Buffalo Beach markets itself as the place to "catch the game," so I thought this was a little surprising.

Of course, they do have a giant projection TV which helps a little, but you better hope it's turned to your game.

As for the rest, there are gigantic photos of old rich dudes posing on the beach all over the bar.

My guess is, they're the owners.

Nothing says "partay" like photos of old white rich guys on the wall.

At least their oldness was offset by the fact that one TV was turned to Spongebob whose job seemed to be to suck whatever remaining "cool" Buffalo Beach had out of the place.

Fortunately, my sandwich finally came out which gave me something else to look at.

And the Pittsburger is something to behold.

If I had one complaint about it, it's that it's pretty dry and overcooked.

I fixed it by adding some mayo, but it definitely could have used a couple minutes less on the grill.

It was good.  Not great.

There's some things about Buffalo Beach I like.  But all in all, it's your standard strip mall restaurant.

It gets the job done, but you won't remember it the next day -- and not because you had a really good time.


Rating:  Would Wear a FREE Shirt