The Monday before Thanksgiving found my father, my wife and I on the hunt for some BBQ. It’s astonishing how many restaurants are closed on Mondays. We found this out as we struck out at location after location (initially intending to head to Yinzburgh BBQ). Finally, I found in my notes a place that a few life-long local friends had suggested, so we loaded up the caravan and trekked it out to the West End (between Crafton and Greentree) to Wiggy’s . This place was small Pittsburgh through and through: walk up counter ordering, menu board with black block letters on a big white wall, too many televisions for how big it was, a couple of those “games of chance” machines, and some really delicious chicken wings.

Wiggy’s – Hot Cajun and Buffalo Garlic Parm wings

Wiggy’s – Cracked Black Pepper Garlic Butter and Supersonic

I had heard nothing but good things about their chicken wings. Being the aficionado myself, I had to check them out. They have orders in multiples of 8, starting at $5.95. Huge, fresh (never frozen) chicken wings, doused liberally in the sauce of your choice. I requested them extra, extra crispy and they delivered. The buffalo garlic parm were easily my favorite, the pungent acidic bite of the vinegary hot sauce and parmesan cheese, with the roasted garlic finish. The cajun were standard and had a nice extra kick to them from the addition of a dark red bbq sauce. The roasted garlic pepper wings were good, but I didn’t realize until after they were delivered that they were just the standard garlic parm without the parm. Their signature hot of hot sauces, the Supersonic, was a nice robust heat, not purely from Frank’s or another vinegar based hot sauce, but also with additional chiles and spices. A good, front-end heat, with a slow burn on the back end, but nothing anywhere close to how spicy some places make their wings.

My father went with the ribs, with sauce on the side (which was abnormal for this place). I’d recommend getting them with the sauce on, so you can get some caramelization and char on the bark from the sugars in the sauces. The sweet bbq sauce was great, definitely homemade, and full of sweet molasses and brown sugar without too much of a peppery finish. My wife went with the chicken parm sandwich and that could definitely be skipped for something else instead. Go on a Wednesday to take advantage of their 50 cent wing night and (attempt) to try the majority of their sauces. You can’t go wrong with a well-cooked chicken wing and Wiggy’s does them as good as most anyone around.