2/21/2015 update: The Post contacted me via Facebook this week about the gluten free situation as well as some other tips. I’ve put in notes throughout the article to correct/clarify some things. I’m very thankful for them taking the time to read & correct me!

While some couples may have been enjoying breakfast in bed on a relaxing Valentine’s Day morning, my lovely wife and I were on the MetroLink sipping whiskey from a flask on the way to Soulard’s Mardi Gras celebration. And while some couples may have gone out for a fancy candlelight dinner, we went to The Post in Maplewood to get some chicken wings. My wife is a wonderful person.

One benefit of heading to a sports bar at 7:00pm on Valentine’s Day is that you can be pretty sure that you won’t have trouble getting a table. Another benefit is that you might find yourself amongst some incredible candidates for people watching.

Such was the case, as my wife and I rudely watched from a far as a man with long dreadlocks, a bunny-ears headband and a large diamond chin stud publicly displayed affection for not just one, but actually both of the women he was sharing a table with on this special February the 14th. There is a lot of love in this world.

But neither you nor I are here to speculate any further about what was going on at that table. We’re here to talk about The Post and specifically their chicken wings. The Post is a St. Louis sports bar with two locations: one in Creve Coeur and one in Maplewood. They feature a standard sports bar menu complete with fried stuff and burgers.

The beer selection is a little macro-heavy, but they also had selections from local brewers like Schlafly and Urban Chestnut as well as a few other non-local craft brewers such as Bell’s. Basically there’s a beer to make anyone happy.

Let’s get down to the wings. On their menu, they are described as “Our world famous wings, tossed in your favorite sauce.” Your nominees for favorite sauce are: mild, hot, honey bbq, honey mustard and spicy garlic. 10 wings cost $9.49, but you can get larger orders. You can also pay 50¢ more (why?) to get them baked, or 99¢ more for all drummies or all flats.

They also have boneless wings, and you can get the chicken strips tossed in a sauce of your choosing or served with sauce on the side.

Most curiously, there is also a gluten-free option: “Our signature wings tossed in a gluten-free hot sauce” This might lead one to question where gluten would come form in a hot sauce. Well, my wife did indeed ask that question and our server told us basically that she didn’t know. She thought it had something to do with butter, but was knowledgable enough to know that butter does not contain glutens, and she also thought the chefs might in fact not know what they were talking about. Kind of concerning if eating glutens is perilous to your health, but this can probably be chalked up to some kind of miscommunication.

Update from The Post: “Our wings are not breaded, and our homemade wing sauce does not have flour in it. However, with the way the sauce is prepared, it is not gluten free. What makes the gluten free wings gluten free is that we don’t use our homemade wing sauce. For the gluten free wings, we simply use the hot sauce base, which is gluten free.”

I think that there might be flour in their regular wing sauce, as it is a little thick and flour does indeed contain glutens. Another reason that I suspect flour is that I was having trouble determining whether or not these wings were breaded. The fact that the only difference in the Gluten Free Wings is the sauce, and this breaded-like-nature of the wings further bolster this idea. (If anyone would like to contact me to clarify this issue, go for it.)

So I ordered the hot wings, as I always do for a first review, and they showed up piping hot and looking good. The wings were served on a plastic tray with red and white checkered wax paper on top of a couple pieces of celery and with a cup of ranch. Blue cheese is not mentioned on the menu, but might be available.

These are very appealing wings to look at. They were fully coated in sauce, not too big in size and the sauce itself looked like it contained more than just Frank’s and butter. There were red specs that looks like remnants of chili paste and promised a pretty good heat.

The heat was delivered as visually promised, and the sauce was delicious and interesting. While the chicken was juicy and perfect on the inside, something about the sauce made them a bit slippery on the outside, and not very crispy. That’s fine though, as there was still a good textural difference between the inside and the outside, and most importantly the taste was wonderful.

Update from The Post: “Also, if you want crispier wings, try the baked wings! They get fried first, and then sent through the pizza oven which bakes in the sauce and crisps the wing. It’s seriously delicious (and less messy)”

The heat level was right where I think it should be, which is too hot for some. That’s why they offer mild. The other sauce options, specifically the spicy garlic, look good. My wife got a side of that with her chicken strips and I enjoyed dipping a few fries in to try it out.

The wings at The Post are very good and The Post is very close to my house. I plan on eating these more often, and I wonder if the wings are included in their M-F Happy Hour Specials.

Update from The Post: “unfortunately the wings are not on happy hour price due to the cost coming in the door to us.”