Sometimes you walk into a place for the first time and think “this is a place for me.” That’s what happened when Lydia and I visited Stella Blues for the first time on Sunday night. It feels criminal that we’ve lived so close for so long and this was our first visit! This is even more inexcusable given that I’d heard they had great chicken wings and chicken wings are kind of my thing.

So we got a babysitter and were looking for a place to eat before going to a concert. The patronage at 6:15pm on a Sunday was a wide range of characters. We found a seat between a family-ish party of 6-8 which included some teens (or at least young looking people who were drinking soda) and a party of 5 or 6 20-somethings who were in the midst of what seemed to be a pretty serious day of bar hopping. The bartenders were chill and seemed to have a pretty established report with many of the patrons in the bar. Everyone was having a good time.

The bar (cash only!) had a good selection of beers on tap. I got a Civil Life Brown (St. Louis’ local treasure) and Lydia got a Zwickle.

The kitchen (separate ordering, they do take plastic) is small, visible, and appears to have a very focused menu of bangers. There are some great Korean options and most critically, 3 different types of wings. Here’s a screenshot of the menu that I stole from Yelp, because as far as I can tell there’s no website for this establishment.

They got the OGs (Korean fried, in a sweet/spicy/soy sauce), Charred, and Buffalo. I didn’t feel like I could justify getting all 3, so I opted for the first two options. The OGs seemed like their specialty and the Charred were the ones I wanted the most.

Both of these were freaking fantastic! The OGs arrived first. I love good Korean wings (shoutout to O-Wing Plus’s Hot Mama Wings) and these delivered. The sauce was very balanced with notes of soy, ginger, sweetness and some noticeable heat. The texture of the outside of the wings was light, crispy and sensational. The insides were mostly moist & juicy though there was a bite or two that felt just slightly dry. By no means a dealbreaker.

After the OGs, the charred wings had a lot to live up to… and they delivered! Great house-made buffalo sauce coated a well cooked & unbreaded wing. And the charr finish added a texture & additional flavor. The wings were served with a good ranch as well. I’m normally a blue cheese guy, but this ranch was good!

These are two very different styles of wings with two very different flavor profiles and they knocked both of them out of the park. It’s rare to find a place that does one style of wing as well as this. Next time, if I had to pick one wing to order, I’m not sure what direction I’d go. It would have to be a game time decision.

I’ll be back soon to Stella Blues because both the food and atmosphere were fantastic!