Food: Wingstop

Chicken wings are so widespread in this country it's startling. Almost every casual American restaurant or sports bar makes them, and watered-down versions even pop up in fast food places. To get really decent chicken wings, you'll have to grill or fry them yourself. For the lazy college student in all of us, however, there's Wingstop.

Troy Aikman claims their wings are his favorite - and for a chain, they are fairly good. Wingstop franchises are concentrated mostly in Texas, California, and Arizona, which makes having one in Gainesville seem all the more strange (as if some extradimensional creature plucked one from Tucson and dropped it on 20th Ave.). They cook the wings to order (orders usually take 20 minutes to finish, so call ahead or bring a newspaper) and they have a nice "Sweet Deal" that includes 10 wings, fries, and a drink for about $7.50, or $10 for a 15 wing meal.

The only thing keeping this place from the coveted 3/4 stars is the fact that the wings are so darned small. It takes at least 15 of them, along with fries and a drink, to constitute a full lunch for me. Additionally, some of their sauces/spices aren't very good (the garlic parmesan wasn't at all what I expected - just wings fried with garlic powder and powdered parmesan cheese). Other than that, though, I like the place.

2/4 stars