For the last several months, one of my co-workers has asked, “Have you been to the Bando, yet?” And, every time she does, I remember reading about them on a list of “best wings in the ATL” and having to reply, “not yet.”  But today was THE day.

We had been up in Cumming early in the afternoon and were working our way back home, shopping along the way.  And I thought that this was a perfect day to make it a Bando day.  So we drove past I-20 on the way home and jumped off 285 at MLK.  About a half mile inside 285, we found it.  We easily could have recognized it, without the signage, by the dozen or so people eating wings out of styrofoam containers (like the one below) in the parking lot (there is no inside dining). That’s a good sign – when you can’t wait to get home to dig into your wings.

 

 

Everything I had seen on line referenced their “crack wings” – they even promote them on their carry-out boxes. These are deep double fried battered wings that are then dusted with their sweet & salty “crack powder”. When we walked in, there were 12-15 folks waiting to the left of the door for their food. And an easy twenty standing in a line to the right of the door, waiting to order.

Opened as a restaurant and “food museum”, in 2019, by two friends, Terry Bartholemew (from Atlanta) and Rico Terry (from Detroit), the menu was based on food from those cities – hot wings and Coney dogs.

If you aren’t familiar with Coney dogs – from the encyclopedia of Detroit:

“A Coney dog is a beef frankfurter in natural casing, nestled in a soft, steamed bun. Its topping of an all meat, beanless chili, diced white onions, and yellow mustard distinguishes it from the ordinary hot dog. It’s a misconception that the Coney dog, also called the Coney Island hot dog, originated at Coney Island, New York where Nathan’s popularized the basic frank in a bun. As one story goes, Greek immigrants passing through New York and its famed Coney Island, appropriated the Coney Island name for their Coney dog version.”

At some point since the opening – I’d guess during the pandemic – they’ve dropped the Coney dogs and serve wings only. If you’re interested in a great read on the backstory of the restaurant and owners,  here’s a link to a thorough article where I found much of the background for this post.

Well before we reached the counter, we heard “we’re out of crack wings”, so those were off the list.  That only left a multitude of flavor choices: strawberry hot / lemon pepper / spicy bbq / ranch / mild / hot / bbq…

So we ordered two twenty counts (which were each served with a container full of fries) and moved to the left side of the door.  Here’s the crazy thing – we were inside a total of less than 25 minutes! These folks have got it going on.  I asked the young lady who brought us our food how many wings they served a day: “About ten boxes. And there are four hundred wings in a box.”  That’s four thousand wings!

This is the order fries that came as one meal. We ordered one of them, dusted in their “crack powder”.  I don’t know how to describe it, other than “ranch powder + salt + sugar + salt + something”.  The fries were fine, but some were a little on the over fried side, without being crispy.

Our reason for ordering two twenties? 1) I love wings and 2) so we could sample four flavors.

The first twenty was ten mild (with crack powder), on the top and ten ranch, on the bottom.  Overall, the wings are thin (not overly meaty as some are) and are fried crispy.  The crack powder was better to me on the wings than it was on the fries – it mixed well.  Being that I’m not a “ranch guy”, I was surprised at how much I liked the ranch wings – they were very herbaceous and peppery.  In a moment of deep introspection, I realize it’s actually the sourness and creaminess of ranch dressing that I don’t care for.  The things you learn eating wings!

And then we came to “my” twenty.  I’m never sure whether I like hot wings or lemon pepper wings better, so this was the perfect box.  The top ten are lemon-pepper (not a “wet” lemon pepper – although I like that, too) and bottom ten are strawberry hot.  The lemon pepper would make my top 5 wings in the city, maybe top 3.  To really rank them, I’d probably need to have five of each, from each place, back-to-back, to decide.  And it that doesn’t sound like a good way to spend a Saturday, I don’t know what does…  The strawberry hot was a pleasant surprise.  This hot was not the Nuclear of JR Crickets or the MotherClucker at Hattie Bs.  It was not unpleasant, at all.  Or a “test” to see if you could handle the heat.

I would order that twenty again, and knowing they’re less than thirty minutes from home (without traffic), I am pretty sure I will do so.