Alive and Kickin’ (and Tastes like Chicken)

Hot Mama’s Wings Still Serves It Up Fat

Since opening up shop in February, Hot Mama’s Wings has continued to develop into a thriving and vivacious business. Sitting down to eat for my second time since Mama’s debut night was quite a different experience; the place was less crowded, the service was quicker and the food tasted like chicken. Of course, this isn’t to say that the chicken I ordered last time didn’t taste like chicken; it’s just a figure of speech.

It was a Monday night — granted not the busiest night to eat out — and the place was full of patrons getting their snack on and awaiting the beginning of Hot Mama’s Monday night open-mic. This proved to be a highlight, in fact, as the folks responsible for overseeing the open-mic had the amplification levels so perfect that it was possible to talk and listen in unison. Thus, a foolproof atmosphere was formed, and it was time to start ordering all kinds of crazy shit.

Here’s an important disclaimer: Don’t order the “insane” or “kamikaze” sauce unless you really like your wings hot. After eating a basket of six, my friend’s face was bright red, his eyes were watering and it looked like he’d smeared on lipstick; all he had to cure his pain was a basket of onion rings and an alcohol-soaked towellette (which seeped into his lips and made the sting worse). After washing the entrée down with an entire carafe of water and a deep-fried Twinkie, he had chirped up enough to remark on how delicious the chicken had been despite the fire. Lesson learned.

He was right, too; the food was freakin’ delicious.

Photo by Jackson Voelkel

“We want to appeal to everyone,” said owner Michael Marzano, who runs the place with the help of his wife, Angie, and longtime friend Joel Poston. “A group of folks can come in with some having food,” Marzano pointed out, “while others have a beer or cocktail at our full bar.” The drink selections at Hot Mama’s, by the way, are great, with six draught beers in constant rotation and a grand selection of mixers. Not too pricey either.

“We have specials almost every night of the week” Marzano said, and this isn’t an exaggeration: On Mondays, $7.50 will get you six wings and a brew; Tuesdays feature discounted drafts at $3 a pop; Wednesday is burger and brew night — which means the duo costs $11; drop by on Thursday and 11 bucks will score you a Reuben and a beer; and Sundays feature 12 wings and a pitcher for $20. See? Yep. Awesome.

The goal now seems to be pulling in a bigger lunch crowd, though this likely will solve itself; after all, it’s only a matter of time before word spreads on a joint like this, right?

After a good four months in business, it’s not hard to tell why Hot Mama’s is becoming a local commodity, and the dinnertime crowds affirm this fact. “Each week we are a little busier than the week prior,” Marzano explained. “Word of mouth has proven most effective.”

With the nights growing more packed, it’s probably a good idea to get your hot ass down to Hot Mama’s before all the seats are occupied. Or are you too chicken to try something new?

EW Chow! 6/9

In the Dog House

A wiener, a bun, and then some

Upon walking into Dog in a Box on the corner of 17th and Pearl, I was greeted with the smell of freshly cooked sausages, two smiling faces and a large sign reading “Legends,” beneath which hung framed portraits of history’s better known jazz musicians. From outside, the view had been of windowpanes packed from left to right with prices, drawings and signs — an intriguing hole-in-the-wall appearance that welcomed me inside.

When I sat down to try the “Oktoberfest” hot dog that the employee kindly recommended; I was pleased to find that it was hot, with a fresh bun and evenly distributed condiments. In short, it had the all the characteristics and qualities of a legit hot dog

“We wanted variety, we wanted originality, we wanted quality and we wanted to control the process from beginning to end, which we did,” says owner, founder and self-proclaimed delicatessen hound Steve Solomon. “All our hot dogs are custom made to our own recipe.”

Dog in a Box boasts two Eugene locations, each of which is partly solar powered and stacked with options including vegan and vegetarian alternatives. With almost 15 entirely Oregon-grown and Oregon-made hot dogs from which to chose, there’s sure to be something fitting everybody’s tastes.


[Photo by Trask Bedortha]

Since first opening in 1993, the restaurant over time has garnered influence from cuisines around the world, with especial focus on European sausages and the beloved, traditional all-American hot dog. There’s been demand for hot dogs in the U.S. dating back to 1870, when original hot dog badass Charles Feltman sold sausages in buns on Coney Island. And while they may not have Feltman’s added attractions of the beach, boardwalk and Cyclone, Dog in a Box wieners still know how to draw a crowd.

“We’ve been in business 17 years, and every year it gets greater and greater, demand is very strong,” Solomon says. Demand, the crucial counterpart to supply, is definitely an important thing to consider, and there should be no shortage of it with the prices listed on Dog in a Box’s menu: A fat, condiment-slathered wiener will run you about five bucks — a fair price considering the quality and rate of service. Throw in a drink and you might even be able to pay with a card, considering they have a $5 minimum on debit and credit (be wary of this fact before going in, cash is preferable). If a trip to the ATM is all that’s separating you from an awesome and reasonably priced hot dog, I’d say it’s worth it.

From the checkerboard floor to the glossed-leather stools, Dog in a Box has that homey, vintage appearance you hope to find in a traditional hotdog and European sausage joint. Oh, and there’s this — all aesthetics aside, the food rocks. Charles Feltman would be doggone proud.

Dog in a Box has locations at 195 E. 17th Ave. and at 210 W. Sixth Ave.; more information at www.doginaboxeugene.com

[EW Chow! Restaurant Guide 4/7]

Booch Light?

Kombucha gone missing equals "a bummer"

Considering the recipe for kombucha is about as old as Jesus, it comes as no surprise when a stench resembling the bottle return center comes drifting out from beneath the cap of this sour, fermented tea. Yes, it's tea, but with a twist. This organic drink contains live bacteria that help to promote a strong immune system as well as aid dietary function. In fact, kombucha really appears to live up to its reputation as a “wonder drink.” Unfortunately for those who have fallen deeply in love with the stuff, the swift removal of most brews from shelves has left a hole in the hearts of many kombucha drinkers.

The tea was pulled due to suspicions that its alcohol content may rise above a half-percent ABV (alcohol by volume)—the limit for beverages to be deemed non-alcoholic—and the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, in collaboration with the FDA, is running an inquiry into this claim. For many brewers, this has meant a complete halt in business unless they’re willing to sacrifice quality and give way to pasteurization, a technique that ensures the drink stays below the legal limit. For many drinkers of non-pasteurized kombucha—“purists”—this means the hunt is on.



Whether or not kombucha can be placed in the same category as beer and wine is uncertain, though the invention of Booch Light could be on the horizon. The nature of fermentation is tricky, and with a thousand different home-brews up for grabs, it’s hard to believe that every last bottle has been left to ferment for the perfect length of time.
Stores still carry kombucha in small quantities, including Kombucha Wonder Drink, which is brewed in Portland and became incredibly popular before the recall. However, the tea is now pasteurized and the aforementioned “purists” surely won’t abide it. Those drinkers who aren’t purists, though, don’t seem to mind in the least. “People are kombucha crazy!” says Emma Buckley of The Kiva grocery. “When we didn’t have it I had to field the question about twenty times a day; where is it? Why don’t you have it?”

A scan of the UNFI website—a major distributor—shows that GT, a popular brand of kombucha, has halted all manufacturing for the time being, and plans to soon release a tea with a much higher alcohol content. This product—code named AP5—will of course only be available to buyers who are over 21. As for many of the other brands mentioned on the site, it appears that they are simply giving way to the “reformulation” by installing new machinery and diluting their product. With the most recent update on the UNFI website, the text simply reads: “Demand continues to exceed the supply.”

Most drinkers whom I know describe the entire situation as “a bummer,” but forums and blogs frequented by die-hard fans hold a much stronger reaction: “I NEED mah fuckin booch!!!!!!” etc. Many other forum users ponder the reasons for the drink’s recall: “[Kombucha] was banned ages ago because mushrooms started growing in people’s stomachs.” As the list piles higher, the theories become more and more absurd, and some even go so far as to blame the ban on celebrities: “Oh my god, you're not going to believe it....It's all that bitch Lindsey Lohan's fault.”

Those forum users with different attitudes, however, discuss more than just their chagrin over the ban. “Is kombucha safe if I’m nursing?” “Does [kombucha] put my sobriety at risk?” and similar, valid concerns are often to be found among the babblings of booch conspiracy theorists.

Is kombucha truly the “wonder drink” to be hailed by all as a gift from Mother Nature? Or is it simply another thing that beer snobs will one day find pleasure in? The proof will be in the pudding (or in this case the beverage) when the FDA gets completely through with its inquiry. For now, I guess all the avid booch lovers out there will have to search far and wide for their fix of this amber colored, sour beer scented, “healthy”-as-can-be fermented tea.


[EW Chow! Restaurant Guide 9/16]