Thighstop
My favorite part of a chicken is the thigh, so I was excited that Wingstop started serving thighs through a ghost kitchen called Thighstop due to the wing shortage .
The menu only has two items, and each must be purchased in a combo with fries and a drink. One is the boneless thigh nuggets ($9.59), which come in 12 flavors such as Hawaiian and Jamaican Jerk BBQ. My first reaction was, where have boneless thigh nuggets been all my life? The dark meat makes the nugget so much more flavorful than white meat does. The breading is crunchy, and the Louisiana spice rub that I picked was a wonderful seasoning.
Unfortunately, that same breading wasn’t used for the bone-in thighs (three pieces for $10.79, five pieces for $14.99). These were simply thrown in the deep fryer as they were, and thus, the skin didn’t taste good at all. Also, the thighs are small, which is why they come in three- or five-piece servings. I previously enjoyed the garlic parmesan flavor on the wings, but the garlic parmesan didn’t adhere well with the thigh–I should have gotten a sauce instead.
You can order Thighstop through wingstop.com or via DoorDash from 11 a.m. to midnight every day.
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$5 Burgers
Another new ghost kitchen to Madison is $5 Burgers, which is located inside Famous Dave’s. The name is a bit of a misnomer, as only the Signature Burger ($4.99) and the build-your-own (starts at $4.99) are $5. Meanwhile, the four specialty burgers range from $7.79 to $9.99. All burgers come with two patties.
The macaroni in the Kickin’ Mac Attack ($7.79) wasn’t cheesy–it was basically just noodles. The actual cheese came from the slices of cheddar. The burger was topped with terrible cuts of red onions (basically the outermost layer no one eats), which I had to remove.
The Cowboy burger ($9.99) was very good and messy. I loved the tender, smoky brisket and the BBQ sauce. (Those same terrible strands of onions were also on this burger.)
The crinkle-cut fries are those worst kind of fries that you hate to get at a restaurant, as they’re undercooked and unappetizing. The Cajun version was heavily–and I mean heavily–doused with cajun seasoning.
$5 Burgers is available through UberEats, DoorDash and Grubhub every day for lunch and dinner.
Tags: American, downtown, south side
